20/03/2006
News
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BEL - Tribute to Coach Huysecom
BRUSSELS (Coach) - Season 1979-1980: it was a time when I was still a young kid and my dad, who had been involved in basketball for many years, took me to my first Belgian Division I top level game at the Country Hall in Liège, Belgium. Standard Liège hosted CEP Fleurus.
This game was supposed to be a fantastic one as both teams were best-ranked in the domestic competition. Standard had recorded 20 wins and 7 losses so far and was ranked first. CEP Fleurus had won 19 games and was defeated 8 times but shared the second spot in the league with Royal Fresh Air, the top Brussels club back then.
After the game won by Standard Liège on a score of 92-82, I was accompanied by an adult to get some autographs: former Belgian national team guard and ex-national Player of the Year Etienne Geerts; the late Jackie Dinkins, one of the first great US players on the Belgian soil (ex-Chicago Bulls), and coach John Huysecom, probably one of the greatest personality in Belgian basketball history.
John Huysecom passed away last week at the age 85. One Belgian newspaper, La Dernière Heure-Les Sports published a rather long article about him last Wednesday and emphasized the fact that the 1967 Belgian Coach of the Year had always devoted his life to basketball.
As the DH-Les Sports correspondent René Boonen mentioned very well in his article last week, Mister Huysecom will always be remembered in the basketball world as a great gentleman who always shared his great talent, wisdom and knowledge of the game with colleagues. He was a specialist of the defense and very often took part or organized clinics to teach basketball drills.
The list of Belgian historical clubs where he shared his basketball science is rather long: Bavi, Okapi Aalst, Racing White, Royal IV, Fresh Air, Ostend, Standard Liège, Leuven, SFX Verviers, Willebroeck, etc. He also coached the Belgian national team for a while.
John Huysecom won titles in all Belgian basketball divisions except in Division I. He was also the true "importer" of American basketball in Belgium. In an interview with René Boonen of the daily newspaper DH-Les Sports, Guy Crèvecoeur, also a former NT staff member, explained: "John Huysecom was a close friend of Dean Smith from the University of North Carolina where he met Michael Jordan. He also introduced bermuda shorts and the so-called coaches pants in Belgium. He was also well known as a FIBA expert."
Funerals and incineration took place yesterday morning, Mar. 18th 2006, at the Uccle crematorium near Brussels where many basketball lovers and pioneers paid respect to John Huysecom. He was not a coach of my generation but his autograph suddenly worths much more to me as I now understand that Mister Huysecom will always remain a pioneer as well as a key actor in the history of Belgian basketball, the sport that more and more local fans, players and observers simply love.
Bertrand Larsimont
This game was supposed to be a fantastic one as both teams were best-ranked in the domestic competition. Standard had recorded 20 wins and 7 losses so far and was ranked first. CEP Fleurus had won 19 games and was defeated 8 times but shared the second spot in the league with Royal Fresh Air, the top Brussels club back then.
After the game won by Standard Liège on a score of 92-82, I was accompanied by an adult to get some autographs: former Belgian national team guard and ex-national Player of the Year Etienne Geerts; the late Jackie Dinkins, one of the first great US players on the Belgian soil (ex-Chicago Bulls), and coach John Huysecom, probably one of the greatest personality in Belgian basketball history.
John Huysecom passed away last week at the age 85. One Belgian newspaper, La Dernière Heure-Les Sports published a rather long article about him last Wednesday and emphasized the fact that the 1967 Belgian Coach of the Year had always devoted his life to basketball.
As the DH-Les Sports correspondent René Boonen mentioned very well in his article last week, Mister Huysecom will always be remembered in the basketball world as a great gentleman who always shared his great talent, wisdom and knowledge of the game with colleagues. He was a specialist of the defense and very often took part or organized clinics to teach basketball drills.
The list of Belgian historical clubs where he shared his basketball science is rather long: Bavi, Okapi Aalst, Racing White, Royal IV, Fresh Air, Ostend, Standard Liège, Leuven, SFX Verviers, Willebroeck, etc. He also coached the Belgian national team for a while.
John Huysecom won titles in all Belgian basketball divisions except in Division I. He was also the true "importer" of American basketball in Belgium. In an interview with René Boonen of the daily newspaper DH-Les Sports, Guy Crèvecoeur, also a former NT staff member, explained: "John Huysecom was a close friend of Dean Smith from the University of North Carolina where he met Michael Jordan. He also introduced bermuda shorts and the so-called coaches pants in Belgium. He was also well known as a FIBA expert."
Funerals and incineration took place yesterday morning, Mar. 18th 2006, at the Uccle crematorium near Brussels where many basketball lovers and pioneers paid respect to John Huysecom. He was not a coach of my generation but his autograph suddenly worths much more to me as I now understand that Mister Huysecom will always remain a pioneer as well as a key actor in the history of Belgian basketball, the sport that more and more local fans, players and observers simply love.
Bertrand Larsimont
