February 10, 2012
Team Profile 2010-11: Spartak St. Petersburg
Spartak St. PetersburgSpartak St. Petersburg is not only a classic team in European competition, but also one of the oldest basketball clubs in Europe. Founded in 1935, Spartak already competed in the Soviet Union championship in 1937. Years of obscurity followed, but the then-called Spartak Leningrad returned to the Soviet League in 1958. Spartak remained in his country's first division from 1960 until the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The club had its golden age in the 1970s, starting with a third-place finish in the 1969 Soviet championship. With the late Aleksandr Belov as its superstar and players like Yuri Shtukin, Yuri Pavlov, Leonid Ivanov and Aleksandr Bolshakov complementing him, Spartak was one of the best European teams of that decade. Spartak reached the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup final, losing against Simmenthal Milano. It bounced back by lifting the trophy in 1973 and 1975, downing Jugoplastika Split and Crvena Zvezda, respectively. Spartak also won the 1975 Soviet League and reached the final six other times between 1970 and 1978. Belov passed away, but Spartak still added some hardware to its roll of honors, lifting the Soviet Cup in 1987 and the CIS Championship in 1992. Spartak bounced back from a quiet period in 2008-09, finishing fourth in the Russian League – its highest ranking since 1993. Spartak had a bad start in the Russian League last season, but rallied to finish sixth in addition to making its Eurocup debut. A last-second overtime loss against Bilbao Basket prevented Spartak from reaching the Last 16. Spartak now hopes to return to Europe's second club competition by getting through the Qualifying Rounds to fight for more glory.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Eurocupbasketball.com
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