The Landolt Cup originates from the elite basketball tournament (First National Division) organized for the first time in 1974 by the club USY (Union Sportive Yverdonnoise) Basketball. The club having no team in First National Division, nor Second National Division, took advantage of attracting this elite to Yverdon for the pleasure of its members and players.

Being a sport of choice in French-speaking Switzerland thanks to its beginnings in Geneva in the 1920s, there were indeed many high-level teams not far from the spa town, ideally located in the French-speaking landscape.
Quickly the tournament took a positive momentum and became an unmissable event in our country at the beginning of each season. This proof of longevity has allowed the tournament to gain momentum on the international scene in 2018. This new course motivated the committee to give the current name of the tournament to become a recognized brand in the world of lovers of the orange sphere . The name chosen was an obvious tribute to the founder of USY Basketball, Pierre Landolt.

After two successful editions (2018 and 2019) and a COVID crisis that deprived us of this magnificent tournament for two years (2020 and 2021), the committee took the opportunity to make new improvements and especially the independence of this tournament. The association "Landolt Cup" was created in order to dissociate this event from the activity of the club of USY Basket, whose budget of the tournament always took more place in that of the club.
Independence by creating a platform dedicated solely to this event through its website and various digital channels of social networks.

The Landolt Cup becomes a brand that teams from our country and abroad can easily identify. Finally, the committee decided to expand the circle to 6 teams and make the tournament last 4 days (Wednesday to Saturday).

The trademark of this historic event remains its sense of hospitality and organization which attracts the best in our sport in Switzerland and Europe.
All this is of course made possible thanks to the unconditional support of the city of Yverdon-les-Bains as well as our loyal sponsors and partners whom we thank very warmly.

Long live basketball, long live the Landolt Cup!

André Mercier was president of the USY Basket club for 20 years and was the originator of the tournament. Here is his storyline during the 40th anniversary in September 2014.

40 years ago....

Forty years ago, it was already important for a club to find money to allow the different teams of the USY basketball to practice their favorite sport. So some basketball players thought of setting up a tournament, which would bring together the best men's teams in Switzerland.

This was a new idea, as no other tournament of this kind existed in French-speaking Switzerland at that time, only tournaments of local interest being set up. It took a certain amount of recklessness to start such an organization, because the necessary infrastructures did not exist, the hall of Léon Michaud having neither refreshment bar nor bleachers. It took almost 2'000 hours of work to organize everything:
- Laying a parquet floor in the LM hall and bringing in 250 chairs found in what was still called the Yverdon casino (B Besson theater) and placed on bleachers that the city of Yverdon had made available.
- To realize a booklet of festival from A to Z; the members of the club sought the publicity, composed the advertisements thanks to a small Hermes and letters A7 and printed the program on a small offset in Oleyres.
- Search and collect prizes for the tombola
- Designing and serving meals for the invited teams and volunteers using the school kitchens; building shelters so that the participants could eat in the evening without having to suffer too much from the cold or even the rain.

Everything was finally ready on September 14th to welcome Vevey and Martigny (grand final), Neuchâtel and UGS Geneva for the small final. The first top scorer of this tournament was the American Hulman who, at 206 cm tall, scored 52 points in his 2 games. On this occasion we could see Olivier Pilet, a Yverdonnois who was playing at that time in Neuchâtel.

The expenses (about 5'000.- francs) having been clearly less than the receipts - the teams asked only for a payment for the travels and the evening meal, the team in place decided to relaunch this event the following year; Mercier (president), Bize (cashier, then responsible for the stands), Ray (press) and other Kaech (announcer), helped by all the members of the club, went back to work year after year so that this tournament could take place.

The tournament had found its place in the landscape of the French-speaking basketball and the best teams of Switzerland liked to come to Yverdon, especially to test their Americans a few weeks before the beginning of the championship. The Yverdon tournament lived at the rhythm of Swiss basketball: Ticino hours with Pregassona, Viganello and Sam Massagno, Geneva hours with UGS, Lignon, Chêne, Champel and Jonction, Vaud hours with Vevey, Pully, SF Lausanne and Nyon, without forgetting Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Monthey, who were faithful to the Yverdon event. Twice even the tournament was international with the champions of what was still Czechoslovakia, Inter Bratislava, and the French Jeanne d'Arc of Dijon. But as these teams were only representatives, the experience was not repeated.

Finally, in 1988, under the impulse of a new organizing committee, led by an energetic Denis Lang, the formula changed and the tournament was held over two days, leaving the weekend of the Fast to the Knie circus, which, it was thought, monopolized too many potential spectators. Various side events were organized to make the tournament more attractive (mini, school and cadet tournaments, dunk and shooting competitions....). A little later, the men's teams proved to be too greedy and the organizers invited the women's teams to come and play in Yverdon. The tournament could then continue. It did not take place every year, the leaders of the USY basketball not always having the necessary energy to do so.

But, this year, new forces arrived and the tournament is relaunched in a very beautiful way and finally one will be able to find at the time of this weekend of the 40th and of the female teams and male teams what makes it possible to synthesize in an excellent way what were the 40 years passed since 1974. Very good idea of the current committee to which we wish a popular and sporting success.

A. Mercier