The Legends

Vinko Jelovac

Vinko Jelovac has been and still is the man from Istria deep inside his heart. Born on Novembre 18th 1948 in Jelovci near Pazin he soon became member of BC Pula and already played for the Yugoslavian youths in 1963. He stayed attached to his home region nonetheless he soon attracted the attention of Union Olimpija and moved to Ljubljana already as a youngster. He worte his name with golden letters into Olimpija's history as its long-time captain and permanent member of Yugoslavian national team. He can be proud of playing nothing less than 243 games for the national selection between 1968 and 1977 what makes him one of the record holders in ex-Yugoslavia. At that time he was the bugbear of all teams Olimpija has been playing with, driving opponents to despair with the skills and knowledge he possesed.

Moving to Olimpija was the turning point in his career which latter made him one of the world's fameous players. The Yugoslavian national team was in ascension at that time and when he was joined by another center Krešimir Šosić in the national selection, there was no team in the world that would be capable to compete with the two Yugoslavian pillars. He took home the first of eight medals he gathered throughout his career already in 1969 when he took silver at the EC in Napoli. It already smelled od the glorious moments that followed in the next year. Ljubljana organized the final of the World Championship and Vinko awaited the moment to step at the world's throne together with two of his teammates from Olimpija, Aljoša Žorga and Ivo Daneu. They won the first and therefore historical world trophy for Yugoslavia. The ex-country won two more in its history.

A year later Jelovac also won the silver at the European Championship v Essen, he participated at the Olympic Games in München where Yugoslavia took the 5th place and then he stepped at the top of Europe in 1976 in Barcelona. Europe just couldn't stop wondering his magical moves, his dominancy and inventiveness. He was the best European center atthat time and it would be difficult to find a competitions where, known by his magnifical style, he surpassed himself. But more then ever he probably confirmed his greatness in Catalonia, finishing the EC as the best scorer of the Championship. He won the European throne two more times in next years: in 1975 in Belgrade and in 1977 in Liege. He also took silver at the World Championship in 1974 and the so looked-for olympic medal with the 2nd place in Montreal 1976.

'We are Vinko's, Vinko is ours,' echoed in front of hall Tivoli when he played his last game in december 5th 1982. His farewell has been very touching. And it was simbolical at once. Vinko hand over his captain's band to Peter Vilfan.

After moving to retirement Vinko sailed with all his eagerness into the coaching waters, where else then in Ljubljana. For the beginning he took over Slovan but tehn he soon moved to Olimpija and brought it back to the Yugoslavian First Division after a year the club spent in a lower division. Borovo from osijek, Palermo, for some time also Sardinija followed after that. He returned when he got the invitation of Krško, he spent some time with Rijeka, receiving the offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv which was unspossible to refuse. He was waiting and at least he got also the call from Cibona where he was very successful at the end of 90's. Vinko Jelovac is above all a bussinessman now, who likes to find his peace among his olive trees in Istria.

Peter Vilfan

When Maribor put together a youth team in xxx, it did not overlook a 15-year-old boy, who already attracted the attention of the surroundings with his basketball tricks. The coach soon took him with when the team left for the game in Celje and there were probably nobody on the bus that was happier at that time then the newcomer was. His eyes were shining showing big expectations that has been springing up inside him waiting for the first minutes on the court since entering the world of 'adults'. But the coach did not remember him during the first half and after the half time the boy stayed in the locker-room. Nobody noticed. He was waiting. Angry, affected, offended, asking himself why the hell did they take him with. After a few minutes he packed his belongings and took the first bus for Maribor ...

Stubborn, headstrong, decided. That is what Peter Vilfan was like, being borned on June 29th 1957, growing later in one of the most recognizable faces of yugo-basket, reaching one of his peaks at the World Championship 1978 in Manila and therefore continuing the path Bassin, Daneu, Jelovac and others already walker through in one of world's strongest National Championships. Those who followed his career like to say he is full of different ideas. Skilful in talking, some would label him in another way. Inventive, affirm the thirds. Vilfan has thousand and one characteristics and a full bag of anecdotes.

After he rushed back to Maribor fuming with anger, his career rapidly took the way up. In 1974 he won bronze with the cadet's national team at the European Championship and gold at the Balcan's Championship. He was improving his skills in his home town Maribor, in his firstclub Železničar, waiting for the appropriate moment when Olimpija, which was the strongest club in Slovenia at that time, will invite him in Ljubljana. But everything then turned different to expectations. While being at the preparations in Poreč in 1977, Skansi, Tvrdić, Bajrović, Jerkov and Krstulović knocked on his door and after only 20 minutes the ambitious youngster had a signed contract in his hands – a contract with Jugosplastika, one of the biggest basketball institutions in ex-Yugoslavia. After Vilfan made 45 points in the game against Maccabi, his career was sealed.

Basketball gourmets found a new talent, coached discovered a jewel that only a year later played side by side with Kičanović, Slavnić, Delibašić. He was a prototype for an excellent point-guard. He had an incredible feeling for dribbling, being very fast and unpredictable he was capable to outwit every opponent in defense and was at the same time able to play also as a shooting guard. The most difficult tasks in offense were also something he did not have a slight problem to deal with.

The 'notorious' Manila came that very same year. World Championship. The world trophy. The boy from the main city of Štajerska crowned his gigantic steps with the gold medal, which he still considers as his most important achievement in his career. There is no strange that the bronze he took at the EC a year later was then only a bitter disappointment for him. He expected more. Instead he hot the invitation of Olimpija and after two seasons, spent in Dalmacija, he returned to Slovenia. He also expected to play at the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980 although he was called-up to serve the obligatory service in the army that year. He came to Sarajevo on the same day as the national team did. He reported to barracks, thinking that the call-up to the sports squad was just something written on a paper and that a place in the team is waiting for him. But officers just laughed at him when he was trying to explain he is a player not a soldier. He then followed basketball games in Moscow only by the television. In 1981 he took silver at the EC in Prague, a year later a bronze at the World Championship in Brasile followed.

He went from Maribor to Jugoplatsika, Olimpija, Partizan, Smelt Olimpija and Postojna during his club's career before returning in Tivoli where he was playing for 12 years. He stayed there until March 21st 1993 when he followed other famous Slovenian players and took off his T-shirt with number 12 at the back forever. But that was not his farewell from basketball by far. He tried himself as a coach latter, opened his own basketball school while his real pleasure is currently a microphone. He works as a commentator at the national television. And since the faith has not been inclined to him for the Moscow 1980, he will have the opportunity to enjoy the olympic spirit this season – in Athens. As a TV commentator ...

Ivo Daneu

Those permanent spectators of games in Tivoli know it is one face they will never miss when Union Olimpija plays an international game. Ivo Daneu always seats on one of the stands, the one that borders on the hockey part of the hall. There it is the legendary player who has been written the history of Ljubljana's, Slovenian, Yugoslavian and World basketball. A real artist on the court, eternal sportsman in his soul, and a person that entered the Slovenian National history when he proposed the referendum for the secession from ex-Yugoslavia in the National Assembly in 1990. He always seats more or less at the same place, with his back turned against the hockey hall where he and his teammates started the golden era of the Yugoslavian basketball in 1970. By the interesting coincidence he seats just a wall from the hall where he was the first one in the history on the Yugoslavian basketball who raised the World Trophy in the air, the same trophy that still goes from hand to hand, from one Champion to another at every WC.

Many still think Daneu has not been seriously learining his basketball alphabet until he joined Olimpija. But he came in Ljubljana when he already had 19 years old after five years of practicing with Branik from Maribor. It was in Maribor where he was noticed by legendary Aleksandar Gec whose sharp eye had seen a rare gift that only top players posses. Daneu begun to practise basketball by a coincidence. While he was watching a football pratcice as a child the ball hit him in the head with such a strength that he fainted away and taht decided his future.

It was Gec who recomended him to national head-coach Aca Nikolić who decided to give the jewel from Maribor a chance he never had a reason to regret. Daneu was the Capitain of teh national team for some years in the 60's, he gathered eight medals from the biggest competitions but he never accepted invitations of foreign teams. He turned down Real from Madrid among others and spent no less then 14 years with Olimpija. Buit his career never suffered because of that. His reputation of a 'executioner' was so firm that he had a permanent place at the list of national head-coaches Aca Nikolić and Ranko Žeravica for more then ten years.

He made key points in the last four seconds of the game with USA at the World Championship in Rio de Janeiro 1963, he also decided the game between Olimpija and Partizan in Belgrade in the same year when he hit in the last second. He was very obstinate as more or less every champion is, he relied on his refined feeling for the ball, he did not always follow the instructions of the coach if he felt his throw will be successful. He played for the first time at the EC already in 1957, getting its first medal with silver at the EC in Belgrade 1961. He added bronze in Wroclaw 1963 and two silvers in 1965 (Moscow) and in 1969 (Neapel). He was second at the World Championship in Rio de Janeiro 1963 and also four years later in Montevideo. It was Montevideo where he was also the MVP of the Championship what was named for the best sportsman in Yugoslavia at that very same year.

Master among all masters from Tivoli, who took of his T-shirt on that very euphoric year 1970 after he won the Yugoslavian national Championship with Olimpija, played at six European Championships, three World Championships and as many Olympic Games. Daneu was the one who has been broken the new ground. He was the pioneer in the true meaning of this sense. He was in Olimpija's team when the latter won the first Yugoslavian trophy in 1957, he was member of the Yugoslavian selection which took the first World title, he was MVP of the World Championship in Chile in 1967 … The opus of his achievements is amazing, that is way it was quite amazing he never seriously tried to became a coach. He only once, in 1970/71 took over the wheel of Olimpija and never again.