FIBA World Cup 1954 was held in Brazil in the “City of God”, Rio de Janerio. Games were played on football stadium – “Maracana”.
At the second FIBA World Cup, 12 teams were participating: hosts Brazil, USA as Olympic champions from 1952. Four best teams from the previous South American championship (Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), three teams from Europe (France, Israel and Yugoslavia) and finally teams from North America (Canada) and Asia (Phillippines and Taiwan).
World Champions from 1950, Argentina, did not have the oportunitty to defend the title because they didn’t participate at the South American championship in 1953. That was one of the two times when reigning world champion did not defend its title. The second one was in 1994 when Yugoslavia couldn’t compete due to international sanctions that were imposed.
The tournament was held during the Cold War, so there were not any teams from the Eastern block. Therefore the biggest threat to the Americans were not in Brazil- the Soviet Union. Besides that the tournament was pretty competitive.
Peoria Caterpillars and first gold medal for the United States
The teams were put into four groups with three teams in each group. Two best teams qualified for the next round. There, all eight teams were playing against each other.
Four last placed teams from the first round continue in the classification round to determine positions from nine to twelve.
The USA, Brazil and Uruguay finished the group stage with a 2-0 record, while Taiwan and Israel moved on from a very competitive group D. The Americans were represented by Peoria Caterpillars. They won the trophy by beating Brazil in the deciding game by 62:41.
This was the first trophy in FIBA competitions for the United States.
Kirby Minter (no. 12 in the picture above) from the United States was the Most Valuable Player. He led the Americans with 11.1 points on average. In the first four games he was scoring 16.3 points, which was very impressive back then.
For many spectators at the time, the best game of the tournament was between USA and Uruguay. Every other game, the United States won by double digits, but could not handle easily the legendary Oscar Moglia and Martin Lara. Both of them scored 23 points.
At the halftime, Urugay were trailing by only four points (33:29). However, the Catepliars managed to close the game (64:59) thanks to Bertram Born, who scored 15 points, and Richard Retherford, who added 14.
Huge mistake by the referee during the last seconds of Yugoslavia-Uruguay game
The incident happened because scorer’s table did not register two points scored by Yugoslavia center Mirko Marjanovic. Since there was no scoreboard at that time, Yugoslavia was denied by two points and the final score was 51:51 instead of 53:51 for “Blues”.
A five-minute overtime was played in which the Uruguayans won 4:1 (55:52). The scoreboard’s mistake cost Yugoslavia a qualification for the next stage. If that did not happened, they would finish the tournament in higher place.
Coach Silva story, the incredible Mumar, the legend of Loyzaga and the historic Philippines success
The team that Philippines put together for the FIBA World Cup in 1954 is considered the best in the history of that country. One of the most responsible for the success was head coach Herminio “Herr” Silva. He had a reputation as an outstanding tactician, which was confirmed at the Asian Games where they won the gold medal.
At the time of the start of Mundobasket, Silva was very ill. However, he did not want to tell the team anything about that. In the last game of the tournament against Uruguay, he was unable to coach, so he was replaced by team captain Lauro Mumar, because Silva did not have an assistant.
Speaking of Mumar, he also had an incredible moment during the tournament. In the win against France (66:60), which was crucial for winning the bronze medal, he scored one of the decisive layups in the game. Nothing would have been unusual if he had not spat in the face of French center Jean-Paul Beugnot just before the runner.
While Beugnot was wiping his eyes, Mumar just passed unguarded and score the basket. Years after the tournament ended, this event was retold in the Philippines, and Mumar himself admitted that he did it on purpose.
If you travel to Manila or probably any other city in the Philippines, you would hardly meet a person who does not know the story about Carlos Loyzaga, better known as “The Big Difference”. He was team leader on the floor, with the help of captain Mumar.
After finishing the group stage at 1-1, the Philippines played several excellent games in the second round, which is why they won the already mentioned bronze medal. However, the defeat against the USA remains also in the memory.
The Asian team was losing by 25:22 at halftime, but at the start of the second half they made a 9:1 run and took a 31:26 lead. It seemed that they might be able to achieve the biggest victory in history until then, but the Americans were too good. They made big run and won by 56:43 at the end.
To this day, no Asian team has repeated the Philippines result from 1954. The legendary Loyzaga, led the team in this historic quest with 16.4 points per game and was the only Filipino in All-tournament team.
Carl Ridd – “The Sniper”
Uruguayan Oscar Moglia scored the most points at the World Cup in Brazil – 168. Canadian Carl Ridd was second with 164 points. However, Ridd scored the most points in one game – 37. That happened in the games where his team were defeated by Philippines 83:76.
All-tournament team (five best players): American Kirby Minter, Brazilian duo Zenny de Azevedo “Algodao” and Wlamir Marques, already mentioned Uruguayan Oscar Moglia, and Carlos Loyzaga.