lifts the
FIBA European Champions Cup trophy after defeating
CSKA Moscow in the final at
Sarajevo's
Skenderija on 4 April 1970—the first of the club's five European titles during the 1970s. Basketball was introduced in
Varese in 1945, with the creation of the historical club, Pallacanestro Varese. The first sponsors were introduced 8 years later in 1954, including Storm and Ignis, followed by Emerson, Turisanda,
Cagiva, Star, Ciaocrem, Divarese, Ranger, Metis,
Whirlpool, and the most recent, Cimberio. Varese is also famous due to the lack of its having a main sponsor in the mid-1990s (something unusual in the Italian basketball league), and the choice of its franchise name, the Varese Roosters. Since their creation, Pallancanestro Varese has won 10
Italian first-tier level LBA titles, in the years 1961, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, and their last Italian League title, won 21 years after the previous title, in 1999. With 10 titles, Pallacanestro Varese is the third most winning team ever in the Italian League, after
Olimpia Milano and
Virtus Bologna. As it is shown by its roll of honors, Varese was extremely competitive in the 1970s, when the club played in the
European-wide first-tier level FIBA European Champions Cup (now called
EuroLeague), and played
in ten finals in a row, winning 5 of them, in the years 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1976. Between 1956 and 1975, the club was named
Ignis Varese. What was the club's golden age had begun some years before, as Varese conquered the
FIBA Intercontinental Cup in
1966, and repeated the same title 4 and 7 years later, in the middle of the club's greatest decade in
1970 and
1973. Varese accomplished the great feat of winning the
Triple Crown, winning all the trophies available in 1973, with the legendary Professor
Aca Nikolić as the team's
head coach. Varese also won two championships of the European-wide first-tier level
FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup, in 1967 and 1980, and four
Italian Cups, in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1973. Varese's great age ended in the early nineties, when the team dropped down to the
Italian second division. Soon, the club took its revenge, coming up once again to the Italian top-tier level league, and after 5 years time became the real team to watch in the Italian League's playoffs, as it succeeded in winning its historical 10th Italian League title in 1999, with
Carlo Recalcati (who later coached the
Italian national team), leading the way as the club's head coach. Varese has never repeated that triumph so far, but that success is still remembered to this day. Varese has been trying to return to the top of the Italian League and European-wide competitions in the years since. ==Players==