By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It’s both a rising sport club and the keeper of the legacy of an establishment whose roots go back into to mid-19th century: That’s “Darüşşafaka Doğuş Basketbol” of Istanbul. It’s the first season of the club in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, but its history and its basketball tradition dates back to 1950s.
Darussafaka was founded as a public school for orphans in 1863. It was home for thousands of boys in the Ottoman Empire and then in the Turkish Republic since 1923. The school was providing a high quality intellectual as well physical education to pupils. Then in 1914 the director and the board of school decided to establish a sister sports club. As soon as the club formed, the young athletes were quickly involved in local football league.
The club waited until 1951 to establish a basketball team. Early achievements included local titles in cadets division. Step by step, Darussafaka climbed up the table in the Istanbul League among their strong rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce. They won their only Istanbul League title during 1959-60 campaign. This, however, was just the start…
Among the elite and the decline…
The team was crowned as Turkish champions both in 1960-61 and 1961-62. Among the stars of the team were Şevket Taslıca, Erdogan Partener, Nedret Uyguc and the legendary ex-player and coach Yalcın Granit.
But there was more to come,. During the 1961-62 season, the team participated in the quarter finals of the European Champions’ Cup of the time, becoming one of the top eight teams in Europe.
However that achievement was also the end of an era for the club. They were relegated from the first tier of the local league and weren’t neither among the founders of national league in 1966.
The return
Darusdafaka were still playing in lower divisions but didn’t get back to top divison until 1992. Step by step they became strong contender in the league, even finishing the regular season at the 3rd place in 2001 and 2002. Apart from that, they also competed in European cups between 1997 and 2005 playing well over 70 games but never touched the highest level, the Euroleague, having been eliminated in the qualification rounds of 2001.
In mid 2000s, the club gradually declined, escaping the relegation by narrow margin. Then in 2010 the inevitable happened: Darussafaka was in last place in the regular season and condemned to relegation.
Things changed again in 2013 the year of transformation for the Darussafaka Basketball Team. In September 2013, the Darussafaka Society, Darussafaka Sports Club and Doğuş Group signed a long-term cooperation protocol. The objective of the protocol was to enhance the success of the Darussafaka Basketball teams under the management of “Darüşşafaka Doğuş Sportif Yatırımlar ve Ticaret A.Ş.” and the new name “Darüşşafaka Doğuş Basketball.”
Darussafaka Dogus won the Second Division title in the 2013-14 season and was back in the First Division following a four-year break. Last season was a breakthrough for the team. They were a ranked third in a very competitive regular season winning 21 of 30 games, a club record. But they were surprisingly eliminated from playoff at quarter-finals by Trabzonspor, who beat them twice.
Present and future…
The new season brings new excitement to Darüşşafaka Doğuş. The Turkish Airlines Euroleague management awarded a wildcart to Darüşşafaka Doğuş for the 2015-2016 in recognition of the team’s sports outlook and social media activities.
The club made big moves in the summer bring in Turkish national team members Emir Preldzic, Semih Erden, Oguz Savas, Ender Arslan, Serhat Cetin and foreign stars like Marcus Slaughter, Reggie Redding, Manuchar Markoishvili, Milko Bjelica.
The roster is more thn enough to make the team a contender in the Turkish Super League and also for the Euroleague Top16. They’ll play their Euroleague games in the state-of-art Volkswagen Arena starting November 5th. Under coach Oktay Mahmuti, who has a vast experience and was among other the former coach of Anadolu Efes, finishing on the Top4 of the Turkish league is the main goal. The team already started the season with a win at Royal Halı Gaziantep and this Sunday they host Fenerbahce.
And this is just the start. Darussafaka has the tradition, the support and the vision to became a key part of the Turkish basketball boom. They are already back to where they belong and the next step is going to be more than interesting to watch…
