Olympic final

The Berlin Olympic final concluded the first official Olympic Basketball competition, with Canada losing the final to the United States, 19-8. Interestingly, Maretsky and his team were given temporary bronze participation medals, but did not receive an official replica of the silver medal from the Olympic Committee until 60 years later in 1996. At the games, the medals were awarded by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. The game was low scoring, as it was played outdoors in a converted tennis stadium with clay courts that had become somewhat muddy after a heavy rain, making dribbling and ball handling difficult. Maretsky noted that the American's height advantage was difficult to overcome, as at the time rules required each score to be followed by a jump at center court.^[5]

Maretsky graduated from Windsor's Patterson Collegiate where he played basketball and was a football quarterback and then attended Assumption College. Maretsky's memorable team at Assumption won the Michigan-Ontario League and Ontario Senior Men’s titles on the way to losing in the Eastern Canadian Finals to Montreal. Merestky was the team’s second leading scorer^[6][1]

Prior to the Olympics, in 1935-36, he played for Windsor Ford V-8's, the Canadian Senior Men's Champions, defeating Victoria Dominoes in the finals, 3-0 in a best of five series played in Windsor. Maretsky was the overall leading scorer. This team was selected to play in the Olympics.^[6]

He concluded his playing career in British Columbia, as player/coach for Port Alberni, the British Columbia Finalist for the 1939-40 and 1940-41 seasons.^[6]

Following his final season with Port Alberni, Meretsky returned to Windsor to manage a family business. He continued to remain involved in basketball, coaching Windsor’s Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue’s team to the Ontario Basketball Association Bantam title in 1952-53.^[6]