The American who changed Serbian basketball history: Who was Partizan’s Jimi Hendrix?

The first American ever to sign a contract with Partizan was Butch Taylor.

Serbian clubs only started “routinely” signing foreign players in the 21st century. From 1945 until the early 2000s, their rosters were almost entirely composed of players born in the former Yugoslavia.

Partizan reshaped Serbian basketball history in 1976 by making the landmark decision to sign Butch Taylor.

The legendary duo “Dalipagic – Kicanovic” propelled Partizan to the Yugoslav League title, securing securing qualification for the 1976/1977 European Champions Cup.

Head coach Ranko Zeravica had a dominant backcourt but lacked depth at the center position. To address this, the club decided to bring in 208-centimeter-tall Butch Taylor.

Born in 1951 in Greenville, Taylor began his basketball journey at Gulf State College and Jacksonville University.

His strong play earned him the 55th overall pick in the 1974 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, but he never made it to the NBA. Instead, he continued his career in Europe, starting with a brief stint in Trieste.

Because of the Yugoslav Basketball Federation’s rules prohibiting foreign players from competing in the national league, the American’s role at Partizan was to help the team achieve the best possible results in European competition.

Butch Taylor, better known to fans as “Baca,” arrived in Belgrade just days before the game against Czechoslovakia’s Zbrojovka. Partizan suffered a defeat at their European debut in Hala Sportova, and shortly after, another loss in Sofia against Akademik confirmed the end of the club’s European campaign.

Taylor scored just 13 points in two games wearing the black-and-white jersey before continuing his career in Italy.

,,Taylor, whose skills were never in doubt, was meant to get in sync with the team and adjust to our system before the start of the final group. We counted on making it through the qualifiers even without his major contribution, but we were mistaken,” said head coach Zeravica at the time.

Partizan wouldn’t sign another foreign player for 22 years, eventually bringing in Vlado Ilievski.

Interestingly, the first American to play in Yugoslavia was Douglas Richards, who, under the influence of Kresimir Cosic, joined Zadar in 1974.

That season, the Croatian powerhouse made an impressive run to the semifinals of the European Champions Cup, where their journey was halted by Real Madrid.