Encarna Hernández, the great basketball pioneer, dies

Encarna Hernández Ruiz was born in Llorca (Murcia) in 1917 and at the age of 10 he arrived in Barcelona with his parents and ten siblings. From the balcony of his house, on Carrer Entença, he saw some children playing in a field of sand and a wooden basket, and decided to join them. She started practicing basketball at the age of 13 in her neighborhood, in a field built by who would later be her husband, Emilio Planelles. Although his greatest repercussion in the media of the time was achieved with basketball, Encarna also practiced other sports such as cycling, skating and athletics.

In 1931 she was part of the foundation of Club Atlas, where she became the top scorer ahead of the men. Then she wore the colors of Laietà, the club with which she won the first Catalan women’s championship without losing a game (1936), Cottet and Moix Llambés. Before that, however, in 1932, she had already become the first coach in the country, at Peña Garcia in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. For many years he combined working life with sports. She ended up signing with Barça, the club where she stayed between 1944 and 1953, until she decided to retire to become a mother. Encarna got an international offer from the Italian SEU, which was unusual at the time, but he turned it down. In addition, he was also a referee.

The nickname of the hook girl was popularized due to the naturalness with which she executed this elegant move on the court that has accompanied her until the last day. An emotional documentary that can be recovered at Filmin, The girl on the hookreviews its trajectory.

La Federació Catalana (FCBQ), la Federació Espanyola i el Consell Superior d’Esports li van retre diferents homenatges. The Barcelona City Council awarded him the Gold Medal for Sports Merit “as a reference of an era in which sport was born in our country and a representative of a generation of pioneers who broke with what was politically established at that time and who, with the naturalness of his illusions, worked for equal opportunities in sport as a tool for social construction”.

According to the council, “Encarna Hernández had the leadership and courage to promote women’s sport at a time against the current in our country, without ceasing to fight to promote Spanish women’s basketball. She broke the barriers and social prejudices of the “time to promote women’s sport in a very complicated context. Her example has served for many subsequent generations and laid the foundations for gender equality in sport, especially in the field of basketball. Her figure has been a great reference for many contemporary players because she had the courage to promote women’s sports at a time when women had a secondary role in social and sports life, in addition to making a hole in the “elite of basketball and pave the way for all those who followed”.