No 10 ALGIMANTIS IGNATAVICIUS
6 feet (183cms) Forward/Guard
1956 Olympics
The 14 year old Lithuanian refugee earned “local currency” (money … cigarettes), stacking shelves for the Americans at their warehouses in the Displaced Persons (DP) Camps in Germany after the Second World War. Each morning trucks would pull up in the camps and everyone who wanted to work would jump onto the back of the truck and off they would go to work. At the end of each day the Americans would stand on the back of the truck and toss out cigarettes to the waiting workers as a reward. The young Lithuanian boy being very industrious (plus smaller and nimbler than most) gathered most of what hit the ground and earned himself a great little bargaining tool of the day. He later swapped the cigarettes for milk, tomatoes and other much needed produce.
That young Lithuanian,Algimantis (“Algis”) Ignatavicius,was born in Kaunis, Lithuania on October 11th 1932. His early life was dominated by first the Russian invasion of Lithuania at the beginning of World War Two, then the invasion by the Germans during the War and then the Russian invasion again towards the end of the War. Like so many other Lithuanians and Baltic people, his family fled to Germany in front of the advancing Russian armies.
Algis’s basketball started in theDisplaced Persons Camps in Germany after Second World War. He and his family were in these camps for nearly four years and he played some basketball at High School in the camps.
According to Algis, “My greatest coup in the DP camp was when some gypsies...real gypsies...who had set up their own camp nearby found a discarded basketball on the local rubbish tip. I exchanged cigarettes for the ball and a new career was born for me.”
He also learnt to take advantage of any oversupply products such as butter from the UN by packing excess supply in small containers and trading the containers of butter for food for the family. Similarly he traded in pressed coffee.
As he now owned the only real basketball in camp, they (the Lithuanians in the camp) had to let him play. Before this, they were using an overinflated soccer ball. Within the year he was as good as if not better than most of the basketball players. According to Algis the Americans then wanted “a piece of the action” and he offered to “train” against them. He learnt his basic skills here against a very tough crowd.
Algis and his family waited in the DP camps for four years to be able to migrate to another country.They came to Australia in 1949, first to Bathurst,NSW and then to Adelaide, South Australia. Algis was seventeen years old at that time.
He loved sports and played soccer, golf, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, squash, badminton, lawn bowls to name some of his interests.
He was named to the South AustralianBasketballTeam from 1951 to 1955 and was selected to the All Australian Basketball Team after each of those Australian Championships.
As a member of the SA basketball team he won the 1953 Australian Men’s Championships.
When the Harlem Globetrotters toured Australia in the early nineteen fifties he was rated by the Globetrotters as the best player in Australia and one who could play overseas.
After the Australian Championships in 1955 he was selected in the 16 man 1956 Olympic Basketball Squad.
Algis had developed a reputation as one of the most polished players in Australian basketball and was renowned for his flashing drives to the basket and his ability to be a match winner. He also had a reputation as a phenomenal shooter.His reputation as a “big time” player meant he was one of the first players selected to the 1956 Olympic Basketball Team.
Fellow 1956 Olympian Victorian Geoff Heskett described Algis as “the best player on theOlympic team” and legendary Victorian and Australian coach Leon Baltrunas described Algis as the best ball-handler in Australia and a man who could play on any team.
Algis has vivid memories of the 1956 Olympic Games. “I was frustrated that the team had so little time together and there was so much cramming of tactics and physical fitness in such a short period that I felt the team was tired and frustrated.” Algis adds “I really felt sorry for the big guys and in particular George Dancis and Peter Demos who found all the running tough work.”
The Australian team went on to finish 12th out of 15 nations. It was probably not the result Algis and his team-mates were hoping for but considering the lack preparation time together and the experience gained it was a good achievement.Algis was one ofthe leading players on the team.
Algis had a reputation as a phenomenal shooter. In Club games in Adelaide teams would double team him regularly to combat his scoring prowess. He speaks fondly of playing games with “dinks” Harris and Alan Hare (from North Adelaide) double teaming him. The beneficiary of a lot of the double teaming on Algis was a player named RomasPetkunas.Romas is quoted as saying, “I was the biggest knuckle-head in the whole competition but one season I scored the second highest...Algis was first... number of points because everyone was guarding Algis, I just stood under the basket and received his passes.”
One year Algis had a South Australian finals series (3 games) average of 33 points a game. There was no three point line in those days and opponents remember that most of his shots were from outside the modern three point arc. At Apollo stadium he had a 100 game average of 19.1 points per game.
There is a story that once while training at the now demolished Forestville stadium, with Keith Miller watching from the sideline and Trevor Jones passing him the ball Algis made 94 foul shots in a row without a miss.
Algis cheekily says his two greatest sporting achievements to date are not from basketball circles. His greatest (he proudly says with a sparkle in the eye) was when an OBI mixed team visited Mount Gambier for a basketball tournament. The team visited the lake, as everyone does, to throw stones from the lower roads edge to see who can make a visible splash in the lake. Algis comments, “No prizes for guessing who was the only one to do it!” He says they had the visiting English and Jamaican teams there trying as well....but nobody succeeded. Years later (1990s) he heard an old caretaker say on 5AA talkback radio that to this day he (the caretaker) has never seen or heard of anyone being able to do it. Whether that is true or not, one fellow named Algis is going to his grave one day with that sparkle still in his eye.
Algis claims his second greatest achievement was playing in the SA Lawn Bowls State 4s final (they were runner-ups) in only his second year of playing lawn bowls.
When Apollo Stadium was built Merv Harris, who was a welder by trade, was employed to build the rings-stands and the entrance gates in the foyer area. Within the gates he created two figurines both shooting a basketball. One was a number 11(Algis) and the other number 7 (Werner Linde) in a nice tribute to two great South Australian shooters and players.
Today Algis still lives in Adelaide and enjoys life in his eighties. He still has a wicked sense of humour and says what he thinks. His views on modern basketball are well worth hearing for their humour and poignancy. Philosophically he believes that “everything is and should be seen as a challenge.” He also says that he learnt early on not to belittle opponents just because you are better than they are. He recalls a time when on a basketball tour in the Northern Territory he dribbled through a young Michael AhMatt’s legs to “show off” a bit and the crowd and atmosphere went terrible after that. “The memory has stayed with me for life and strong enough to be recanted as a warning how not to behave.”
But above all basketball should be enjoyed according to Algis. He remembers when in a game future Olympian Alan Dawe pulled Algis’s shorts down to slow him down. “I was on the foul-line and thought right I’ll fix you so I did a hook shot...and made it!”
Algis Ignatavicius made the long journey from war torn Lithuania to make a life and play basketball in Australia. In doing so he entertained the basketball public with his skill and talent while remembering how life’s challenges must be met whilemaintaining your sense of humour throughout.
Algis Ignatavicius (16) rebounds against Canada at the 1956 Olympic Games (Public Record Office, Victoria)
Algis Ignatavicius (A. Ignatavicius)
Algis Ignatavicius (16) scores against Singapore
(Courtesy Public Record Office Victoria)