Heino Kruus

In his youth, Heino Kruus did track & field athletics and played football, before taking up basketball in high school. Kruus played for one club (Kalev Tallinn) during most of his career, which lasted from 1945-57, except for a short spell with ÜSK Tartu from 1949-51. With ÜSK Tartu, Kruus won the Soviet title in 1949, adding silver at the Soviet championships in 1950 and bronze in 1951. As a member of Kalev Tallinn, he won another bronze at the Soviet championships in 1945. Kruus also won the Eight Cities Cup (predecessor to the Soviet Cup) in 1946 and 1950 and was runner-up in 1952. He was also Estonian SSR champion in basketball in 1946, 1947, 1949, 1954 and 1955 and in field handball in 1957. Kruus belonged to the Soviet national basketball team from 1949-54, and with them he won Olympic silver in 1952, was the European Champion in 1951 and 1953, won the World Student Games in 1951, and World Festival of Youth and Students in 1953.

After finishing his career in 1957, Kruus worked as a coach of Kalev Tallinn until 1963. From 1963-88, Kruus was the head of physical culture department of Tallinn University of Applied Sciences. From 1969 until middle of 1970s, Kruus also acted as a basketball referee with Soviet championships. He was selected to the Estonian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.