FIBA European Champions Cup and Euroleague History - The '60s, Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow Rise

The '60s, Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow Rise

In 1961, things began to change. The main Western European basketball club, Real Madrid, started to show signs of ambition, and was eliminated only after the semifinal, by Riga.

The following two years, the Spanish League champions, Real Madrid, found their way to the final game, but lost both times, versus Tbilisi and CSKA. Eventually, Real won the first of its eight European crowns in 1964, by beating the Czechs of Spartak Brno.

However, that season, the USSR champions did not participate, because the Soviet Union national team (made up of 90% of the players from CSKA) was preparing for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games. Anyway, this season was a big twist for European basketball, as it marked the beginning of the domination of the "wealthy" Western European clubs.

From then through 1968, Real Madrid and Olimpia Milano, then known for sponsorship reasons as Simmenthal, shared the title of the best European team. Real Madrid could rely on players like Clifford Luyk, the first naturalized American player with such a big role, Emiliano Rodríguez, Miles Aiken, Bob Burgess, and later Wayne Brabender.

Meanwhile, Milano, in 1966, was led by a young and smart American forward: Bill Bradley, who would later become an NBA champion with the 1970 and 1973 New York Knicks. Still later, Bradley would become a candidate for the United States Presidency. Bradley, who was studying at Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, took advantage of his year in Europe, to give decisive help to Milano.

In 1969, CSKA, inspired by the talented Sergei Belov, managed to beat Real Madrid in Barcelona. The young Belov had 19 points that night, but his teammate, big 2.15 m (7'1") tall center Vladimir Andreev, exploded for 37 points.