TRIBUTE TO THE LEGENDS: Boris Kristančič

On this day 89 years ago, Boris Kristančič was born, a man with whom we cannot simply write the words of a former basketball player and coach of the Ljubljana club.

“Your moon, our gold.”

Who could forget these legendary words of Boris Kristančič, uttered by the legendary “Kristo”, as his friends called him, in 1970, when the Yugoslav national team first ascended the world basketball throne at the World Cup in Ljubljana. In the same year, the Americans sent the first man to the moon, and the match with the American national team in Ljubljana decided the title of world champion.

Boris Kristančič left an indelible mark in Slovenian and Olimpija basketball.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Kristančič worked at Olimpija as a player, as well as a coach. As a player, he won the title of Yugoslav national champion three times (1957, 1959, 1961), and in all the years he was also the head coach of the team, and later he added two more laurels to the three laurels, only as the head coach of the team, in 1962 and 1966. Kristančič was famous for throwing from a distance and accurate execution of free throws. He even trained the latter with his eyes closed. As a member of Enotnost, he was the top scorer of the Yugoslav National Championship in 1954.

Kristančič also entered the history of Slovenian basketball as the first Slovenian basketball player to play abroad. Between 1962 and 1967 he wore the jersey of the Italian team Stella Azzura.

He made as many as 81 appearances for the Yugoslav national team between 1951 and 1960, and was also the captain of the national team for six years. In 1960 he competed at the Olympic Games in Rome, in 1954 at the World Championships in Brazil, and also played at the European Championships in Sofia (1957).

After finishing his playing career, Boris Kristančič established himself as an official, and is also known to the basketball public as the father of the legendary Tivoli sports hall, where he was looking forward to the gold medal of the Yugoslav national basketball team at the World Championships in Ljubljana in 1970. All routes then led to Tivoli. The eyes of the world public were focused on the hall at the foot of Rožnik, which was simply too small for all basketball fans. Kristančič carried out the organization of the world championship with distinction, the title of world champion was just the tip of the iceberg.

Even before the World Championships in Ljubljana, Kristančič started working for the Basketball Association of Yugoslavia in 1967, and between 1978 and 1983 he was also its president.

Boris Kristančič received a total of 28 decorations, awards and recognitions for his rich work in sports. The Bloudek Plaque (1965), the Bloudek Award (1970) and the Honorary Badge of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia, which he received in 2001, should be highlighted.