Ülkerspor

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Ülkerspor is the former name of basketball team Alpella, which is sponsored by the Ülker group. The team was founded in 1975 and used this name -Ülkerspor- for 30 years until 2006. There isn't a club named Ülkerspor now.

[edit] Fenerbahçe Ülker

Main article: Fenerbahçe Ülker

In 2006 Ülker group made a deal with another Turkish club Fenerbahçe S.K., and gave their name to the club and became Fenerbahçe Ülker. However, because of that two clubs can not have very similar names, Ülkerspor decided to change its name to Alpella.

[edit] History

Ülkerspor had been founded in 1975 but its basketball department was created in 1993 by buying a Turkish League spot from Nasaşspor. It won Turkish League titles in 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2006 with greats including Harun Erdenay, İbrahim Kutluay, Michael Anderson, Orhun Ene, Kevin Rankin and more recently, Mirsad Türkcan and Serkan Erdoğan. Ülkerspor made the Top 16 for five consecutive seasons between 2002 and 2006, beating all the best European teams in the process and showing it was an important team in the competition. Ülkerspor had its best finish when surviving a tough Top 16 group to make the 2005 Euroleague Quarterfinal Playoffs, where it lost against CSKA Moscow. Ülkerspor also won five Turkish President's Cup and three Turkish Cup titles between 2001 and 2005. Things got serious again in the 2005-06 season, as Ülkerspor conquered its fourth Turkish League title before merging with Fenerbahçe.