The History of
ZADAR

The town of Zadar and the club "Zadar" are the cradle of the Croatian basketball. They pride themselves with a sevently years old traditio, since this game was first played in Zadar in the early twenties of this century.

The official records prove that on 8th March 1931 was played the first match ofr the town and region championship between teams "SOCIETA GINNASTICA" and "COLONIA AGRICOLA". As soon as 1935 was organized the first championship of the secondary schools. In its roots in Zadar the basketball has become a sporting movement. Today's basketball club "Zadar" dwells on a rich tradition. It was established on 26th April 1945 as a branch of Society for physical activites "Zadar" by DURO VUJANIC, TULIO ROCHLITZER AND BERTO NADOVEZA. The club had its first official appearance on 17th August 1945 on the ocasión of the first Championship of Croatia in Zagreb, held within the frames of "Manifestation of physical activities of Croatia". On this occasion Zadar won the second place. The players of the first generation were: NADOVEZA, ROCHLITZER, BERNARDI, VAZOLER, ZERAUSEK, MIRKOVIC, SIROCHINI, SOVITTI and LAZARI.

In 1949 "Zadar" entored the first league of the former Yugoslavia and had been constantly playing in this league from 1954 until the disintegration of Yugoslavia. During that time the basketball players from Zadar won a total of six national titles (in 1965,1967, 1968, 1974, 1975 and 1986) and once they won the Cup (in 1970). The national Cup "kresimir Cosic" was won in 1998 and in 2000.

"The Age of Gold" of Zadar basketball is no doubt to decade beween. 1964 and 1974, it was the time when the legends of basketball GIUSEPPE GIERGIA and KRESIMIR COSIC were in a their top form and played a brillant game. The players of Zadar continued their successful series of wins in the tournament of independent and democratic Croatia. In the first championship played in 1991/92 they were second, defeated in the finals by "Cibona" by 2-1. Since at that time our town was under constant enemy shelling and bombing the players had to play most matches as hosts in Rijeka. A big victory over Cibona in the Cup finals won them second place in the following season. Our Club had significant international success too. It won several strong tournaments in Europa AND Africa. It participated six times in the Cup of European champions, and its biggest success was in 1967 when it won the third place, in 1992/93 our Club represented Croatia and it participated for the first time in the European league, and a year later played even in the European cup. The Club played several times in Korac Cup and repeatedly reached semi finals.

Rich history of the Club proudly remembers moulding legends among basketball players- the most famous are GIUSEPPE GIERGIA and KRESIMIR COSIC. Still the names of TULLIO ROCHLITZER best player of the first generation, BRANKO KROCE repeatedly the best playmaker in the championship of the former Yugoslavia, STOJAN VRANKOVIC the vest amateur center of the world and later professional player in the NBA league, ARIAN KOMAZEC best player of the first Croatian championship and first European player in junio division, ALAN GREGOV- together with Arijan Komazec and Stojan Vrankovic winner of the silver medal for Croatia at the Olympics in Barcelona and other fine players hold naequally honourable place in the Club's history. On 10th October 1986 ZDENKO BABIC was playing in the qualification game for Cup of Champions. He hit the basket 144 times in a single game and achieved a world record-unsurpassed until our days.

As a result of expert ocach and team work the Club has always been a seminary of good basketball players and its coaches frequently rewarded for their achivements. Several coaches from Zadar composed the winning national selection teams and GIUSEPPE GIERGIA and KRESIMIR COSIC trained and led the senior national representation teams.

In 1999/00 the Club, trained aby coach IVICA BURIC, engaged two world and European stars ARIJAN KOMAZEC and DINO RADJA. However, since its beginings the Club took special care of young generations of players who repaid the investment by winning titles of national league champions of the former Yugoslavia and won international tournaments on more than one occasion.
Junior team won the title of the national champion of Croatia three times in a row from 1994 until 1996. Junior players from our CLUB HRVOJE PERINCIC, BRANIMIR LONGIN and JURICA ZUZA were playing for the Croatian selection which won the European Championship in 1996. In 1997, young player BRANIMIR LONGIN and in 2000 MARKO POPOVIC played in the world's junior selection.

Today in our Club live and work four generations of young basketball players. Junior selection is trained by coach Mr. PETAR POPOVIC and among them are MARKO POPOVIC, MLADEN and LOVRO GLIGORA, MARIN and DENIS VRSALIKO, VEDRAN MOROVIC who are members of the national selection. The cadets are trained by coach Mr. ROKO GJERGJA and younger cadets selection is trained by Mr. RUDOLF TICINA.

National Championship
Yugoslavia
1964/65
1966/67
1967/68
1973/74
1974/75
1985/86

National Cup
Croatia
1997/98
1999/00

National Cup
Yugoslavia
1969/70

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