Sparta Praha is among the oldest and most popular sports clubs in the country, with a number of fans not only in Prague but throughout the whole of the Czech Republic. The foundation of the club dates back to 1893 (AC Sparta Praha). Club colours are red, yellow and blue.
History
Basketball Club Sparta Praha (short: BC Sparta Praha) is a Czech men's basketball club from Prague founded in 1939 as a section of omnisport club Sparta Prague. Since that time it has been a long-term member of the basketball elite. This is confirmed by its results both in the First League and the participation of its players in the national team.
During the course of its history, BC Sparta Praha has been headed by as few as four representatives. The first chairman was Václav Jeřábek (1939–52), the second Josef Ezr (1952–90, a full 38 years!), the third Miloslav Kříž (1990–93) and the fourth Pavel Majerik (1993–2005). Amongst important functionaries and coaches in the history of the club are for example Josef Klima, Lubomir Bednar, Hana Ezrova, Cyril Mandel, Vladimir Heger, Zdenek Miskovsky, Lubos Dobry, Zbynek Kubin and Michal Jezdik.
The basketball players of Sparta Praha played their first match against the Prague Sokol team on 23 December 1939 and won 42–35, similarly as in the second match on 20 January 1940 when they beat YMCA Prague 44–19. In the season 1939/40 the Sparta Prague basketball players won their First League championship trophy with the team: Bartonicek, Bartu, Ctyroky, Dolezal, A.Dvoracek, L. Dvoracek, Faloun, Hlousek, Hruda, Jencek, Klima, Labohy, Prokop, Trpkos, with coach Jerabek. In the season 1959/60 Sparta won their second league championship trophy with the team: Jiří Baumruk, Kinsky, Krasny, Lodr, Prazak, Rojko, Tomasek, Czesany, Kliner, Pietsch, Rotter and coach Josef Ezr.
Also to be counted amongst Sparta's successes are 10 seasons in which Sparta was runner-up in the First League and 10 seasons in which Sparta finished third in the First League, as well as second place in the Czech Cup in 1995 and third place in the same tournament in 1996.
The Sparta team is in second place in the historical table of the First League, behind Zbrojovka Brno and ahead of Slavia VŠ Praha. In the history of Sparta there are two particularly successful periods: 1959–64 (once champions, twice runners-up, twice third place) and 1989–94 (4 times runners-up and once third place).[2][3]
1997/98 defeated Polonia Przemyśl, Poland (63-60, 75-67), then results in Group: Echo Houthalen, Belgium (78-76, 62-70), TAU Cerámica, Spain (49-89, 52-91) and Nancy, France (77-85, 56-103)
1998/99 defeated Achilleas, Cyprus (54-71, 97-65), then results in Group: Apollon Patras, Greece (62-85, 64-72), Maccabi Ra'anana, Israel (66-81, 50-80) and Brotnjo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (67-85, 43-55)
^Simak, Pavel (1993). Historie československého basketbalu v číslech (1932–1985), II. část (1985–1992) (in Czech). Česká a slovenská basketbalová federace. p. 303.
^Gacik, Juraj (2000). Kronika československého a slovenského basketbalu (1919–1993), (1993–2000) (in Slovak). BADEM. p. 943. ISBN80-968498-9-1.
