Leonas Eugenijus Petrauskas All Round Sportsman

Leonas born 17 March 1919, Kaunas

Died 18 July 1994, Sydney

Leonas began playing sport while still a student in Kaunas.  He was a A level soccer player and swimmer.  He took up basketball and joined the 1937 Lithuanian team to play in Riga for the European League.  He was part of the 1939 team who won gold.  

He left Lithuania in 1944, fleeing to Germany where he remained until migrating to Australia. While in Germany he played basketball for the Tubingen University student team.

He was registered as a Medical doctor in Kaunas in 1945 and again in Sydney in July 1957. 

He spent ten years in New Guinea and took up tennis. On his return he began skating and became an airplane pilot. Later in life he too up golf.

He married and several daughters. 

Basketball Champions come to Australia

There is only one sport in Lithuania and that is basketball.   It didn’t become popular in Lithuania until 1935, when a team of American Lithuanians were invited to Kaunas.  Only two years later in 1937, Lithuania won the second FIBA European Championship.  Eight national teams took part, the defending champions Latvia hosted the tournament, in Riga.
Two years later in 1939, the third EuroBasket was held, the defending champions Lithuania hosted the tournament, held in the Kaunas Sports Hall. The winning team was Lithuania, winning by a point. 

The 1937 team comprised of : 
Feliksas Kriaučiūnas, Pranas Talzūnas, Stasys Šačkus, Juozas Žukas, Leonas Baltrūnas, Zenonas Puzinauskas, Artūras Andrulis, Leopoldas Kepalas, Pranas Mažeika, Česlovas Daukša, Leonas Petrauskas, Eugenijus Nikolskis (Coach: Feliksas Kriaučiūnas)

The 1939 team comprised of:
Pranas Lubinas, Mykolas Ruzgys, Feliksas Kriaučiūnas, Leonas Baltrūnas, Zenonas Puzinauskas, Artūras Andrulis, Pranas Mažeika, Leonas Petrauskas, Eugenijus Nikolskis, Vytautas Norkus, Jurgis Jurgėla, Mindaugas Šliūpas, Vytautas Budriūnas, Vytautas Lesčinskas (Coach: Pranas Lubinas).

WWII came and everything changed.  Many of the players fled Lithuania and ended up in America; three came to Australia; Leonas Baltrūnas, Leonas Petrauskas, Leopoldas Kepalas.  I will write of each Leo in future posts. 

Leonas Baltrunas first on left, Leonas Kepalas is at the end. Leonas Petrauskas, one of the team's twelve members, is missing in this picture.