R.C. Mechelen (basketball)

Basket Racing Mechelen as a basketball department of the Koninklijke Racing Club Mechelen has long been the most successful department of the Belgian sports club from Mechelen. The Men's Basketball Team, with 15 title wins Belgian record holder in basketball and in 1995 merged with a neighboring club from Antwerp to Racing Basket Antwerpen.

History

1949 reported the club 's basketball team at the Belgian Basketball Federation as a team total of 71, which first started in the third Belgian Basketball League. After several ups and downs, the club has established itself in the premier league in 1962. 1964 brought the club by winning the Cup the first national title. 1965 was followed by the double of the league and cup. Three more championships until 1969, the two followed by further gains Cup and 1973, the entry into the Final Match for Korać Cup, where you Birra Forst Cantù was beaten. This was and remained the longest advance in European club competition. This was followed by four more national championships until 1980.

Then you could just build the mid-1980s on old successes, than you could get Rik Samaey, who came from the series champion BC Ostende, who had won previously from 1981 to 1986 six championships in a row. After the Cup win in 1986 they won the following year, again a national Double. 1989 saw the most successful period of the club with the then most important Belgian basketball player Éric Struelens, as they won six championships in a row, including three times in connection with the Cup victory as a Double. 1994 you failed only because of the poorer direct comparison with FC Barcelona on its way into the quarter-final play-offs in the FIBA Europe League, the then highest European club competition. In 1995 after financial problems and the loss of Struelens to the competitors Spirou Charleroi BC the merger with Sobabee from neighboring Antwerp to the Racing Basket Antwerpen.

Achievements

Important players

  • Belgium Eddy Casteels to 1995
  • Belgium Ronny Bayer 1985-1989
  • Belgium Rik Samaey 1985-1995
  • Belgium Éric Struelens 1988-1995
  • United States / Belgium Bill Varner 1990-1995
  • Belgium Jacques Stas 1992-1995
  • Belgium Herbert Baert 1992-1995
Double (association football)
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