Hapoel Jerusalem fans in a show of support for Malaga before the FIBA Champions League final (Photo: Yehuda Shohat, video editing: Nir Chen)
The final Premier League table will close tonight (Sunday, 18:30) when Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv meet for a derby whose importance cannot be overstated. The winner will win first place and home advantage, while the loser will likely face Hapoel Jerusalem in the play-off semi-finals. In fact, even exactly 60 years ago, the two Tel Avivians met in the last cycle, and then the meaning was even more critical: without differences, without calculations and without scenarios, the winner - the champion.
In 1963, no one in Israel knew there was such a thing as a playoff. The league was decided in the simplest way possible: two rounds between the National League teams, and the first ranked team at the end wins the title. In the first round of that season in Ossishkin, Hapoel proved a clear superiority by defeating Maccabi 36:60, in what is remembered as the Yellows' worst defeat to an Israeli team until 1992. In the 22nd and final round, the two reached a tie in the table, with 41 points each (20 wins against a single loss).
Seven consecutive points in the decisive minutes. Ralph Klein during his days as an actor (Photo: courtesy of the family)
Hapoel Tel Aviv came into the game with a kind of superiority over Maccabi, and not only because of the previous derby that season. The year before, in 1962, Maccabi had won the championship - but the Reds won two of their three direct meetings, including the cup final. In 1961 Hapoel won twice and was crowned champions, and in 1960 they shared victories - and the championship was red again.
But the Reds had a huge hurdle - and that was to beat Maccabi outside, on Maccabi Field, something it had not done before. The House of the Yellows was an impenetrable fortress, and was also considered a particularly bad pitch, so much so that even in the sports press of 1963 it was described as an "unsuitable facility".
Hapoel Tel Aviv was coached by Baruch Schlein, and its prominent players were Haim Hazan, Gershon Dekel, Ezri Luboshitz, Erez Lustig, Uri Gotthelf, Ilan Zeiger, Zvi Lubetzky and Rami Gut. Maccabi was coached by Yehoshua Rozin, and its prominent players were Ralph Klein, Tani Cohen Mintz, David Frisch, Sabi Ben Bassat, Moshe Golubei, Amnon Avidan, Avraham Hasid and Yitzhak Amar. The same Amar scored a historic basket for her that season, which was worth the club its first ever victory in Europe, in a match against Olimpija Ljubljana in the Champions Cup.
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The language of those days. From Maariv in 1963, ahead of the game (Photo: Image adaptation, Historical Jewish Press, JPRESS)
May 17, Maccabi Street in Tel Aviv. More than 1,000 spectators packed every corner of the field – whether in the wooden stands, standing wherever possible or behind the fence separating the field from the street. The place was so crowded that sometimes the crowd even penetrated the field in the corners and the referees Yitzhak Pistiner and Mordechai Nahari had to stop the game and ask the fans to go back.
The teams were under enormous tension, the facility and poor conditions did not help, and on the field a slow, confused and multi-missed game ensued. Maccabi did start at 1:10, but that was after a long time. Hapoel's first field goal came just 11 minutes later and cut it to 10-5. Maccabi's Blue Jays went up to 5:14 and then 7:19 near the break, and Hapoel managed to shrink to 19:11 going into halftime. "A result that even in women's basketball is no longer possible," wrote Yehoshua Kahane in Maariv.
The second half began without much change, with Maccabi already going up to 14:24, and here Hapoel finally broke free: 24:18, 26:22, and Rami Gut shrank to 26:24 with ten minutes remaining. The red crowd woke up. Lubetzky equalized at 26:26 and a fight ensued in the stands. Klein responded with two shots from the line to put Maccabi up 26-28, but seven minutes into the end his team suffered a huge blow: Cohen Mintz drew five fouls, Zeiger evened the score at 28:28 and the momentum went to the red side.
The derby that decided the championship in 1963 (Photo: Image processing, Historical Jewish Press, JPRESS)
Hapoel maintained pressure and Maccabi got into trouble, but Klein scored 28:30 and added another point from the line. It wasn't enough: He completed seven straight points for his team, a lot in terms of that low score, with 28:33 remaining. Lustig still shrank to 33:30, but Avidan increased it to 31:38. Zeiger cut it to 40:36, and Maccabi took a promising 38:42 lead in the final half minute.
The Reds tried to commit fouls in order to somehow pass the ball to them, but Maccabi gave up the penalty shots and put the ball in from the side - "freezing the ball" as they called it at the time. They barely passed their time, winning 38-42 en route to a second consecutive championship and seventh in their history, earning a ticket to next season's European Champions Cup. It was also the last official derby held at the old Maccabi Field.
For Maccabi Tel Aviv (47-16 from the field, 16-10 from the penalty): Ben Best 11, Klein 9, Cohen Mintz 8, Frisch 5, Hasid 4, Avidan 3, Golubey 2, Adelist did not score.
For Hapoel Tel Aviv (48-13 from the field, 20-12 from the penalty): Zeiger 10, Hazan 9, Lustig 8, Gut 5, Lubetzky 4, Gotthelf 2, Drizin and Rubinstein did not score.
- sport
- basketball
- League
Tags
- Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball
- Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball
