Architect Konstantin Hristov Totev

[RedMaestro2]

This cased and documented Order of the Red Banner of Labor to "architect" Konstantin Hristov Totev has been sitting in my collection for a while (last posted here when I couldn't read cyrillic: http://soviet-awards.com/forum/sovie...me-please.html). I never thought of trying "research" until today, and when I ran a google search I doubted I would get a hit. Instead, it seems...

Konstantin Hristov Totev was both an architect and Bulgarian basketball superstar in the 1950's!

He graduated from the Higher Institute of Physical Culture, apparently having studied architecture. He played with PBC CSKA Sofia and the Bulgarian national team. According to the National Sports Academy website, he was, "the mastermind and driving force behind our national team." He had quite a few international successes, including European Championship medals and high rankings at the Olympics. He was even made an honorary citizen of Paris after the first Euro Championship and became a member of an honorary international team. For sportsfans, here are some websites with that info:

Konstantin Totev Biography and Olympic Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
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Bulgaria national basketball team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Totev was married to the very famous female basketball star Kalinka Simanova. Some info about the couple can be found here:

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They had two children. It seems Konstantin devoted more time to architecture once he retired from basketball. At one point (in the 1960's?) the family lived in the GDR, where Konstantin coached a basketball team in Halle in addition to architecture work.

Not sure what their fate was afterwards, but Konstantin may still be alive.

[CtahhR]

It's nice when things present themselves.

It seems Ukaz 2982 was to Architects as booklet 110045 was also a RBL, to a female Architect.
I'll post her pair later.