101 Greats of European Basketball

The first great
naturalized player
Among the many good things that Pedro
Ferrandiz did for Real Madrid, one
of the best was signing Clifford Luyk.
It happened in the summer of 1962,
when having American players was
still something rare among European
teams and far before it turned into something normal
and later, even, almost mandatory.
After losing the EuroLeague final in 1962 against
Dinamo Tbilisi of the USSR 90-83 in Geneva, Ferrandiz
decided to leave the bench to Joaquin Hernandez, while
he became what later would be known as the general
manager or sports director. To make the dream of the
Real Madrid fans finally a reality and make the basketball
section of the club a European champ – something
that the football players had already achieved five times
between 1955 and 1960 – Ferrandiz knew he needed a
couple of excellent American players. In his tour of the
United States, in a preseason game between the New
York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, he set his eyes on
a not-so-tall center (2.02 meters), but a big man with
a strong body, solid scoring ability and almost perfect
technique. In 3 minutes he scored 8 points for the
Knicks. Ferrandiz asked for his name and the answer
was: Clifford Luyk, born in Syracuse on June 28, 1941,
and a student at the University of Florida. Led by his
instinct, Ferrandiz decided to sign Luyk, and he managed
to also sign center Bob Burgess, as well. That’s
how the great duo, just what the team needed for the
1962-63 season, was born. The roster was completed
with Emiliano Rodriguez, Carlos Sevillano, Lolo Sainz,
Lorenzo Alocen and others. Luyk and Burgess weren’t
the first American players at Real Madrid, but they were
definitely the best to that point.
Red Army in Madrid
At the end of the season, July 23, 1963, was a date
that made the history books as the one on which “the
Red Army entered Madrid”. To everyone’s surprise,
Spain’s General Franco allowed the CSKA Moscow
team into Spain and Real Madrid to travel to Moscow.
In previous years, these games were played on neutral
ground or Real Madrid simply refused to play. In the
first game, Madrid won 86-69 with 26 points by Sevillano,
24 by Emiliano, 21 by Burgess and 14 by Luyk. The
second game, played seven days later at Lenin football
stadium in front of 20,000 people, was won by CSKA
91-74 despite 22 points by Luyk.
The aggregate score after the two games was tied
and according to the rules at the time, a third game was
forced to be played in the same place. On August 1, CS-
KA won 99-80. The dream of Real Madrid would have
to wait another year. The Spanish team won its first
EuroLeague crown in 1964 by beating Spartak Brno in
the final behind 18 points by Luyk. However, the title
didn’t feel complete somehow because that year CSKA
Moscow didn’t play because it wanted to concentrate
on the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Finally, in 1965,
Real Madrid got its revenge. After losing by 7 points in
Moscow, 88-81, with Luyk’s 30 points, the Whites won
76-62 in Madrid. Emiliano scored 24 and Luyk and Burgess
had 18 and 16 points, respectively.
Little by little, Luyk won over everybody’s heart in
Madrid. Apart from his great performances on the
101 greats of european basketball
Clifford Luyk
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