Birthday celebration preparations for Split Basketball club.
November is the month of celebrations of the 70th birthday of the Split Basketball Club, three-time champions of Europe and the best European team of the 20th century. On that occasion, some of the legends of the club gathered in the Yellow Trophy Room on Gripe in order to introduce events that will mark the anniversary. The Anniversary Organizing Committee was represented by president Rato Tvrdić, Željko Jerkov, Dino Rađa, Vinko Bajrović Capo, Anđelka Visković, Josip Bilić, and Zdravko Reić, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on November 10, 2015.
“It is good that veterans are caring about the future of the club. We all want for this to be a great celebration of our history and the new beginning for our future. We all feel that the Split basketball should again have the status it deserves. We have worked for almost two years on this project. Everybody has shown good will, especially Croatian Television which took over a big part of the job. People who have been working on a documentary about the club know more about basketball than we do”, Tvrdić said.
On Saturday, 14 November, special anniversary book “Legends of Basketball in Split” will be presented at the Croatian National Theatre in Split. The book was prepared by 238 authors, players, coaches, officials, supporters and journalists. On Wednesday, 18 November, the exhibition “70 Years of Split Basketball Club” will be opened at the Split Sports Hall of Fame.
On Friday, 27 November, Split Mayor Ivo Baldasar will organize a reception at Vila Dalmacija, while at the Spaladium Arena, TV documentary “Odyssey in Yellow” will be screened, featuring all the living club legends. Oliver Dragojević, Petar Grašo, Mlađan Tudor and Friži singing group will also perform. Ticket prices for the concert is 50 kuna, while the price of the anniversary book is 100 kuna.
There will be many guests, but an exhibition match will not happen. “We wanted to bring in Real, Barcelona or Fenerbahce, but we concluded that it would not be good because right now we are not at the same level. As far as guests are concerned, there will be people from FIBA, players from Italy, Spain, former Yugoslavia, friendly clubs, everybody. Our club is highly respected, we have many friends who have gladly accepted our invitation”, Tvrdić said.
“This is our house, this is the place where we created a name for ourselves. Few teams in the region have produced so many good players. We were relegated from the league but we came back, and I am confident that we will emerge from this crisis as well. We know how to create good players and that is the guarantee of future success”, Jerkov said.
“I will never forget when we became the champions of Europe and when we went through the whole city, there must have been a hundred thousand people. While getting off the bus, one old lady stopped us and kissed us all, saying ‘thank you, my children’. I will never forget it”, Rađa said.
Tvrdić, Jerkov, Rađa and Bajrović have invited all Split fans to come on 27 November to Spaladium Arena for the screening of the documentary by Mladen Ćapin amd Tomislav Mršić. They believe the club deserves to have as many people as possible come to its great anniversary celebrations.
