On July 7, the Nautico open-air basketball court turned 69 years since its inauguration in 1951. It was José “Pepe” Geoghegan and Enrique “Kiko” Keller who fought inside the club to build it when it was still only possible in the entity. To practice water sports.
After convincing the Board of Directors, their main obstacle was the lack of money because the authorities at the time assured them that “there was no money,” recalled Geoghegan, who died in 2011 at age 80, in an interview he gave to La Opinion in 2007.
To start the work, it was necessary to draw a detailed plan of the project with which “Pepe” kept with him and his relatives shared it with La Opinion. In it, it is clearly appreciated how the game rectangle was drawn with the main building on one side and Avenida España on the other.
“In that place there was a very well-kept garden with benches to sit on that were removed. They fought a lot against tennis because there was a court where they are currently and it seemed that basketball was going to bring trouble for the public, so they did not want basketball. At first there was nothing, then some plants were put in, ”he recounted in a talk with La Opinion Keller on the 69th anniversary of the presentation of the beach.
Once armed, it lacked artificial lighting that was not in that plane because it was not a priority. The pioneers cared for him to have it and they succeeded. Knowing that there were columns at the Depietri station, an uncle of José’s surname Hernández asked for them and the enthusiasts went to look for them in a Hugo Mantovani truck.
The inauguration of the “beautiful field built of mosaics” was, according to a publication of the newspaper El Independiente that the Náutico press replied, “on a Saturday at 2:00 p.m. with three matches of an internal championship in which seven teams made up of partners participated” .
José Geoghegan was born in Santa Lucía and moved to San Pedro, for study reasons, in 1946. He immediately became a member of Celeste and five years later he started basketball at that institution in the playing field that, on the banks of the Paraná River , became one of the iconic and untouchable scenes of the city full of historical moments and events.
“Kiko’s first contact with basketball was not at Náutico but where the Retirees Club operates today on Salta street where there was a brick dust court and he played in Boy Scout. When he could no longer go to that place, he passed through Miter a handful of games until he ended up at the riverside club with “Pepe” Geoghegan, with whom he led the initiative to build the first field, which also meant the beginning of the sport in that institution.
