Chang Ri-Jin

Chang Ri-Jin was a member of the successful basketball team of Yonhi College (later Yonsei University) that won the 1936 Japan Basketball Championship. He was one of three Korean players selected for the Japanese team at the 1936 Olympics. After graduating from Yonhi, he attended the Department of Economics of the Japan University College. Chang played internationally for Korea until well into his 30s including the 1948 London Olympics and the 1954 Asian Games.

Chang enlisted in the Marine Corps and established the Marine Corps Basketball Division. Their team was developed to be the leading team in the country by engaging prominent players as civil servants. He also coached the team for an upset victory against an American college team in 1955. Chang was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1960, he was hired to coach the women’s basketball team of the Commercial Bank, and in 1964, the team of the First Bank. Having built a great reputation, he managed the South Korean team at the 5th World Women’s Basketball Championships held in Prague in 1967. The team placed an excellent second only beaten by the Soviet Union. Chang later emigrated.