https://www.si.com/college/cal/basketball/cal-all-foreign-starting-five

I like this because, at the end of the article, it's got the whole list of all of our foreign players, even one-year wonders like my man "Finland", the late Kari Kulonen, #12.

Richard Chang is a SVP for Costco and oversees their Asia division from Taiwan.

I'm not giving up on Dimitrios Klonaras.


GO BEARS!!!!

bearup said:

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I'm not giving up on Dimitrios Klonaras.


GO BEARS!!!!

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His stats are not bad, albeit on very few minutes.

Ah, Hartmut Ortmann…

The loss of Max was heartbreaking.

drizzlybear said:

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Ah, Hartmut Ortmann…

The loss of Max was heartbreaking.

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+1000

"Hartmut" is a winner of a first name
Hartmut Ortmann (second.wiki)


GO BEARS!!!!

calumnus said:

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bearup said:

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I'm not giving up on Dimitrios Klonaras.


GO BEARS!!!!

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His stats are not bad, albeit on very few minutes.

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He has a nose for loose balls, and dives onto the floor to get them. I like his effort.

bearup said:

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I have to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite Bears

Markhuri Sanders-Frison

sounds slightly British to me, but.....

GO BEARS!!!!

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I think he was second in command to Captain James Cook on his journey to the Hawaiian Islands.

KoreAmBear said:

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bearup said:

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I have to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite Bears

Markhuri Sanders-Frison

sounds slightly British to me, but.....

GO BEARS!!!!

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I think he was second in command to Captain James Cook on his journey to the Hawaiian Islands.

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+1000

Thanks!
I just knew there was something to this..........

GO BEARS!!!!

bearup said:

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I have to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite Bears

Markhuri Sanders-Frison

sounds slightly British to me, but.....

GO BEARS!!!!

---

HoopDreams said:

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bearup said:

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I have to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite Bears

Markhuri Sanders-Frison

sounds slightly British to me, but.....

GO BEARS!!!!

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HoopDreams said:

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bearup said:

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I have to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite Bears

Markhuri Sanders-Frison

sounds slightly British to me, but.....

GO BEARS!!!!

---

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+10000000000000000

I dug up more information on these foreign-born players who played for Cal:

Kari Kulonen, a 6-11 Center from Finland, who played 7 games for Cal in the 1984-5 season. Before caming to Cal, he played in the 17 and under European Championships and was named either the All Star or to the All Star team, along with Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, and Christian Welp. He played professionally in Europe for Finland, but died tragically in an auto accident at age 26.

Saulius Kuzminskas, a 6-11 center from Lithuania, played 14 games for Cal in 2001. After that, he played for several years in Europe in the Lithuanian League, and in France and in Slovenia, and dominated the Polish League, before returning to play in Lithuania.

SFCityBear said:

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I dug up more information on these foreign-born players who played for Cal:

Kari Kulonen, a 6-11 Center from Finland, who played 7 games for Cal in the 1984-5 season. Before caming to Cal, he played in the 17 and under European Championships and was named either the All Star or to the All Star team, along with Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, and Christian Welp. He played professionally in Europe for Finland, but died tragically in an auto accident at age 26.

Saulius Kuzminskas, a 6-11 center from Lithuania, played 14 games for Cal in 2001. After that, he played for several years in Europe in the Lithuanian League, and in France and in Slovenia, and dominated the Polish League, before returning to play in Lithuania.

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Kari Kulonen, #12, was actually a 6-5 guard. He was sort of a poor man's Pete Maravich. Okay, very poor, but you get the idea. The reason I know this (his height and position) without a doubt is that I was there that year and I actually had some beer and pizza with him at Anar Kali's Pizza and Indian Food on Bancroft (the former Pizza Haven), before it got shut down for serving beer to people the age of Kari Kulonen.

Kuchen would only put him in for garbage time and he would usually try something that looked like it came straight from the Harlem Globetrotters, which might be the reason he went back to Finland after only one year. I was disappointed because I thought, if he applied himself, he might liven the place up a bit.

I remember the crowd at Hartmon would get very excited the few times he was allowed to play.

We loved "The Flying Finn".

Yes, we certainly did. Great times!

Stu and sonofabear51, it sounds like you actually remember the season that Kari Kulonen played, so I'm wondering if you might remember his most amazing (for lack of a better word) trick...

It was probably late in a game (because that was when he played)... south basket... he had the ball on the left side, not far from the home bench. He dribbles towards the basket, then pounded the ball to the floor... and then left it there on the floor (talkin' about the ball) motionless, as he continued on towards the basket. I thought what was supposed to happen was that another teammate was supposed to pick up the ball and easily score. It was kind of like a combination "hidden ball trick" and "fumblerooski". Needless to say, nobody picked it up and Kuchen yanked him.

Do you happen to remember that one? It's kind of etched in my mind...

I probably didn't see that one because I would have remembered it. I do remember some, shall we say spectacular, ball handling and a few flying dunks.

Big C said:

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SFCityBear said:

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I dug up more information on these foreign-born players who played for Cal:

Kari Kulonen, a 6-11 Center from Finland, who played 7 games for Cal in the 1984-5 season. Before caming to Cal, he played in the 17 and under European Championships and was named either the All Star or to the All Star team, along with Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, and Christian Welp. He played professionally in Europe for Finland, but died tragically in an auto accident at age 26.

Saulius Kuzminskas, a 6-11 center from Lithuania, played 14 games for Cal in 2001. After that, he played for several years in Europe in the Lithuanian League, and in France and in Slovenia, and dominated the Polish League, before returning to play in Lithuania.

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Kari Kulonen, #12, was actually a 6-5 guard. He was sort of a poor man's Pete Maravich. Okay, very poor, but you get the idea. The reason I know this (his height and position) without a doubt is that I was there that year and I actually had some beer and pizza with him at Anar Kali's Pizza and Indian Food on Bancroft (the former Pizza Haven), before it got shut down for serving beer to people the age of Kari Kulonen.

Kuchen would only put him in for garbage time and he would usually try something that looked like it came straight from the Harlem Globetrotters, which might be the reason he went back to Finland after only one year. I was disappointed because I thought, if he applied himself, he might liven the place up a bit.

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I don't know where I got the "6-11 center". I must have confused him with Kuzminskas. According to a Finnish Wikipedia article, he was 6 foot 5.5 inches tall. Here is a google translation of the article which you all may find interesting, with Google playing fast and loose with the translating of Finnish to English. I bolded the phrases I found to be cute and funny. I'm sorry I never got to see either of these players at Cal.

"Kulonen was very consequent to his breeder's club Forssa Koripoj, where he played in the men's Finnish Championship and even in the I division, where he was almost superior according to the interviews. At the end of his career, Kulonen also played for one season at HoNsU, and for the last half of the season he represented Koriha. In the 19871988 season, Kulonen played in the regular season in FoKoPo with a match average of 26.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.6 exploits and 0.5 basket throws. He was the second most accurate three-point thrower in the entire season during the same period, averaging 48.0 percent.

Kulonen practiced a lot and often sought difficult and spectacular solutions while on the field. He was very American in nature and listened to an exceptional amount of rap music during his time, among other things. He also went on to play for one season in the United States, but the year failed, and adversity on the University of California (Berkeley) team made his mind more real.

According to FoKoPo's Markku Molenius and Forsko's basketball icon Pentti Gustafsson, among others, despite his relatively modest company, Kulonen was the best Forsko-based basketball player in history, a top European player and comparable in skills to today's top players. According to Petri Niiranen, Kulonen was the best player he played with. Kulonen's little brother Timo Kulonen played hockey. According to his peers, Timo had more potential for basketball and Kari for hockey.

National team In 19821989, Kulonen played 51 matches in the Finnish men's national team. He scored 322 points with an average of 6.3. In the European Championships for under-17s in 1981, Kulonen was one of the most important players on the Finnish team, when the national team advanced all the way to the bronze medal match, where it lost to Germany. The historic tournament is still Finland's highest ranking in basketball, taking into account all age groups and both sexes. Kulonen was selected for the star of the tournament with Draen Petrovi, Arvydas Sabonis and Christian Welp, among others. Kulonen, with a length of 197 cm in length, also won the European Championship's record-breaking kingdom over two-meter basketball players.

In the autumn of 1990, Kulonen was unable to play due to a rupture of the Achilles tendon, but he recovered well and was returning to play for the spring season. Kulonen died in the middle of his career, at the age of 26, in a car accident on December 20, 1990. He had left for lunch and picked up his female friend when he arrived in his car at the only traffic lights in Uusikaupunki that were out of use on the day of the event. Kulonen's car came from behind the top triangle when the truck collided with his car, and Kulonen, who was not wearing a seat belt, flew out of his car directly under the truck. His girlfriend, who wore a seat belt, survived the accident with minor physical injuries."

Thank you SFCityBear, that was some information about Kari Kulonen that I had not heard. And, yes, typical "Google Translate", although it could've also been done by a Finnish person who thought they knew English.

Sad details about his fatal car crash. I had first heard of his passing about ten years ago. Always very tragic when someone of that age dies. Way too early. That guy had some flash on the basketball court!

I didn't see that one either, I would have definitely remembered it!