„We swept through the streets of Kaunas like a hurricane.“
On the afternoon of April 23, 1922, a crowd of several thousand people gathered in Kaunas Town Hall Square. The occasion was not a happy one. It was a protest against the incorporation of Vilnius region into Poland. The event reflected one side of this twofold period in Lithuanian history, when the optimism of creating an independent state mixed with the difficulties brought by geopolitical realities. On the other side of the city, another event began a few hours later, reflecting that other, brighter, part of the times. This event was much more modest in terms of the number of spectators, but we would probably not be mistaken in saying that it marked a moment of similar significance to the country’s history. When the clock struck three, the whistle announced the beginning of the first official basketball game in Lithuania. One team had a player who embodied both sides of the era. A participant in Lithuanian Wars of Independence, who became a significant promoter of other, peaceful struggles. It was Steponas Darius, a man who left a prominent mark on the early development of sports in the country.
When Darius was a child, his family exchanged the hills of Samogitia and the harsh realities of the Tsarist period for the search of new opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic. Almost a dozen years later, after hearing about the independence declared in his homeland, the future aviator, who was already 24 years old, decided to return and help Lithuania develop. Along with the luggage, he brought a few more things: the experience of a World War I veteran, the endless desire to fly, and a huge passion for sports. As soon as he returned, in 1920, he joined the Lithuanian army and took part in the independence battles against the Polish forces. He soon graduated from military school, and a year later realized his pre-war dream of flying. And he did it as part of our then still young military aviation. As an officer Steponas Darius took part in at least several events important for our state: Klaipėda uprising and in n the somewhat more controversial coup of 1926 (his participation in the latter was of a more symbolic nature).
Darius was a pioneer in both military and civilian life, especially in the development of sports culture. Sport in Lithuania at that time was still taking its first steps. It is worth remembering that aviation was also seen primarily as a sport at that time. It is said that Darius was surprised that we first had a military aviation and only later a concept of it as a sport or a civilian phenomenon started to develop. In the army, Darius popularized various sports that he had tried out on the other side of the Atlantic. Some had already been introduced in Lithuania and others were new to the country. He was even more involved in this on a civilian level. Joining the Lithuanian Physical Education Association, which was in an early stage of its development but eventually became the most influential sports organization of the time, he soon became one of the most active members and later (1922–1927) a chairman. In 1922, after the establishment of the highest sports institution – the Lithuanian Sports League – he also became a member of its board committee.
He has published basketball and baseball rules in the association’s publications and, subsequently, in separate publications. Darius was especially enthusiastic about the prospects of baseball in Lithuania. In 1922, in the introduction to the rules of the game he wrote about the suitability of “this American national sport” for our country, “as a sport which not only grows muscles but also helps to develop quick thinking, determination and perseverance.” Anyone could try the game in the Lithuanian Physical Education Association’s courts in Vytautas Park. Vytautas Hill, as the place of the headquarters, became a kind of a birthplace of Lithuanian sports, which later moved a tad to the north, towards Ąžuolynas. The Lithuanian Physical Education Association provided education not only through press or live matches but also organized courses where Darius taught rhythmic gymnastics, boxing, baseball and basketball.
At the time, he could be found everywhere, both as a player and as an organizer. Although in various competitions he often represented the aviation team rather than the Lithuanian Physical Education Association. In the same year of 1922, Steponas Darius participated in the first basketball and the first hockey competitions, he was one of the founders of the newly formed Lithuanian yacht club and organized the first Lithuanian baseball championship. And yet perhaps the most important thing for Darius personally was October of that same year when he flew over the valleys of Kaunas with the plane for the first time.
Darius did not take part in the first international football match where the team of the Lithuanian Physical Education Association met with Riga YMCA at the site of the future stadium, but it was he who welcomed the guests at the station as a representative of the Lithuanian Sports League. Later, however, he distinguished himself in football. Next year he participated in the first international match of the national team with Estonia as a goalkeeper. Darius was supposed to stand at the gate at the first Lithuanian Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, but for unknown reasons that did not happen. Lithuania often did poorly in the international matches and even though the audience, like today, expressed their frustration, athletes did not get upset about it. Steponas Darius did not take it to heart, often emphasizing the importance of sport as an educational tool and an alternative to harmful activities.
There were more of such first times that Steponas Darius directly contributed to. The first boxing tournament in Kaunas took place in 1923 and in 1926 a hockey championship. In 1924, after sitting down with Kęstutis Bulota, a comrade-in-arms of the Klaipėda uprising and an equally important person for sport in Lithuania (especially hockey), he prepared the project of the first multifunctional city stadium. Although at that time the decision to develop such infrastructure in Ąžuolynas was somewhat controversial, there were no other places so close to the city center, and the conditions for communication with the suburbs were still very difficult at that time. In this way, sport became accessible to many, and in the long run, this solution paved the way for the further development of the nucleus of country’s sports.
In addition to aviation, Darius was also an enthusiast of another “modern” sport. A huge fan of motorcycles, he also contributed to the organization of the first motorcycling events in the country. Like other sports, he promoted motorcycles among his colleagues. It is worth remembering that, according to historians and contemporaries, Darius’ career as an aviator was somewhat complicated by conflicts with old-fashioned leaders. Colleague, military pilot Leonardas Peseckas in his memoirs later described a picturesque incident when Darius was wrongly arrested for thirty days after one conflict with the leadership, “Every day we rode demonstratively on motorcycles to visit him. The squad of motorcyclists was large because almost all aviators, through Darius, had purchased American-made motorcycles. We swept through the streets of Kaunas like a hurricane. As we drove through the head office, we made such a terrible noise that it made the windows of the headquarters tremble.”
Perhaps disagreements with the superiors were one of the reasons that led Darius to return to the United States in 1927. A visit that was planned to last a year, lasted longer. In addition, although the “sports epidemic” did not go away, sports in Lithuania at that time still did not receive proper government attention. While working as a civilian pilot in the US, Steponas Darius also mediated in the acquisition of various equipment by the Lithuanian military and constantly communicated with the remaining sports enthusiasts in the country. He had promised to return to Lithuania by plane and he had not forgotten this promise.
