FIBA Basketball

2021 Class of FIBA Hall of Fame: Oscar Moglia

MIES (Switzerland) - Oscar Moglia, the Uruguayan who averaged a tournament-best 26.0 points per game at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, is being inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Moglia (Uruguay - posthumously) is being enshrined in the Class of 2021, along with legendary players Mathieu Faye (Senegal), Hana Horakova (Czech Republic), Panagiotis Giannakis (Greece), Stanislav Kropilak (Slovakia) Detlef Schrempf (Germany), Penka Stoyanova (Bulgaria - posthumously), Sergey Tarakanov (Russia) and Haixia Zheng (China) and coaching greats Chuck Daly (USA - posthumously), Tom Maher (Australia) and Ettore Messina (Italy).

Moglia led the 1956 Olympics in scoring and Uruguay captured the bronze medal

Words cannot fully encapsulate what Oscar Moglia meant for Uruguayan basketball. What's clear is that Moglia still revered in the country, that he is among the basketball gods there.

Moglia did things that are unlikely to be replicated. He spent his entire career with one professional team, Club Atletico Welcome, from 1950 to 1972, and dominated.

A 2.05 m (6ft 7in) forward, Moglia was the leading scorer in the Uruguay Federal Championship in eight of his seasons with Welcome. He played both inside and out, and was unstoppable when the basketball ended up in his hands. Welcome won five league crowns with Moglia as their talisman.

For more than two decades, Moglia was the main man at Club Atletico Welcome

What also gives Moglia - who debuted for Uruguay as an 18-year-old at the South American Championship - that special place in the hearts of sports fans in his country were his national team performances.

After leading Uruguay to the South American title in 1953, Moglia topped the scoring table at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 1954 in Brazil. In the very first game, he led all scorers with 22 points in a 55-52 win over Yugoslavia. Moglia went on to have a great tournament, with Uruguay finishing sixth.

After a successful South American Championship title defense, Moglia made headlines Down Under when he led all scorers in the competition with an average of 26 points per game. Moglia spearheaded Uruguay's run to podium, including a 25-point haul in the 71-62 Bronze Medal Game triumph over France.

Moglia remains a giant of Uruguayan basketball.

Name	Oscar MOGLIA
Category of Inductee	Player (Forward)
Date of birth - death	1st February 1935 – 8th October 1989
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Nationality	Uruguayan
Height	2.05 m – 6ft 7in
Clubs	Club Atlético Welcome (1950 – 1972) [/unordered]
Club highlights	Five-time Uruguayan Federal Champion (1953, 1956, 1957, 1966, 1967) [/unordered]
National Team highlights	Two-time South American gold medalist (1953, 1955) Played in two FIBA World Championship (1954, 1967) Olympic Games bronze medalist (1956) South American Championship silver medalist (1958) [/unordered]
Individual highlights	Uruguayan Federal Championship eight-time top scorer (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960) FIBA World Championship top scorer (1954) Three-time South American Games top scorer (1955, 1957, 1960) Olympic Games top scorer, 26 points per game (1956) Named to the All-Tournament team at the Melbourne Olympic Games NBA Draft (1953) [/unordered]

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