Zdeněk Rylich

Zdeněk Rylich was a mainstay on the Czechoslovakian basketball team for nearly the entirety of the 1950s, and won his first major international medal, silver, at the 1951 European Championships. His next stop was the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where his nation was eliminated in round one. He captured two more European silver medals, in 1955 and 1959, and also earned bronze in 1957.

Domestically, he began his career with Dynamo Slavia Praha from 1949 through 1951, before spending two years with Slavia Pedagog Praha and coming runner-up in the national championships in 1952. After stints with Ekonom Praha and Slavia ITVS Praha, he finally signed with Slovan Orbis Praha in 1956, where he would remain until the end of his career in 1967. During that time, he won two national titles (1957, 1959), another silver medal (1958), and bronze (1961) at the nationals. He was inducted into the Czech Basketball Federation’s Hall of Fame in 2006, where his brother Bohuslav, a 1960 Olympian, is also enshrined.