Altan Dinçer

Altan Dinçer — Biography

Altan Dinçer was a Turkish international basketball player and coach, born in Istanbul in 1932, who died in the same city on 12 January 2010 at the age of 77. He began playing basketball with Vefa in 1948 and, having made his name as a prolific scorer, moved to Fenerbahçe in 1953. He was part of the Fenerbahçe side that beat rivals Galatasaray 71-61 on 27 March 1954, ending Galatasaray's long unbeaten run, and he topped the scoring charts in the Istanbul Basketball League for three straight seasons (1954-55, 1955-56 and 1956-57) as his club won Istanbul titles and, in 1957, its first-ever Turkish championship. He later joined Modaspor in 1958 and helped the club to the 1958-59 Istanbul title.

Capped 64 times for Turkey, 14 of them as captain, Dinçer represented his country at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and at the 1955, 1957 and 1961 European Basketball Championships, and he was also a member of the Turkish armed forces team that finished runner-up to the United States at the 1955 Military World Basketball Championship. After retiring as a player, he coached Fenerbahçe's basketball team across two spells, from 1965 to 1968 and from 1972 to 1974, winning an Istanbul League and a Turkish Cup title.

Dinçer also served the national team in an administrative capacity, and after Turgay Demirel was elected president of the Turkish Basketball Federation in 1992 he headed both the Central Referee Committee and the Disciplinary Committee, contributing to the reorganisation of refereeing and disciplinary structures. He is buried at Karacaahmet Cemetery in Istanbul.