The 1967–68 Yugoslav First Basketball League season was the 24th season of the Yugoslav First Basketball League. The season ended with KK Zadar winning the league championship, ahead of KK Olimpija. The season represents a milestone in the history of basketball in Yugoslavia as the beginning of a new era that saw the sport being played entirely indoors on

hardwood floor Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Wood is a common choice as a flooring material and can come in various styles, colors, cuts, and species. Bamboo flooring ...

surfaces as opposed to outdoors on a variety of surfaces as had been the practice previously. The change enabled the league to switch to a seasonal schedule that begins during

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

and ends in

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

as opposed to the previous practice of playing within the same

calendar year A calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. The Gregorian calendar year, which is in use as civil calendar in ...

, usually between April and October.

Notable events

Yugoslav basketball moves indoors

Since most Yugoslav basketball clubs didn't yet possess basketball-specific indoor facilities of their own, they had to make do with hosting their home games in community-owned makeshift venues or in case of three clubs—playing outside of their home city. The four Belgrade clubs—

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. ...

, Partizan, OKK, and Radnički—played their home games at the various

Belgrade Fair The Belgrade Fair () is a large complex of three large domes and a dozen smaller halls which is a venue for major trade fairs in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The complex, colloquially referred to simply as the Sajam, is located in the municipa ...

halls (including the biggest one: Hall 1), Zagreb's Lokomotiva played at the Zagreb Police's Fire Hall, while certain clubs had to play in altogether different cities: defending champions

KK Zadar Košarkaški klub Zadar (), commonly referred to as KK Zadar or simply Zadar, is a men's professional basketball Sports club, club based in Zadar, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the ABA League JTD, Adriatic Basketball A ...

played most of their home games of the season in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

, Čačak's Borac played their home games in

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

, and Sarajevo's newly-promoted

Mlada Bosna Young Bosnia ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Млада Босна, Mlada Bosna) refers to a loosely organised grouping of separatist and revolutionary cells active in the early 20th century, that sought to end the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovin ...

played in

Zenica Zenica ( ; ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an administrative and economic center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Zenica-Doboj Canton. It is located in the Bosna (river), Bosna river valley, about north of Sarajevo. The ...

Opening day

The season began on Saturday, 11 November 1967–only six days after the previous season ended on 5 November 1967–with the opening game in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

's Topniška Street Hall pitting the home team

KD Slovan Košarkarsko društvo Slovan, commonly referred to as KD Slovan or Slovan, is a basketball team from Ljubljana, Slovenia. History The founding of the club was the idea of Stane Urek, who in 1951 proposed the establishment of a basketball club in ...

versus the visiting

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

. Despite being the underdogs, the home team won 79–78.

Teams

Classification

Results

The winning roster of

Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...

: * Miljenko Valčić * Đuro Stipčević * Milan Komazec * * Mile Marcelić *

Josip Đerđa Josip "Pino" Gjergja (also transliterated Đerđa, Djerdja or Giergia; born 24 November 1937), also credited as Giuseppe Giergia, is a retired Croatian basketball player and coach. He represented the Yugoslavia national basketball team internatio ...

Krešimir Ćosić Krešimir "Krešo" Ćosić (; 26 November 1948 – 25 May 1995) was a Croatian professional basketball player and coach. He was a collegiate All-American at Brigham Young University. He revolutionized basketball in Yugoslavia and was the first ...

* Ratko Laura * Petar Anić * Jure Košta * Goran Brajković * Petar Jelić * Željko Troskot * Nikola Olujić Coach: Đorđo Zdrilić

Qualification in 1968–69 season European competitions

FIBA European Champions Cup The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

(champions) FIBA Cup Winner's Cup * Olimpija (2nd)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1967-68 Yugoslav First Basketball League Yugoslav First Basketball League seasons

Yugo Yugo (), also known as the Zastava Yugo, Zastava Koral (, sr-Cyrl, Застава Корал) and Yugo Koral, was a subcompact car, subcompact hatchback manufactured by Zastava Automobiles from 1980 until 2008, originally a Socialist Federal R ...