Romania’s legendary team made history with EuroVolley 1963 gold and appearance at Olympic premiere

Even though this year we celebrate the CEV’s 50th anniversary, European Volleyball has a much longer and richer history, which goes back to the early days when the game was first played across the continent by American soldiers during and shortly after World War I. A few decades later, back in 1963, the FIVB decided to introduce a series of ‘smaller’ organisations, including the so-called European Sports Commission (ESC), whose main responsibility was to help and support the promotion, governance, and growth of the game on a continental level.

That very same year the European Championships were held in Romania. It was already the sixth edition for men and women as well – who had had their premiere in 1948 and 1949, respectively. The men’s and women’s tournaments were hosted by the same country – this trend would continue up until 1989 – and Romania had previously played host to the 1955 edition as well.

The event followed a round-robin system with no knockout matches and if Romania finished the women’s competition featuring 13 teams in third place behind a dominant Soviet Union and Poland, Romania’s men achieved what remains to this day the greatest achievement for this country in international Volleyball. Team Romania edged Poland, the Netherlands, and Finland in Group A in Bucharest to secure their progression to the second stage of the tournament where they beat Yugoslavia (3-0), the Soviet Union (3-2), Hungary (3-0), Czechoslovakia (3-1), France (3-0), and Bulgaria (3-1) to finish the competition on an impeccable record of nine wins in just as many matches.

Apart from Bucharest, the cities of Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, and Tirgu Mures played host to matches scheduled for the European Championship as well.

The roster of this history-making team coached by Nicolae Sotir included setters Gheorghe Fieraru, Aurel Dragan, Radu Ganciu, and Mihai Chezan; spikers Horatiu Nicolau, Mihai Nicolae Barbuta, Mihai Coste, and William Schreiber, plus middle blockers Eduard Derzsei, Davila Plocon, Iuliu Szöcs, and Mihai Grigorovici.

Team Romania had already qualified for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics a year before when they had finished third at the FIVB Men’s World Championship held in Moscow – just behind the legendary teams representing the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. When Volleyball made its Olympic debut in 1964 in Japan, Romania travelled to the Land of the Rising Sun with the very same group of players who were the reigning European champions following their sensational success on home soil. However, their campaign in Tokyo started with a 0-3 loss at the hands of the Soviets, before Romania regrouped to beat Brazil, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Hungary. As the Olympic tournament approached its end, Aurel Dragan and his teammates lost to both Czechoslovakia and hosts Japan – so their final victory over USA was ‘only’ good enough for fourth place.

Despite this, their EuroVolley success in 1963 remains an unmatched achievement to this day even though Romania won Olympic bronze in 1980 in Moscow at the Games held in the Soviet capital which were unfortunately boycotted by most of the Western countries.

Pictures from 1964 taken from '100 years of global link - Volleyball Centennial 1895-1995'