The first American player in the Belgian basketball league

In 1960, Jules Bastil, the Athlon President, inaugurated the 'Bernard Steverlynck ground' in the Kruisstraat. In the 1960-61 season, following the merger between BBC and Athlon, the basketball team started under the name BBC Athlon Ieper for the first time. Athlon Ieper was originally founded as an athletics club, hence the name Athlon ('athl' from athletics and 'lon' from Picanol). Following the laying of the first stone of the new indoor sports hall, the team organized a basketball festival at the end of 1961. On 11 November, there followed the official inauguration of the 'Bernard Steverlynck sports hall', named after Bernard Steverlynck, the founder and honorary chairman. From then onwards, the basketball team played their home games at an indoor court in the Kruisstraat. The fact that BBC Athlon Ieper had a large appeal was reflected in the interest of foreign players to play for the team. In 1963, Rex Hughes, the first American player in the Belgian league, joined the team. Hughes came over from the NCAA West (Los Angeles) university team where he had won the championship. At a height of 1.94m and with a deadly jump shot, he was an outstanding defender who excelled in rebounds. On 4 September 1963, he joined the PR department and the basketball team. He was also immediately appointed as youth coach. In addition, in 1963, BBC Athlon was the first team in Belgium, and maybe even Europe, that possessed the latest American novelty in the field of sports and basketball training: the automatic Mc Call Rebounder. This device helped to quickly improve the rebound technique of players.