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| Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna |
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| Leagues |
Euroleague, Lega Basket Serie A |
| Founded |
1871 |
| Arena |
Palamalaguti (8,640 seats) |
| Location |
Bologna, Italy |
| Team colors |
Black and white |
| President |
Claudio Sabatini (owner) |
| Head coach |
 Renato Pasquali |
| Championships |
Lega Basket (15): 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001
Euroleague (2): 1998, 2001
Saporta Cup (1): 1990 |
| Website |
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| Uniforms |
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| Home |
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Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna is a prominent Italian basketball club, based in Bologna. Virtus returned to Italy's top division for the Serie A 2005-06 season after two years in the second division.
[edit] History
Virtus was founded in 1879 as a gymnastics club, and fielded its first professional basketball teams in the 1920s. The club has won 15 national league titles in Italy's top division and 8 Italian Cups. It has also been a frequent participant in the Euroleague, the basketball equivalent to football's Champions League. Virtus' best season, as measured by trophies won, was 2000-01, when it won the Italian League, Italian Cup, and Euroleague titles all in the same season, giving the club the coveted Triple Crown in Basketball championship for the year (though the latter came against the field that did not include all of Europe's national champions as some of them competed in Suproleague that year). It also won the Euroleague in 1998 led by Predrag Danilović.
However, several key members of Virtus' treble-winners left immediately after that accomplishment. After the 2001-02 season, Manu Ginobili, the Final Four MVP of Euroleague 2000-01, left for the NBA, as did another important player Marko Jarić. At the end of the 2002-03 season, Virtus suffered relegation from Italy's top division as a result of financial problems.
The local derby between Virtus and Fortitudo Bologna is one of the most intense in the entire world of sports. Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff devoted a chapter of his 2002 basketball book, Big Game, Small World (ISBN 0-446-52601-0), to this rivalry.
Virtus' home stadium is PalaMalaguti.
[edit] 2007-2008 Roster
[edit] Notable past players
[edit] Coaches
- 1948-50 Renzo Poluzzi
- 1950-51 Dino Fontana
- 1951-52 Venzo Vannini
- 1952-53 Larry Strong
- 1953-54 Giancarlo Marinelli
- 1954-55 Larry Strong
- 1955-60 Vittorio Tracuzzi
- 1960-63
 Eduard Kucharski
- 1963-66 Mario Alesini
- 1966-68
 Jaroslav Sip (incl. 4 games from the '68-'69 season)
- 1968-69 Renzo Ranuzzi (18 games)
- 1969-70 Nello Paratore
- 1970-71 Vittorio Tracuzzi (incl. 4 games from the '71-'72 season)
- 1971-73 Nico Messina (incl. 18 games from the '71-'72 season)
- 1973-78
 Dan Peterson
- 1978-80 Terry Driscoll
- 1980-81 Ettore Zuccheri (23 games)
- 1981 Renzo Ranuzzi (18 games from the '80-'81 season)
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- 1981-82
 Aleksandar Nikolić
- 1982 George Bisacca (11 games from the '82-'83 season)
- 1982-83 Mauro Di Vincenzo (24 games)
- 1983-85 Alberto Bucci
- 1985-87 Alessandro Gamba
- 1987-88 Krešimir Ćosić
- 1988-89 Bob Hill
- 1989-93 Ettore Messina
- 1993-97 Alberto Bucci (incl. 23 games from the '96-'97 season)
- 1997 Lino Frattin (11 games from the '96-'97 season)
- 1997-02 Ettore Messina (replaced for two games in '01-'02 by Giordano Consolini)
- 2002
 Bogdan Tanjević (14 games from the '02-'03 season)
- 2002-03 Valerio Bianchini (20 games)
- 2003 Giampiero Ticchi
- 2003-04 Alberto Bucci
- 2004-05 Giordano Consolini
- 2005-07
 Zare Markovski
- 2007-present Stefano Pillastrini
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[edit] List of former sponsorship names
[edit] External links
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Virtus Bologna 1997-98 Euroleague Champions |
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