FIBA - Happy 79th Birthday FIBA

GENEVA (FIBA) - Saturday marked the 79th anniversary of FIBA's foundation.

When a group of visionary men under the leadership of FIBA's first President Léon Bouffard from Switzerland (pictured) and first FIBA Secretary General Renato William Jones from Great Britain met on 18 June 1932 at a hotel in Geneva, basketball was still under the auspices of the International Handball Federation (IHF).

It was only after that meeting and with the support of the founding members from Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland that FIBA took over the responsibility for the promotion and organisation of basketball on a global level.

Just four years later, basketball became an Olympic Sport at the 1936 Games in Berlin and more milestones followed soon thereafter.

In 1950, FIBA organised the first World Championship for Men and in 1953 the Women's edition of this most important basketball event followed.

The rest is a success story that made basketball the most popular indoor sport with over 450 million people regularly playing it on all levels.

The FIBA family that started with eight national federations now grew to 213 member federations from all continents.

FIBA