Oscar Furlong

Oscar Furlong

Furlong playing for Gimnasia y Esgrima de Villa del Parque.
Medal record Representing  Argentina Men’s Basketball FIBA World Cup Buenos Aires 1950 National team Universiade 1953 Dortmund National Team Pan American Games 1951 Buenos Aires National team 1955 Mexico City National team

Oscar Alberto Furlong (born October 22, 1927) is an Argentine retired basketball player and World Champion who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Furlong was one of Argentina's best basketball players ever and one of the most dominant international players of his era.

Nicknamed Pillín and El Primer Crack, he started playing basketball and tennis at the Gymnastics and Tennis Club of Villa del Parque. He would go on to concentrate in basketball in the youth divisions of Club Gimnasia y Esgrima de Villa del Parque. After his debut with the first team in 1944, he would go on to win 6 league titles (1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951 and 1954) in the now defunct amateur Argentine Basketball Federation.

In London 1948 after a continued dominance by the United States in the Olympics basketball competition, his 18 points while playing Center, helped the Argentina national basketball team stay within a basket of them during a 59-57 loss. After the game, the United States coach Omar Browning called him "one of the finest ball players I ever saw". The Argentina national basketball team finished fifteenth in the 1948 tournament after not being able to qualify to the eight-team second phase. Furlong would also receive and declined offers to play in the United States for the Minneapolis Lakers, the Baltimore Bullets and legendary coach Adolph Rupp of the University of Kentucky.