CITIUS – ALTIUS – FORTIUS (FASTER — HIGHER — STRONGER)
The olympic motto
Background leading up to the games
Kiko took a job in Chihuahua with part of his contract was he was to play for a local amateur club called Los Dorados. At the time, Mexico was having a hard time putting together a basketball team for Olympic competition. The Dorados were scouted and selected to represent Mexico as her National Team.
Kiko and several Los Dorados teammates Are selected to the Mexican National team.
Traveling by boat to Europe in summer 1936, the Mexicans arrived in the ominous, though festive, atmosphere of Hitler’s Germany. An aged Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game, was on hand as a special guest to witness basketball’s first international championship. Naismith was in tears at the pre-tournament ceremony as the teams marched by, dipping their flags in his honor.
A German Olympics
Nazi Germany had begun to take hold in Europe and Hitler’s thirst for world dominance grew in the mid-1930’s. These Olympic Games were, to Hitler’s mind, a grand opportunity to show German and Aryan racial superiority, not only in sport, but also in technology. The 1936 Games were the first to be broadcast on television. Twenty-five television viewing rooms were set up in the Greater Berlin area, allowing the locals to follow the Games free of charge.
The Games
Played outdoors on a clay tennis court dusted with sand, sawdust, and salt, Martinez and the Mexicans were used to the conditions and played well. They ingenuity during these Olympic Games quite possibly gave birth to the current fast break machine. Kiko would later recreate the fast tempo fast break scheme with New Mexico A&M. They finished with the Bronze medal behind the U.S. and Canada. The medals were awarded by Dr. James Naismith. It was Mexico’s first and still only medal in Olympic history in the sport of basketball.
First round | Mexico vs Belgium W 32-9
Second Round | Mexico vs Philippines L 32-30
Third Round | Mexico vs Japan W 28-22
Quarterfinals | Mexico vs Italy W 24-17
Semifinals | Mexico vs United States L 25-10
Bronze Medal Match | Mexico vs Poland W 26-12
Mexico’s 1936 Olympic Basketball Roster
Carlos Borja
Victor Borja
Rodolfo Choperena
Luis de la Vega
Raul Fernandez
Andres Gomez
Silvio Hernandez
Francisco Martinez
Jesus Olmos
Jose Pamplona
Greer Skousen
Source * Official Olympics Website