Yekutieli and Brody Receive the 1978 Israel Prize for Sports

Two members of the World Maccabi Movement were selected yesterday to receive the 1978 Israel Prize for sports and the promotion of physical culture in Israel. They are Joseph Yekutieli, 81, who is credited with starting the Maccabiah sports events that became the quadrennial Jewish Olympic Games, and Tal Brody, 35, an American-born basketball star who settled in Israel in 1971. Dr. Israel Peled, chairman of the Maccabi World Executive, cabled congratulations to the two winners.

Yekutieli was born in Russia and came to Palestine in 1909 where he was instrumental in creating the framework for organized sports among Jewish youths. As early as 1927 he was arranging sports meets between the Jerusalem Maccabi Club and Egyptian athletes. He was one of the initiators of the Palestine Athletic Federation and the Palestine, later Israeli Olympic Committee. Now in his eighties, he has undertaken a project to make the town of Modi’in, birthplace of the Maccabees, into a world center for Jewish physical education and cultural activities.

Brody visited Israel for the first time in 1965 as a member of the American basketball team that competed in the Maccabiah Games. He visited Israel again the following year and played on the Tel Aviv Maccabi basketball team which reached the finals in the European Cup tournament. Brody spent the next five years in the U.S. during which he did military service and then returned to Israel to settle.

In 1977, he led the Maccabi team to the European basketball championship with victories over the Russian, Czech and several Western teams. No longer active as a player, Brody is devoting his time and energy to promote basketball among Israeli youths, especially in remote townships and villages. He teaches basketball weekly in Kiryat Shemona and Beth Shean.