Aydan Siyavuş

Aydan Siyavuş — Biography

Aydan Siyavuş holds the title of the most successful head coach in the Turkish Basketball Super League, with seven championships, a record that stood unbroken for many years. He won six of them with Eczacıbaşı and one with Efes Pilsen, and died at 50 while coaching Galatasaray, after a match that ended in a win.

He began in basketball at Kadıköyspor but gave up playing at 17 and turned to coaching. While studying electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University he coached the university's youth team, led it to the Turkish youth championship and then left engineering in his third year. In a professional career that began at Beşiktaş he took second-division Kadıköyspor and Karşıyaka up to the top league. At Eczacıbaşı, where he arrived in 1975-76, he won a three-peat with 1976-77 and 1977-78 and a second one from 1979-80 to 1981-82. He left Fenerbahçe after a short stay for Efes Pilsen and reached his seventh title in 1983-84. In later years he coached Beşiktaş, Karşıyaka, Çukurova and Galatasaray, winning the Turkish Cup with Galatasaray in 1994-95. Health problems made him pause in 1996-97, when he was technical coordinator at Darüşşafaka, and he returned to Galatasaray in 1997-98.

He also served the national teams: in 1976 he made the under-21 side Balkan champions, and in 1981 the senior national team. Siyavuş came from a noble family; his father was a Galatasaray executive and Kadıköyspor president. He was married and the father of two daughters, and was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.