Turgut Atakol

Turgut Atakol’s primary sport was basketball and he played at the national level represent Galatasaray. He later became an international basketball referee. Atakol co-founded and became President of the Turkish Basketball Federation (1958-64), and was a member of the Technical Commission of FIBA from 1956-76. He wrote books on basketball refereeing, which were adopted as guidebooks by FIBA, and became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 as a contributor. Since 1994, the Turkish Basketball Federation has organized the Turgut Atakol Tournament in his honor.

In other sports administration positions, Atakol was a director of the 1971 Mediterranean Games Organizing Committees, and served the Turkish Olympic Commmittee as its secretary-general (1973-82) and President (1982-88). In 1984 he became an IOC Member and served until his death in 1988.