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PLAYERS ON VOLLEYBALL STAMPS

added on August 16th, 2006 (this article first appeared in the printed version of PHILAVOLLEY, Vol 1, # 2, August 1999)

by Piet van den Berg, Holland

In the first issue of PHILAVOLLEY Günter Pilz wrote about volleyball philately not taken seriously, after he had looked at many different stamps [see article 002 in this online magazine]
This article is based on the same look at stamps, but not with regard to the game itself but to well-known players in international Volleyball.

If you can add any stamps to this overview, please contact Gunter, clicking here:

CHINA, PR # 007
The most valuable player of China, Lang Ping, is pictured with the World Cup in 1981.
China won the Cup without loosing a match. Lang Ping played from 1979 till 1986 in the national team. From 1995 onwards she is the headcoach of the women’s team of China.

DOMINICA # 002
The spiker on the stamp is Karch Kiraly from the gold medal team in Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996 (Beach-volleyball). The only player in the world who won three gold Olympic medals.
Who knows the blockers ? The right one on the stamp looks like Dimitri Fomin from USSR.

GAMBIA # 003
The match is USA versus Brazil as the stamp tells. The players from the USA are Steve Timmons and Karch Kiraly the most valuable players from the USA dream team in 1984 and 1988.
I am not so sure that the opponent of USA is Brazil as the colours of the Brazilian national team are not yellow and black (or blue), but yellow and green.

GRENADA # 003a
The stamp shows the USA spiker Flo Hyman, member of the silver team of Los Angeles 1984. She died on January 24,1986 during a match with her Japanese club team in Matsue (Japan).
As to information on the stamp the spiker is Zhang Rongfang (her real name) from China.
Perhaps it is a picture of the final in Los Angeles.

GRENADINES OF GRENADA # 001
The stamp shows a picture of the match USA – HOLLAND in Seoul on 1988-09-19. The Dutch attacker is Jan Posthuma. He won a silver medal in Barcelona 1992 and a gold medal as well in Atlanta 1996. The blocking players are Steve Timmons (# 6) and Craig Buck (# 7). Both players won two gold medals: Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988.

GRENADINES OF SAINT VINCENT # 001a
The stamp shows also a picture of the match USA – HOLLAND in Seoul on 1988-09-19.
The attacker is Craig Buck from the USA. The Dutch blockers are Jan Posthuma and Rob Grabert (15). Rob Grabert won a gold medal in Atlanta.

GUYANA # 002a
The stamp is a close up from Karch Kiraly.

NETHERLANDS # 001a
The most valuable player from Holland, who decided in 1988 after the fifth place in Seoul to go for an Olympic Medal in stead of the big money in Italy: RON ZWERVER. He won a silver medal (Barcelona 1992) and a gold medal (Atlanta 1996). The stamp is issued on 1992-02-04 and the blocker of the other team has the colours of Brazil, which was the opponent of Holland in the final on 1992-08-09. So The Dutch Postal Service seems to know a lot about volleyball.

NICARAGUA # 002a
The stamp shows USA setter Debbie Green. Her block performance is bad as you can see but she was only 1,65 m. The ball has already reached his highest point and she still is below.
She was member of the silver Los Angeles team. Her opponent is unknown to me.

TANZANIA # 005
This picture is an old one as the players of USSR do not have a number on the front side of their shirt.
Who knows them?

UGANDA # 002
The players from the USA are from left to right: Jeff Stork, Craig Buck and Doug Partie. The player from USSR (or CCCP) is Raymond Vilde. It is a picture from the final in Seoul 1988.
 

LIBERIA # 001a & TOGO # 002a
Who knows the Chinese player on these stamps ?
 

ARGENTINA # 004 - 007
Argentina issued a set of four stamps, each of them depicting some of the players taking part in the 2002 World Championships held in that country:

004: Hugo Conte, Gustavo Proporatto, Jorge Elgueta, Pablo Meana & Marcos Milinkovich (Argentinian players).
005: Marcos Milinkovich (Argentinian player), Block: Adriano Paco (Portuguese player).
006: Gustavo Proporatto & Jorge Elgueta (Argentinian players).
007: Jeronimo Bidegain & Hugo Conte or Gustavo Proporatto (Argentinian players), Nalbert Bitencourt (Brazilian player).

AUSTRIA # 001 & 002
These officially issued personalized stamps show the 2003 European Beach Volleyball champions Clemens Doppler and Nik Berger from Austria.
Stamp 001 was printed in sheetlets of 20 stamps with the same design, stamp 002 was printed in sheetlets of 20 together with 19 other sports topics.

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