1963 Yugoslav First Basketball League
LeagueYugoslav First Basketball League
SportBasketball
1963
Season championsSocialist Republic of Serbia OKK Beograd
Yugoslav First Basketball League seasons

The 1963 Yugoslav First Basketball League season was the 19th season of the Yugoslav First Basketball League. The season ended with OKK Beograd winning the league championship, ahead of KK Partizan.

The season began during June 1963 following the end of the 1963 FIBA World Championship in Brazil where the Yugoslav national team won silver, its first-ever medal at the FIBA World Championship. The national team success led to an increased level of interest in basketball throughout the country as the public eagerly awaited another showdown between the main title contenders — OKK Beograd led by twenty-four-year-old power forward Radivoj Korać and KK Olimpija whose on-court leader was twenty-five-year-old point guard Ivo Daneu.[1]

Notable events

Early games

The season opened at the outdoor court in Zadar in front of packed stands with 3,500 spectators as the home team, KK Zadar, took on visitors Lokomotiva Zagreb and won 88-78 behind Željko Troskot's 30 points who thus managed to overshadow the Yugoslav national team members on the floor — his Zadar teammate Pino Djerdja as well as Lokomotiva's Džimi Petričević (29 points) and Dragan Kovačić (19 points).[1]

KK Zadar continued the early part of the season in furious fashion, beating KK Partizan away in Belgrade followed by facing defending champion KK Olimpija away in front of 4,000 fans in Ljubljana — Olimpija (without their injured best player Ivo Daneu) led 51-37 at the half behind Matija Dermastija's scoring before Zadar managed a complete comeback in the second half for a 97-100 final with Djerdja recording 37 points while Dermastija ended up with 29 points.[1]

In contrast to Zadar's red hot early form, defending champion Olimpija performed way below expectations due to Daneu's injury absence, recording three losses in their first four games of the season.[1] Olimpija's early-season losses included a 99-90 defeat away at KK Partizan whose sharpshooter Miloš Bojović scored 35 points while Bata Radović added 12.[1]

Teams

Socialist Republic of Serbia SR Serbia Socialist Republic of Croatia SR Croatia Socialist Republic of Slovenia SR Slovenia

Classification

Regular season ranking 1963 Pt G V P PF PS
1. OKK Beograd 30 18 15 3 1715 1320
2. Partizan 24 18 12 6 1710 1474
3. Olimpija 24 18 12 6 1777 1555
4. Željezničar Karlovac 24 18 12 6 1562 1372
5. Zadar 24 18 12 6 1745 1586
6. Lokomotiva 18 18 9 9 1529 1417
7. Radnički Belgrade 16 18 8 10 1502 1438
8. Crvena Zvezda 16 18 8 10 1622 1690
9. Zastava Kragujevac 2 18 1 17 1097 1689
10. Proleter Zrenjanin 2 18 1 17 1304 2022


The winning roster of OKK Beograd:[2]

Coach: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Aleksandar Nikolić


Scoring leaders

  1. Radivoj Korać (OKK Beograd) – 621 points (34.5 ppg)[3][1]
  2. ???
  3. ???

Qualification in 1963-64 season European competitions

FIBA European Champions Cup

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bjelobaba, Darko (25 July 2019). "1963: Ko može zaustaviti Koraća? Niko!". Koš magazin. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  2. ^ "Yugoslav basketball league standings 1945-91". nsl.kosarka.co.yu. Archived from the original on 2 July 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  3. ^ Stanković, Vladimir (30 April 2018). "Belgrade's aces". Euroleague.net. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
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