Today, he says, is November 29th…

So what;

Is this the first time this has happened?

Today PAOK hosts Benfica in the Basketball Champions League…

So what;

This isn’t the first time either, the two teams have played three more times…

Yes but no!

Instead of playing with your nerves, I’ll take the plunge, because today’s occasion is an anniversary, historic, significant, nostalgic, romantic and that doesn’t go together!

The baptisms of PAOK and the Romanian godfather!

On this day, November 29, 1959, the European sailing of the PAOK began on a boat piloted by Romanian boatmen (CCAB from Bucharest) and after 64 years, on this same day another chapter is written in the black and white book.

The 1959–60 season was the third in the history of the European Cup. PAOK replaced Panhellenios (1957–58), who was also eliminated against the same Romanian team, and AEK (1958–59), who failed to overcome the obstacle, the obstacle of OKK Belgrade.

The “Two-Headed Man of the North” qualified for the newly created competition by winning the title in the 1959 Panhellenic Championship, which was very historic and left a very strong impression on the Greek basketball scene…

The 30” rule and the finale with Aris

The final phase of this championship took place in the open field of the CHANTH, with the innovation of the application of the 30-second rule in the attack, and it was to develop into a thriller and at the same time a Gordian link, which was solved by barrage!

After the seven games (in a pool system), PAOK, Aris and Sporting were tied for first place with 4 wins and 2 losses, followed by Olympiacos, AEK, Herakles and National Athens…

In the heat of August, PAOK ascended the throne for the first time in its history, while it had to wait another 33 years to taste the nectar of this triumph (1991-92).

On August 7th, PAOK defeated Sporting 59:56, the next day Aris defeated Sporting 66:58 and on the 9th of the month the final took place, in which PAOK prevailed against Aris 66:58 (after 60:57 in the first). phase) and made the victory lap.

“Summer and darkness with Kun’s candlesticks!”

This season, PAOK presented a team that dominated not only on the field but also on the board!

I mean on stage, because at the same time as the basketball championship games, Charles Kuhn’s troupe put on a show in the park’s adjacent theater.Summer and darkness” by Tennessee Williams.

This strange invention led to comically tragic scenes as the audience’s slogans and chants mixed with the actors’ dialogue, causing Koon to reach the brink of insanity and pull down candlesticks!

With this and that, PAOK gained the right to participate in the Champions Cup, but CCA Bucharest proved to be a very high hurdle that it could not overcome, after all, Romania had finished 5th two years earlier^The Place at the EuroBasket in Sofia.

Asteriadis: “We were ignorant back then”

“It was a very good team that already had experience of participating in the tournament. We were uneducated and inexperienced and couldn’t compete against them.” said to me a few hours ago the then player and later administrator of PAOK, but also of the national team, Stergios Asteriadis.

On this day, November 29, 1959, in the 1st round match that marked the international baptism of PAOK, at the ΕΑ stadiumNT, the Romanians won 80-61.

Here are the compositions of the two teams:

PAOK: Daponte, Theodoridis 7, Stalios 6, Oikonomou 18, Paschalis 1, Klagas 5, Angelidis 8, Kokkos 6, Konstantinidis 10, Asteriadis

CAA BUCHAREST: Folbert 14, Fador 16, Nedee 18, Ndelea 4, Giorgi 1, Techiban, Novacek 8, Niculescu 19

A week later they prevailed 79-60 in Bucharest to advance to the next round, while PAOK were left with the bitterness of their first appearance.

With Pantelakis on the bench!

On the Thessaloniki bench was not just anyone, but the former player, later administrator and emblematic president of the club, Giorgos Pantelakis!

Of the players who played in these two games, “Pyrgos” Giorgos Oikonomou, Stergios Asteriadis, Thanasis Paschalis and Kostas Kokkos are still alive, while Mimis Daponte, Orestis Angelides, the (later coach of PAOK, Aris and Herakles and president from EKASTH) Heraklios Klagas, Giorgos Theodoridis, Thanasis Stalios, Sotiris Konstantinidis and Giorgos Stergiou.

In the 64 years that have passed since then, a lot of water has flowed into the river and what PAOK did not achieve in its maiden period, it achieved later and even several times…

The titles, the finale and the… demons

His record includes two European championship titles (Cup Winners’ Cup in 1991, Korats Cup in 1994) and his participation in two further finals (Cup Winners’ Cup in 1992 and 1996), as well as a final four of the Champions Cup (3^The 1993) and in the semi-finals (1990 Cup Winners’ Cup).

In total, the Thessalonians have played 444 games in four different competitions over this 64-year period, with a record of 240 wins and 204 defeats.

The 29th^The November marks a historic anniversary, but it does not bring happiness to PAOK, who tonight will try to exorcise the demons that haunt them…

I write this because he counts the same number of defeats in four matches he played on this day in the European Cup: against CCA Bucharest with 80-61 in 1959, against Kalev Tallinn with an overwhelming 127-76 in 2005 ( when he competed with a youth team), by Khimki near Moscow with 71-62 in 2011 and by Dinamo Sassari with 82-78 in 2022.

The photos come from the album “The Protagonists: 90 Years of Football”, published in December 2016, edited by experienced national player and European champion Nikos Stavropoulos