This is the history of Real Madrid Baloncesto, a professional Spanish basketball club founded in 1931 as a division of Real Madrid CF.
History Foundation and early decades (1931–1952)
Ángel Cabrera, a pioneer and one of the key figures in promoting basketball in Spain, established the first basketball team in Castile in 1922. This was followed on March 8, 1931, by the creation of the Real Madrid basketball department after placing an advertisement in the ABC newspaper to recruit volunteer players. The initial roster included Eric Hermes, Luis Hoyos, Emilio Gutiérrez Bringas, Juan Castellví, Jenaro Olives, Máximo Arnáiz, Juan Negrín, Delgado, Llano, Midel, and the German Midelman, who, along with Cabrera, formed the first squad, officially named Real Madrid Basket-Ball on March 22 of the same year. The team held its first training sessions at the Standard Club's court. The recruitment announcement stated:
With football already well-established, the then-president Luis Usera sought to promote other sports to enhance the club's prestige. Thus, a new discipline was born within the club, among many other departments, which over time gained popularity and became one of the club's most prominent representations beyond Spain's borders.
In its founding year, the club won its first title, the Copa Chapultepec, a tournament organized in Cercedilla by the Mexican magnate and former club member Emilio Gutiérrez Bringas, who maintained a close friendship with the then-young general secretary of the club, Santiago Bernabéu. That same year, the club competed in its first national competition, the inaugural Regional Championship, finishing third behind the Rayo Club, with whom they vied for Castilian supremacy until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
After the first training and selection session on March 15 against the Instituto-Escuela—the origin of the Instituto Ramiro de Maeztu, the youth academy of the current Club Baloncesto Estudiantes—to determine the initial team, the first official match in the club's history took place on March 22, 1931. The game, played on the same day as the department's official founding, was against the Dumping Basket-Ball Club in the aforementioned Castile Regional Championship. The match ended in a 19–5 defeat for Real Madrid, with Ángel Cabrera as the club's top scorer with four points, scoring one field goal and two free throws. The other four players were Emilio Gutiérrez, Midelman, Luis Hoyos—who scored another free throw—and Midel. The club's first victory came in the second round on April 2, defeating the Ministry of the Navy 9–5 at the Standard Club's court, as the club did not yet have its own facility, which was inaugurated just a month later. The scorers were Llano with four baskets and Máximo Arnáiz with one free throw, joined by Ángel Cabrera, Luis Hoyos, Delgado, Iranzo, and Maller.
On April 3, 1932, the first match between Catalans and Madrilenians was played to gauge the level of Madrid's basketball compared to the more established Catalan game. Held in Barcelona, at La Bordeta court, Real Madrid Basket-Ball defeated RCD Espanyol 24–19, a team that included Anselmo López, who later became the coach of the Madrid team. The 1930s also brought the first official title, the aforementioned 1933 Regional Championship, and the creation of the Women's Department, which won the Regional Championship in its founding year, 1934, and again in 1943, finishing as runners-up in the Copa de la Reina de Baloncesto before the department was disbanded in 1944 and its players joined the Sección Femenina of the Falange Española.
From then on, the club dominated a tournament whose standings qualified teams for the Copa del Rey de Baloncesto. In its first appearance in the inaugural edition, Real Madrid was defeated 21–17 by the Iluro Basket-Ball Club in Mataró. After a comeback in the return leg in Madrid, they finished as runners-up, losing the final 21–11 to a Rayo Club composed of several former Real Madrid players. This was the first of four runner-up finishes before the club finally won the Spanish Championship.
Thanks to one of the key factors that strengthened the club's foundations in its early social championships, the recruitment of international players, Real Madrid became not only the regional but also the national dominant force over the years. The attraction of Latin American talent to the Complutense University of Madrid allowed the club to sign promising players from the New World, significantly elevating the quality of Spanish basketball, which was still rudimentary at the time.
From Spain's former colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, the club welcomed exceptional players such as Freddy Borrás, Rafael Deliz, Willo Galíndez, Toñín Casillas, and Johnny Báez, who were well-versed in American professional basketball and brought unprecedented height to Spain, greatly strengthening the club. They led Real Madrid to its first three Spanish Championship titles in 1951 against FC Barcelona, the dominant team of the previous decade led by Eduardo Kucharsky, and in 1952 and 1954 against Joventut Badalona.
Another pivotal moment for the department, perhaps the most significant, occurred in 1952, coinciding with the club's Golden Jubilee. Santiago Bernabéu, now leading the club, sought assistance from the Spanish Basketball Federation to organize a basketball tournament, a sport in which he had limited expertise. This led to the arrival of one of the club's most iconic figures: Raimundo Saporta.
Raimundo Saporta and the first golden era (1952–75)
The young executive from the Federation quickly became Santiago Bernabéu's right-hand man, thanks to his impeccable organization of the event. The tournament, attended by Paris Basket Racing, the Puerto Rican national team, and a team of American soldiers stationed at the English airbase in Lakenheath called the Lakenheath Pirates, was a success, prompting Bernabéu to recruit Saporta to the club despite his lack of football knowledge, unlike the club's president. This partnership propelled the club to the pinnacle of Europe in both football and basketball, establishing Raimundo Saporta as one of the most prominent figures in Spanish and European basketball.
In the 1952–53 season, the club won the Latin Cup, a recently created competition that served as a precursor to the European Cup and the modern EuroLeague. This was the club's first international title.
Under Saporta's leadership, the basketball department continued to grow, and he was instrumental in creating various competitions that elevated the sport, such as the league tournament. The first edition of the National Basketball League began in the 1956–57 season, with Real Madrid playing at their new venue, the Fiesta Alegre fronton, the stage for many great achievements and comebacks. In this competition, the club won its first league title and had the honor of being the first leader in the standings after defeating their city rivals and main competitors, Club Baloncesto Estudiantes, 76–61 in the opening round. The players in that first match, coached by Ignacio Pinedo, were Joaquín Hernández, José Alberto Herreras, José Luis Alcántara, Arturo Imedio, Luis Trujillano, William Brindle, Jorge Bonet, and the center Alfonso Martínez, with the latter being the team's top scorer with 17 points and the league's leading scorer with 180 points.
The teams in that inaugural league edition included the aforementioned Real Madrid and Estudiantes, along with Joventut Badalona, FC Barcelona Bàsquet, CB Aismalíbar, and CB Sabadell. Seven victories in ten games secured Real Madrid's first league trophy, which also qualified them for their debut in official international competition, the inaugural European Cup, a competition co-created by Raimundo Saporta modeled after the European Football Cup, which had been established three years earlier. Both competitions were initiated and promoted by the club.
Their first official international match was in the aforementioned European Cup against the Portuguese Barreirense Basket, winning 51–68 in the round of 16. The team's top scorers were Alfonso Martínez and “Johnny” Báez, both with 16 points. After advancing with a 154–91 aggregate score, they faced Royal Brussels in the quarterfinals, winning 121–116 over two legs to reach the semifinals. However, their first participation in Europe's premier club competition ended there. Real Madrid was set to face Armijas Sporta Klubs Rīga from the Soviet Union, but political tensions between the Soviet Union and Spain's regime at the time led Francisco Franco to prohibit Spanish teams from traveling to Soviet territory. In response, Raimundo Saporta proposed playing the tie in a single match in Paris, but this was not accepted by FIBA, resulting in the Spanish team's elimination without playing the semifinal against the eventual champions of the first three editions of the tournament.
In 1957, the Castile Championship (1931–1957) was discontinued for teams competing in the National League, with Real Madrid having won 11 titles, making them the most decorated team. The Marca Trophy (Regional Basketball Tournament), which brought together the best regional teams from Madrid and served as the season opener, succeeding the Castile Championship, emerged during this period and ran from 1957 to 1967. Sponsored by the newspaper Marca, Real Madrid was the most successful team with eight titles.See: AAVV. One Hundred Years of Real Madrid. Vol. 16 Basketball History. Madrid, As, 2001
During the 1950s, the club won one Latin Cup, three leagues, six cups, four Castile Cups, and two Regional Tournaments (Marca Trophy).
The arrival of Pedro Ferrándiz
The club struggled to translate its national success to the international stage, often being eliminated before reaching the final of Europe's top tournament in its early editions. As a result, Saporta decided to bring in Pedro Ferrándiz, who would become one of the most iconic figures in global basketball. Under the direction of the Alicante-born coach, the club experienced its greatest years, even pitting its first team against its reserve team, Club Hesperia de Madrid, in a Spanish Cup final—a feat later replicated by the football department, a unique occurrence in the history of both competitions.
Coached by Ferrándiz, the team won fifteen Leagues, fourteen Cups, and four European Cups, a record that remains unmatched to this day. Ferrándiz was the first to introduce innovations from the NBA and pioneered the exchange of concepts with American coaches. During one of his trips to North America, he signed a young college basketball prospect before he joined the Harlem Globetrotters, a 2.03 m center named Wayne Hightower, who joined players such as Emiliano Rodríguez, Carlos Sevillano, and Lolo Sainz. Thanks to them, the club reached the final of the coveted European Cup, aiming to take over the international spotlight from the football department, which was seeing the end of the golden era of “Di Stéfano’s Madrid.”
After defeating Club Sportif Casablancais 166–84 on aggregate in the first round of the 1961–62 edition, Real Madrid faced Pallacanestro Varese, where a curious incident occurred. With seconds remaining and the score tied at 80 in the first leg in Varese, Ferrándiz called a timeout despite having suspended and injured players. To minimize risks and avoid a larger defeat, he instructed his players to score in their own basket, resulting in a final score of 82–80. Following this, FIBA changed the rules for knockout ties, allowing draws to avoid overtime and controversial decisions. The return leg in Madrid qualified the Spaniards.