Vytautas Kulakauskas

Vytautas Kulakauskas

File:Vytautas Kulakauskas.PNG Vytautas Kulakauskas, possibly in 1947
Personal information
Born	August 25, 1920 Kuršėnai, Lithuania
Died	Vilnius, Lithuania
Medal record Men's basketball Representing Soviet Union European Championships 1947 Czechoslovakia USSR

Vytautas Kulakauskas (August 25, 1920, in Kuršėnai – December 22, 2000, in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian basketball player, coach, and educator, who competed for the Soviet Union in the EuroBasket 1947 and won a gold medal.

Biography

In 1940, Kulakauskas graduated Kaunas Military School. In 1944–1945 he studied at Vytautas Magnus University's Faculty of Medicine. In 1948 he graduated Lithuanian Sports University.

In 1945–1950 he taught at Lithuanian Sports University. In 1950–1960 at Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, he was Head of the Department of Physical Education, in 1957–1960 even was the Dean of the Faculty of Music. In 1961–1980 became Vilnius Gediminas Technical University teacher, from 1964 Head of the Department of Physical Education. In 1968 he became associate professor.

He also published the book Krepšininko treniruote (English: The basketball player workout), where he included many epitomes regarding the training.

Personal life

He had a wife, Elena Kulakauskienė.

Soviet Union national team

In a 1990s interview, Kulakauskas described the Soviet squad by telling: "It could be said that there were the physical preparations and shootings, however all the tactics and the game-play was given to them by us. I remember by preparing for the Olympics in February, in Moscow, we were working on tactics for a month. On tactics exercises without any game-play. Not a single minute. We were working the whole month on techniques and tactics improvement. We gave the whole American school to them, which we received from the Lithuanian Americans".