Vittorio Tracuzzi

Vittorio Tracuzzi was born in Sicily and originally played for two local clubs, Peloro Messina and Palermo. After World War II, he played for PTT Roma, Ginnastica Roma, Pallacanestro Varese and Virtus Bologna, where he won two Italian titles, in 1955 and 1956.

Tracuzzi made his international début against Albania at the 1947 European Championships in Praha. He also competed at the 1948 London Olympics, the 1949 Mairano Trophy, the International Tournament of Nice in 1950, and the 1951 Europeans in Paris. He won 44 international caps, scoring 124 points.

At the age of 29, Tracuzzi became the Italian national coach in the unlucky qualification tournament for the 1952 Olympics. He then coached the “Azzurri” at the International Tournament of Istanbul, and the 1953 European Championships in Moskva, with a seventh place finish. After 28 matches (13 wins, 15 defeats), he handed the job over to Francesco Ferrero in 1954.

Tracuzzi spent six seasons as player/coach at Pallacanestro Varese between 1948-54, and finished runner up in the Italian league in the 1948/49 season, four points behind Virtus Bologna. He then joined Virtus and won the Italian title in 1955 and 1956. Tracuzzi joined Levissima Cantù in 1960, before returning to Varese two years later and winning the league title again, in 1964. Varese also won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967. Tracuzzi ended his career in the first league in 1972, after spending the last two seasons back at Virtus Bologna.

From 1972-76, Tracuzzi coached second tier teams like Junior Casale Monferrato, Viola Reggio Calabria, Cestistica Messina and Virtus Ragusa. Between June 1981 and September 1985 he coached the Italian women’s team in 107 matches (52 wins, 55 defeats), including three participations at the European Championships: 1981 in Italy (7th). 1983 in Hungary (5th) and 1985 in Italy (7th again). Tracuzzi was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and in 2017 the city of Reggio Calabria name a street after him, and the Messina sports palace was also named in his honour.