| Birth Date: | 28 January 1921 |
| Birth Place: | Kaunas, Lithuania |
| Death Date: | 29 January 2014 (aged 93) |
| Death Place: | Waterbury, Connecticut |
| Height: | 5 ft 8.5 in (1.74 m) |
| Weight: | 155 lb (70 kg) |
Vytautas Norkus (28 January 1921 – 29 January 2014[1]) was a Lithuanian-born American basketball player. He won a gold medal with the Lithuania national basketball team during EuroBasket 1939.[2] [3]
Norkus was born in Kaunas and had a twin brother Algirdas.[4] He studied at the Aušra Boys' Gymnasium.[1] He started playing basketball at the age of 15.[4] He was also interested in tennis, long jump, short-distance running and was a member of Kaunas Grandis athletic club. At Vytautas Magnus University, he studied physical education.[1]
He was invited to join Lithuania national basketball team in 1938 which he participated in EuroBasket 1939. He became EuroBasket champion that year.[1]
At the end of World War II he moved to Germany, where he played for Kempten Šarūnas, a basketball team of Lithuanian emigrants.[4] In 1949, he moved to the United States.[5] He settled in Waterbury, Connecticut,[5] where he worked at a bakery and at Uniroyal for 33 years.[1] Norkus continued to participate in sports and was a member of the Knights of Lithuania.[1]
In 2001, a book alleged that Vytautas Norkus and his brother Algirdas were complicit in the execution of Jews in Lithuania in 1941. The brothers denied the allegations, and charges were not filed.[6]