From Gong Peishan’s running in the early stage of the League preparation, the Chinese College Basketball League was founded and held in 1998; To the support of the major High School League represented by Huaqiao University, CUBAL laid a good foundation; coaches represented by Guo Yongfeng and others have developed the league matches into remote areas of our country, realizing the popularization of the League matches; The strength of higher vocational colleges in the third-level league matches, it has promoted the continuous expansion of league scale and coverage. Through several representative ancestors, he told stories that were born and gradually expanded CUBAL25 years ago from different angles, and saw the spirit and inheritance of CUBAL League from them.
01 Gong Peishan: life began at the age of 70
In the 1980 s, college basketball in our country entered a period of rapid development. However, several hidden diseases are also bothering the vast number of basketball workers and enthusiasts, that is, the number of matches is small and the level of competition is not high enough. In order to ensure the results, many schools will invite professional team athletes to help, this makes the situation of college athletes more embarrassing. In addition, there is no league that really covers the whole country and can keep the attention of fans for a long time.
With the development of the times, the call for establishing a national league that truly belongs to college students is getting higher and higher. At the same time, college basketball is also eager to contribute its own strength to the cultivation of Chinese basketball talents.
This is the era background of the birth of Chinese college basketball league. It can be said that its birth pressed the fast forward key for the development of Chinese college basketball.
In 1996, Gong Peishan, an old predecessor of basketball referee in our country and former Party branch secretary of the Sports Department of Renmin University of China, was 67 years old, but he didn’t want to live up to this, because he has an unfinished wish-he has not witnessed the birth of an NCAA college basketball league. This wish has been installed in his heart for 13 years.
On June 6, 1996, more than 60 experts from sports, education and news systems represented by Gong Peishan held a symposium (namely, the “six-six Symposium”), formally discussing the feasibility of establishing Chinese College Basketball League (now it has been renamed CUBAL for short. In order to facilitate the narration, this article still calls it CUBA), everyone spoke enthusiastically and made suggestions one after another. Your mogul strength has strengthened the confidence of college basketball players.
After more than a year of intensive preparations, the CUBA organizing committee held an inaugural meeting in the Hong Kong Hall of the Great Hall of the people on November 28, 1997. On March 19 of the following year, CUBA held a grand opening ceremony in CCTV, and CUBA was officially born. The famous singer Liu Huan composed songs for CUBA and sang songs of CUBA in person, which rang from north to south.
The appearance of CUBA provides a brand-new idea for the development of Chinese basketball. At the same time, it also means that the development of college basketball has moved from spontaneous to conscious, which is a huge leap.
According to statistics, 617 teams from 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions participated in the first CUBA, and the total number of matches reached 2440. In Gansu, the college basketball scene, which had been silent for six years, resumed the battle; In Guizhou, the history of not organizing college basketball league in the past seven years ended from then on; CUBA’s influence even spread to the high school field, in Hangzhou, the number of high school basketball teams soared by dozens…… The spring of campus basketball is coming.
The 2nd CUBA scenario
The first CUBA is quite different from now. It takes the natural year as the unit of time, not the school year. It is divided into two major divisions: South and North, and the partition competition is held in the summer vacation. In addition, it is also divided into grade A and grade B, which is the CUBA we are familiar with now. From the beginning of its establishment, it has set up an iron rule that has been used up to now: professional athletes are resolutely not allowed to participate in the competition. While grade a allows professional athletes to participate, which is the essential difference between the two levels. However, only this session was held in the, B and South and North divisions. Since the second session, CUBA has established four divisions and built grass-roots competitions, partition competitions, the framework of the national competition.
CUBA has a clear vision and mission from the very beginning. Gong Peishan hopes that CUBA can return the right to receive higher education to athletes and the right to become athletes to college students. At the same time, he also put forward clearly “cultivating five kinds of people”, athletes, coaches, referees, event managers, organizers and fans. “It is not just a basketball league, it is a seeder.” Sun Baosheng, a good friend of Gong Peishan and a senior journalist of Beijing Evening News, said.
At the end of December 2005, the first CUBA top four and CBA Youth League top four matches started in Wuhan. What shocked the youth team was that CUBA team could win some victories in front of them. Since then, the professional team had to re-examine the strength of CUBA, and the two personnel training lines gradually moved closer. This phenomenon-level event objectively promoted the development of sports and education integration. Nowadays, the players who enter CBA through Chinese College Basketball League have also developed from the initial zero stars to an important part of today’s professional league. No matter the five-person basketball male women’s basketball or the three-person basketball male women’s basketball, there are no lack of players who represent the national team in the world.
In addition, Gong Peishan paid special attention to selecting judges from college PE teachers and even students. He devoted a lot of efforts to cultivate young referees. He personally supervised the referee’s exercise and resumption in the competition area, in the summer camp, referee training courses and registration examinations were held, which made CUBA emerge a group of young and excellent basketball referee talents. CUBA has developed from relying on CBA referees to delivering self-trained referees to CBA. So far, the two major leagues have achieved good talent exchange, this is the dimension of “integration of sports and education” that is extremely easy to be ignored.
In October 1984, Gong Peishan held a basketball referee lecture in Shaoguan.
After 24 years of development, CUBA now has three levels of league matches. The total number of teams exceeds 1,000, and its influence is still rising year by year. In the 24th league match just passed, from the June resumption to the eve of the finals, CUBA-related topics had more than 2.2 billion views (played) on the Internet and 43 views on the internet…… It is not only a basketball league, but also a cultural symbol, a large media event and a way of education.
02 Wu Chengye: the model of “educators running the competition”
After CUBA was founded, it has received strong support from many colleges and universities. Compared with professional league matches, “educator running” is a distinctive feature of CUBA.
In the 24-year history of CUBA, a total of 9 champion teams have been created, among which Huaqiao University is proud of the “nine crown Kings. Speaking of Huaqiao University, we have to mention Wu Chengye, a famous quantitative economist in China who once served as its president. The rise of Huaqiao University men’s basketball is inseparable from his attention and support.
CUBA is the League of college students, and competition and education are its two wings. Therefore, it has distinct characteristics of educators starting the competition from the date of its birth. In the era when the concept of “sports man” has not been put forward, educators represented by Wu Chengye have a keen insight into the powerful force contained in basketball as an educational method, and firmly put into action.
Wu Chengye was transferred to Huaqiao University in 1990 with abundant academic achievements. He was once rated as “top ten in China’s quantitative economics circle”, and the large and small scientific research projects and writings hosted and participated in were even numerous. During Wu Chengye’s tenure as president from 1999 to 2008, although the administrative affairs were busy, he never completely left the academic research behind. Compared with administration and academic, basketball is only a “sideline”. However, for this “sideline”, Wu Chengye never grudged his time and energy, because it is not only an experimental field for him to practice his educational philosophy, but also his spiritual back garden.
Wu Chengye watched the game live in CUBA.
In those ten years, Wu Chengye rarely missed the major competition of Huaqiao University men’s basketball. He wore a red T-shirt and the photos of the players holding gold rebounds, which was still talked about by fans. As the head of a school, just appearing at the edge of the field means a huge inclination, not to mention Wu Chengye also personally participated in the specific operation. The joining of famous coach Wang delii was the result of his personal lobbying in Taiyuan, Shanxi province-since then, Huaqiao University has started an unprecedented journey of “four consecutive championships.
On July 2, 2005, on the day that Huaqiao University won the third crown in young pioneer team history, a statue rose from the Lake in autumn on the campus of Huaqiao University. The 3-meter-high bronze statue was donated by the Hong Kong Alumni Association, depicting a men’s basketball-level athlete of Huaqiao University who was throwing the basket. One year later, at the 10th anniversary of the “six-six Symposium”, Wu Chengye revealed the answer: the prototype of this statue is the core of the school’s men’s basketball, known as “BLACK SWIRL-WIND” gugani. This surprised the 24-year-old gugani: “It was really a surprise. I am just a small role.”
Today, there are only a few figures and statues on the campus of Huaqiao University, such as Liao Chengzhi, Xu Dongliang and Chen Jiageng. Gugani is certainly a minor role compared with them, but this sport represented by him, however, it enjoys a lofty position in the minds of teachers and students of Huaqiao University. Gugani was obviously unable to match the ancestors alone, but the collective he represented could. This may be the reason why this statue has its original shape but is not named.
Basketball statue set up in Huaqiao University
Wu Chengye believes that universities should devote themselves to cultivating students with all-round development of “morality, intelligence, physique and beauty”, while sports is by no means just “physical”, on the contrary, its shaping power for students runs through the whole process of “morality, intelligence, physique and beauty. In his view, the style of a team and the level of unity and cooperation are “morality”; Playing basketball requires thinking, which is “wisdom”. With the blessing of “wisdom,” Body “can be as powerful as a tiger; The upright and graceful posture and exquisite technology of basketball players can also bring people aesthetic enjoyment, which is” beauty “.
In his view, every CUBA is held as a quality education course about collective honor, unity and cooperation, tenacious struggle and frustration response, which is beyond the reach of any classroom education. With the passage of time, this kind of education brought by sports will refresh students’ hearts and become a part of their personality and memory. Therefore, Wu Chengye always appealed to the students: “love sports, participate in sports and enjoy sports.”
Basketball not only brings great honor to this overseas Chinese school, which is located at the starting point of the “Maritime Silk Road”, but also provides it with emotional cohesion beyond time and geography. For many years, alumni have been generous in building teams, visiting teams and cleaning up the dust, and even many alumni have recruited students for the teams, xie Boze, the “Macao boy” who was once popular, was discovered by the Macao Alumni Association.
From another perspective, the rapid and high-quality development of Huaqiao University also promoted the improvement of the overall level of CUBA in the early stage. In Gong Peishan’s words, it was “dragon head with dragon body and dragon body with Dragon Tail”. It is with the benchmark of Huaqiao University that other schools are chasing after each other. In such a benign pursuit, CUBA has completed qualitative transformation, thus, the two talent training routes of occupation and campus are integrated. In the work book, Wu Chengye has a strong mark.
After Huaqiao University won the championship, Wu Chengye (first from the right) took a photo with the players with gold rebounds.
After retirement, Wu Chengye was still very concerned about the development of basketball in Huaqiao University. In the semi-final of 2011, Huaqiao University eliminated Tsinghua University at the third plus. He joked with the campus reporter when he was excited, if he can win the 7th championship, he is willing to “somersault from this side of the basketball court to the other side”. At that time, he was 63 years old.
03 Guo Yongfeng: a sound of “Guo dad” is beyond the sky
The distinct inclusiveness is another characteristic that CUBA is different from the professional league. It has almost no hardware access threshold, so you can see that both the rich southeast coast and the bitter northwest inland, whether the central Plains Province or the border province, are illuminated by the light of CUBA.
The “brand” of the school is hard or not, which is related to the quality of students and the ability of logistics support. However, you can always see grass-roots teams killed in mud on CUBA, with “famous university”, it is very dark. Women’s Basketball Chang Sheng’s teacher — Qinghai Normal University women’s basketball — is the representative of this kind of team. By 2019, they almost achieved the “Northwest Kings” (20 to 17), he also won the national runner-up twice and the third place……
Qinghai Normal University won the 19th CUBA Northwest Division championship women’s basketball, and Guo Yongfeng (center) took a photo with the players.
All this benefited from the efforts of former coach Guo Yongfeng to build the team. Guo Yongfeng, who is 66 years old now, is no longer a front-line coach, but he still has many basketball-related titles, such as the chairman of Qinghai Basketball Association and so on. However, he can best summarize his elegant demeanour, it belongs to Guo dad “. This is the title given to him by the women’s basketball team members of Qinghai Normal University. As soon as “Guo dad” was exported, the rough wind on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau seemed to come over the face, pulling people’s thoughts back to Xining, which was more than 2,000 meters above sea level.
In 1992, Guo Yongfeng from Shanxi became the head coach of Qinghai Normal University women’s basketball. Formidable natural conditions. The terrible hardware facilities-the earliest and even no Indoor Stadium, remote geographical location, are the “three mountains” on his head “, not to mention the brand that is not hard enough. How to deal with it? Guo Yongfeng’s strategy is just eight words: strict management and cordial care.
Women’s basketball of the team members, like ordinary students, also have to take part in cultural classes. Even so, they can still squeeze out 5 hours to train every day. At 5 o’clock in the morning, when other students were still sleeping with their heads covered, women’s basketball of the team members had already walked to the playground in the morning light. After running, they have to have ball training. Guo Yongfeng, who was a soldier, brought the ultimate pursuit of details into the culture of this team. As long as the basic movements failed to meet the requirements, he would also stare at the players and repeat them over and over again until he was satisfied.
On another invisible front, Guo Yongfeng’s wife Yang Suqin began to be busy almost when the team members arrived at the playground. She had a habit of making breakfast for the team members at least twice a week, because the time when the canteen was closed was just staggered with the time when the team members were under training, and she worried that the team members could not keep up with the nutrition. “I was very happy to see the children eating happily and happily. When I sent my expression package in the group, I was very happy and thought all the tiredness was worth it.” Yang Suqin said.
Guo Yongfeng presented awards to the winners of Qinghai Division
He was an unsmiling Yan teacher on the training ground, but he also quietly stuffed the traveling expenses into their backpacks when the players had no money to go home. Seeing the altitude sickness of the newly arrived team members, he would instruct his wife to cook some rhodiola for them. This is a typical Chinese-style relationship between coaches and athletes, teachers and students, and family members. Especially in CUBA, where players are generally around 20 years old, this phenomenon is particularly common. Coaches and couples go to battle, one with training and one with logistics, taking care of the players like taking care of their own children.
Naturally, the team members also fought against each other to report. In 2004, in a contest with Beijing Normal University, the current coach of the team, Yan Yan, was injured and fell to the ground. The game was at a critical juncture. On the one hand, there were disciples who suffered a lot of pain, and on the other hand, there were achievements that they had been thinking about. Guo Yongfeng was in a dilemma. He discussed with Yan Yan: “Son, don’t fight, don’t insist, forget this game.” However, she was rejected by Yan Yan. Afterwards, she explained, “I think it is worthwhile to do this for the team because of his usual efforts.”
Just imagine, how can such a team have no combat effectiveness?
In fact, under Guo Yongfeng’s careful management and care, Qinghai Normal University won the first trophy since the establishment of the team in just two years women’s basketball-the national cup of higher education. In 1998, in the first year of CUBA, they achieved the 5th place in the country and became the master of the Tiger and Wolf that the eastern Giants dare not ignore. Because of their excellent performance, they have the confidence to host CUBA partition matches. Therefore, teachers and students of Qinghai Normal University can enjoy high-level basketball matches and enjoy the baptism of sports culture with strength and beauty without School, this is a “by-product” led by Guo Yongfeng “.
Guo Yongfeng guided Qinghai Normal University women’s basketball site
“Development” is congenital deficiency, but Qinghai Normal University dares to grow up and compete with famous universities for sunshine and rain. This is the spirit of “grassroots” and Guo Yongfeng. Nowadays, Guo Yongfeng, who is close to Huajia, is still active in Qinghai basketball. His identity has changed and his face has become old, but his spirit is still full of energy for basketball and CUBA.
04 Liu Xiao: the pioneer of higher vocational basketball
CUBA has three different levels of league matches, the first level is the undergraduate high-level group, the second level is the undergraduate ordinary student group, and the third level is the higher vocational group. For the first-level league, the fans know better, and the second and third levels, especially the third level, are not necessarily. In fact, higher vocational basketball is also an important part of CUBA. Behind it, there are more than 1600 million senior students, and the total number is no less than that of undergraduates.
In the development process of higher vocational basketball, Changsha civil affairs Vocational and Technical College (hereinafter referred to as “Civil Affairs vocational college”) is a special existence, it not only actively undertakes the Chinese higher vocational college basketball championship (CCBA for short, the predecessor of CUBA Level 3 League) sponsored by the Chinese University Sports Association, but also its own basketball development is a good model.
The 6th CCBA opened in Changsha civil affairs Vocational and Technical College
In July 1994, Liu Xiao became the principal of the Civil Affairs vocational college. Since his childhood, Liu Xiao has been fond of basketball and has formed the habit of playing basketball twice a week for a long time-this habit has been persisted until now, even when going out for a meeting or studying, you should organize basketball activities to exercise in the local area, which is a real “basketball headmaster”. He realized the role of basketball in cultivating team cooperation consciousness and other aspects very early, and also saw students’ love for basketball. During his tenure as the principal of Civil Affairs vocational college, he not only had to pay close attention to school affairs, we also need to take time to take care of the development of basketball.
Under the command and deployment of Liu Xiao, the Civil Affairs vocational college has gradually built a multi-level competition system from class to school, from three to five people, and the campus basketball atmosphere is quite hot. During his tenure as president, he also built three high-standard basketball halls and several outdoor basketball courts. “I felt very happy when I saw all the students participating in sports and exercising on the basketball court. Creating an environment for students to exercise and making sports hobbies accompany them for life is the most correct thing I think I have done for students in basketball.”
In 2000, the civil affairs Vocational College was founded men’s basketball, and in 2004, it was founded Women’s basketball. In 2014, the two teams began to participate in CCBA, men’s basketball won six consecutive championships from 2014 to 2019, and women’s basketball achieved three successive championships from 2014 to 2016. In terms of higher vocational basketball, male women’s basketball in civil affairs Vocational College is a well-deserved master of the King.
Changsha civil affairs Vocational and Technical College won six consecutive championships, and Liu Xiao (center) took a group photo with the players.
The civil affairs Vocational College also attaches great importance to the training of basketball-related talents. The school will hold photography competitions, referee examinations, basketball baby competitions, event News evaluations, basketball DJ training and selection activities. Whenever undertaking major events, students in school will also be encouraged and organized to serve as volunteers to provide various services for the events and cultivate students’ sense of loving service. This is just in line with Liu Xiao’s school-running philosophy of “based on civil affairs and facing the society.
At the same time, they will also actively host various high-level events: in 2017, they will host the CUBA national top four, witness the first finals tour of Central South University in Young Pioneer Team history; In 2015, they will host the Asian championship, the “Night of Changsha”, which made China return to the top of Asia Men’s Basketball, became an eternal classic. At the same time, it also created a precedent for higher vocational colleges to host Intercontinental competitions. They also hosted CCBA National Finals twice, it has made great contributions to the early development and survival of this event.
This school has already brought the distinctive brand of basketball. In 2017, it was awarded the brand of “national higher vocational colleges sports work” one school, one product “Demonstration Base”. The selected project is basketball, which is for its active development of basketball, the best praise for cultivating basketball talents. Although Liu Xiao has retired at this time, the foundation was laid by him when he was in office. The current civil affairs vocational college is still advancing on the road he defined, and more and more students will benefit from it in the future.
In 2019, CCBA officially joined the CUBA family and became the second-level league of the latter, completing the leap from tournament to league. On CUBA, a mature platform, higher vocational basketball has been seen by more people and has achieved better development. When it merged with CUBA, CCBA was already a mature event with fixed participants and organizers. In the 22nd CUBA, the Sunshine Group was reorganized into a second-level league, and the higher vocational group has been adjusted into a third-level league so far.
Liu Xiao announced the opening of the second-level league finals of the 21st Chinese College Basketball League
It is the silent cultivation of Liu Xiao in a place where no one cares about it that the basketball dream of more than 1,600 million senior students in the country is no longer the “silent other” in the basketball world. In CUBA, they also have the right to grow and bloom.
On the other front, Liu Xiao also achieved remarkable results. In 2014, he led the establishment of Hunan University Basketball Association and served as its president. Its purpose was to concentrate advantageous resources and make Hunan University basketball bigger, stronger and better.
In order to improve the popularity of basketball in Hunan colleges and universities, Liu Xiao often took advantage of the opportunity of giving lectures in various schools to pull the school leaders to talk about the positive significance of basketball in physical fitness, education, etc, be a volunteer propagandist of basketball. Over the years, the total number of teams participating in the grassroots competition in Hunan province has increased from more than 30 to more than 80 (women’s basketball men are counted together). This change is certainly not the credit of Liu Xiao alone, but it embodies his painstaking efforts.
In 2016, Liu Xiao officially retired. He divided the time into two parts, one part of which was given to the care work of war veterans and the other part was given to basketball. He is old, but his brain speed is no slower than that of young people, and he is particularly sensitive to new ideas and new things.
Under his leadership, Hunan Provincial grass-roots games began to promote the main and away game system very early; In 2018, they launched the referee management system, randomly selecting referees to further ensure the fairness and justice of the game; they also divided the three-level league into two groups: A and B, aiming to encourage those disadvantaged schools with poor foundations to actively participate and implement inclusive benefits to the end……
However, Liu Xiao was still not satisfied. He imagined that all Hunan colleges and universities would have a basketball hall in the future, and every school would have to build male and women’s basketball teams. The most important thing was to mobilize extensively, let them all participate in CUBA’s competitions at all levels. This is the 72-year-old who will focus on his strength next.