Feliksas Kriaučiūnas (Americanized his name as Phil Krause; August 18, 1911 – October 28, 1977)United States Social Security Death Index, FamilySearch. was a Lithuanian American basketball player and coach. He won two gold medals with Lithuania national basketball team and silver medal with Lithuania women's national basketball team.
Biography
Feliksas studied and played for University of Notre Dame team, along with his brother Moose Krause. Later he moved to DePaul University and played for their university team. In 1935, along with other Lithuanian Americans, he started teaching Lithuanians how to play basketball. He was the Lithuania men's national basketball team player-coach and team captain during EuroBasket 1937 and EuroBasket 1939.The Motherland, the Godfather, and the Birth of a Basketball Dynasty: American Efforts to Promote Basketball in Lithuania, Eastern Illinois University, p. 14. As soon as World War II begun in 1939, Kriaučiūnas and his brother traveled back to the United States.Mr. Notre Dame: The Life and Legend of Edward Moose Krause Kriaučiūnas played a total of 19 games, scoring 65 points. He also was the head coach of the Lithuania women's national basketball team during the first ever women's EuroBasket in 1938 where Lithuania won silver medals. He also firmly contributed in developing nowadays basketball in Lithuania.
State awards Officer's Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (1937)
See also List of FIBA EuroBasket winning head coaches
References Footnotes
Bibliography Vidas Mačiulis, Vytautas Gudelis. Halė, kurioje žaidė Lubinas ir Sabonis. 1939–1989 – Respublikinis sporto kombinatas, Kaunas, 1989