Bogdan Tanjević

Early life

He was born 13 February 1947 in Pljevlja, PR Montenegro, FPR Yugoslavia. In 1951, four-year-old Tanjević was brought to Sarajevo, SR Bosnia due to his Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officer father Strahinja Tanjević getting reassigned there. Attending Veselin Masleša primary school, young Boša got involved with basketball at the FIS outdoor courts alongside friends such as Uglješa Uzelac and Davorin Popović.

In 1965, after graduating high school, Tanjević moved to Belgrade where he enrolled at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy, studying world literature.

Club playing career

Tanjević began playing basketball at the hometown KK Željezničar Sarajevo.

OKK Beograd

In parallel with his university studies in Belgrade, young Tanjević played basketball at OKK Beograd on a team alongside established players Radivoj Korać, Trajko Rajković, Slobodan Gordić, and Miodrag Nikolić.

In summer 1971, he parted ways with OKK Beograd and agreed principal terms with KK Oriolik, a Yugoslav First Basketball League (top-tier) club from Slavonski Brod that just finished its second-ever top-tier season in 11th place (out of twelve) and was putting together a roster for the upcoming top league campaign. Having a whole month before going to Slavonski Brod to sign the necessary paperwork, Tanjević spent time in Sarajevo by frequenting the daily summer practice sessions of KK Bosna, a second-tier club with a batch of young players preparing for its upcoming Second Federal League season. Quite unexpectedly, within weeks, young Tanjević got offered the head coaching position at Bosna by the club's brass who liked the young man's vocal nature and enthusiasm. After months of wrangling during which he had to re-arrange different details of his personal and professional lives, he decided to quit playing basketball at the age of 24 and take the unexpected head coaching offer.

National team

Despite having a four-year run with the Yugoslav national youth team, having made the final cut for several FIBA Europe youth competitions from 1964 until 1966 under head coach Ranko Žeravica, Tanjević wasn't able to make the next step and earn a spot on the Yugoslav full squad.

Youth

Tanjević received his first call up for the Yugoslav junior national team by its head coach Žeravica in 1963 when he was only 16 years old. Tanjević later talked of his surprise to have gotten his debut considering he played for a "provincial lower-league club like KK Željezničar Sarajevo" while commending Žeravica for not favouring players from big established clubs over those from smaller ones.

In spring 1964, 17-year-old Tanjević, still with Željezničar at the time, was selected for the Yugoslav junior team sent to the European Championship for Juniors in Naples in April 1964. As the youngest player on that roster, he had to fight hard for his spot until the very last training game, just edging out Staša Đorđević of Radnički Belgrade for the 12th roster spot. Consisting of youngsters none of whom would later go on to notable basketball careers (Ljubiša Janjić, Anton Bračun, Ljubiša Stanković, Srđan Skulić, Miljenko Valcić, Slobodan Jelić, Tihomir Pavlović, Jurica Kosta, Danko Hočevar, Momčilo Pazmanj, and Andrej Brenk), the Yugoslav team lost 3 of its 5 games at the championship. Tanjević got very little playing time, without managing to score a single basket at the competition.

In summer 1966, 19-year-old Tanjević, now an OKK Beograd player, was selected for the Yugoslav junior team sent to the European Championship for Juniors in Porto San Giorgio on the Italian Adriatic coast in late August 1966. Unlike two years earlier, this time Tanjević played on a team alongside players that would go on to reach great heights in the game of basketball such as Krešimir Ćosić, Aljoša Žorga, Duci Simonović, Damir Šolman, Kosta Grubor, Dragiša Vučinić, Dragan Kapičić, etc. Yugoslavia made it to the final, but got blown out by Soviet Union by 21 points in the gold medal game. For his part Tanjević appeared in all five games Yugoslavia played at the championship, recording a modest output of 2.4 points per game.

KK Bosna

In 1971, 24-year-old Tanjević got named as head coach of KK Bosna, a club playing in the second-tier Yugoslav Second Federal League.

1971-72: Gaining promotion

Inheriting a roster of youngsters such as 19-year-old Žarko Varajić, Ante Đogić, Rođeni Krvavac, 21-year-old center Zdravko Čečur, Jovo Terzić, 22-year-old Mirsad Milavić, Milan Pavlić, Slobodan Pejović, and Aleksandar Nadaždin, Tanjević brought in 22-year-old guard Svetislav Pešić from Partizan Belgrade and Bruno Soče, also arriving from Belgrade. Furthermore, the head coach sought to establish authority over players only a couple of years younger than him. To that end he re-hauled the training regiment, instituting practice sessions twice a day while introducing strict discipline.

The new approach produced immediate results as the club managed to gain promotion in Tanjević's first season. The promotion was secured in dramatic fashion in a single-game playoff against city rivals KK Željezničar because the two clubs sat atop the Second League's west division, having split the regular season home-and-away series, so it was decided that a single game (the so-called majstorica) would determine which team gets promoted. Played on 28 April 1972 in front of 7,000 spectators at the Skenderija Hall, only two weeks after the same venue hosted the iconic Yugoslav partisan film Valter brani Sarajevo premiere, the game was a tense affair. KK Bosna, that saw its 25-year-old head coach Tanjević suit up and play 20 minutes after a whole season of not playing competitive basketball, ended up winning 65-59. It was a historic success for KK Bosna that prior to Tanjević's arrival spent 16 seasons stuck in the Second Federal League, unable to overcome the last hurdle before the top-tier First Federal League.

1972-73: Delibašić signs; club's and coach's top-flight debut

Over the summer of 1972, preparing for its first ever top-flight campaign, the newly promoted club pulled off a remarkable coup by bringing in 18-year-old supreme talent Mirza Delibašić from Sloboda Tuzla, in the process beating out bigger Yugoslav clubs such as KK Partizan for the youngster's signature. The signing was a culmination of the year-long courtship that reached fever pitch during that summer. Knowing Partizan already managed to get KK Sloboda's agreement to release Delibašić, Bosna management intensified their direct approach to the player on two fronts — the president of Bosna sports society Vukašin "Vule" Vukalović made frequent visits to Delibašić's parents cajoling them with financial terms while the team's young coach, only 7 years Delibašić's senior, essentially stalked the player during his training camp for the upcoming European Championship for Juniors in Zadar, eventually befriending and persuading him that Bosna would the best fit for him. Just before the season began, Bosna also brought in Ratko Radovanović, a tall and raw 16-year-old from Nikšić who hadn't even played organized basketball up to that point, however, liking the teenager's size and motor skills, Tanjević believed he could be molded into a good player, a move that would pay dividends a few years later.

Playing their debut season in the country's top-tier competition, Tanjević's young Bosna team finished in 12th spot (out of 14 clubs) with a 10-16 record. Though in the end they avoided relegation comfortably, it wasn't without a fight, at one point recording nine straight league losses, all of which was considered disappointing. During the season's low point, after finally ending the nine-game losing streak, the level of deflation among the team's fans was such that Tanjević got approached by Oslobođenje journalist Kemal Kurspahić with an offer of addressing the public directly via an op-ed of sorts in the city's only daily newspaper — Tanjević accepted, penning a piece urging fans not to give up on the team and boldly predicting a league title in the 1976-77 season. With the skillful young players on its roster led by the country's most sought-after young talent Delibašić, many expected Bosna to be more than just mere relegation battlers. Delibašić who contributed with 15.8 points per game over the 26-game season, already the target of criticism over his shaky defensive displays throughout the season, publicly admitted disappointment with the team's overall performance as well as his own in particular while expressing confidence that the team still has title potential.

1973-74: Achieving a European spot

The following season, 1973–74, the team made remarkable progress with a 14-12 record that was good enough for the 4th spot (their record was identical with KK Partizan and Radnički Belgrade, but Bosna had a better head-to-head record). It was another historic result because it meant that Bosna would compete in Europe the following season for the first time in its history.

1974-75: A year-long army stint

After coaching the Yugoslavia junior national team and winning gold at the European Championship for Juniors during summer of 1974 in Orléans, 27-year-old Tanjević went away to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint, temporarily handing the head coaching position at Bosna over to Luka Stančić from Valjevo who thus lead the team for the entire 1974-75 season.

The combination of Tanjević's absence and the pressures of playing in Europe reflected badly on team's domestic league performance as Bosna finished the season in somewhat disappointing 7th place with a 12-14 record. On the other hand in the FIBA Korać Cup they posted a notable success, making the quarterfinals where they got eliminated over two legs by Ranko Žeravica's FC Barcelona — after winning by eight points 81-73 at home behind Varajić's 24 points in front of a 7,000-strong raucous crowd at Skenderija on 5 February 1974 they couldn't hold on to the lead away a week later, losing by fourteen 80-66.

1975-76: Return

With Tanjević's return from the army, the team also returned to form, finishing the league in 3rd spot with an 18-8 record, just behind Partizan and Jugoplastika.

Having been groomed by Tanjević over the previous years for a main role at the center position, the season saw the full maturation of lanky nineteen-year-old Ratko Radovanović who contributed with 13.3ppg, largely joining Delibašić and Varajić as the team's main offensive threats and squeezing center Zdravko Čečur out of the squad in the process. Though liking Čečur's hustle and willingness to sacrifice his body, Tanjević largely considered him a liability due to his continual lack of fitness and looked to decrease the team's reliance on him under the basket by bringing up young Radovanović who in addition to better agility also had a height advantage over Čečur.

1976-77: Letting the Yugoslav title slip

Bosna led the league comfortably most of the season. With three games to go until the end, they were top of the table, two games ahead of the second-placed Petar Skansi-coached KK Split (Jugoplastika) that was coming to Sarajevo for a scheduled league game between two teams. Bosna won their previous contest in Split during first half of the season by 15 points. Going into the Sarajevo game, KK Split players seemed conciliatory, already pronouncing Bosna new champion in their press sound bytes. Bosna players, on the other hand, brimmed with confidence having just recorded a big away win versus KK Partizan, another title contender, on their home court in Belgrade. However, in what was something of an upset, KK Split pulled out a notable away win at Skenderija, getting within only one game behind Bosna. Next fixture, second last of the season, saw Bosna go to play KK Zadar away and lose, which combined with Split winning meant a tie at the top. The final week changed nothing as both teams won their respective games, finishing with identical 23-3 records.

The league title was thus decided in a single-game playoff at Belgrade's Hala Pionir where despite leading for most of the second half, and even having an 8 point lead with three minutes to go, Bosna ended up losing 98-96 courtesy of Damir Šolman's last second buzzer beater — a crushing defeat along with a feeling that they let the title slip through their fingers.

1977-78: Yugoslav title, FIBA Korać Cup final

Managing to put the pain of the previous season behind them, Tanjević's Bosna team led the league from beginning to the end of the season, winning it comfortably in the end with a 23-3 record, two games ahead of second-place Ranko Žeravica-coached KK Partizan's 21-5.

Simultaneously, the same two teams made the FIBA Korać Cup final played in late March 1978 in Banja Luka's Borik Hall — Bosna's first-ever European final. In a game of great quality in front of 6,000 fans, the score at the end of regulation was tied 101-101, requiring overtime in which Bosna succumbed 110-117 to Partizan team that got a great contribution from its stars Dražen Dalipagić and Dragan Kićanović with 48 and 33 points, respectively.

1978-79: European champion

The crown of Tanjević's rich sporting career came on 5 April 1979 at Palais des Sports in Grenoble, when KK Bosna under his command became European champion by winning the 1978–79 FIBA European Champions Cup.

National team coaching

National Championships

National Cups

International club competitions

Others

National team competitions

Personal

In March 1969, Tanjević married Jasna Selimović, a basketball player herself who played for ŽKK Željezničar and ŽKK Voždovac during her career, even making the Yugoslavia national team. The two met and began dating in Sarajevo while both played within the KK Željezničar system, for its men's and women's teams, respectively. Their wedding ceremony took place in Belgrade where 22-year-old Tanjević at the time simultaneously pursued world literature studies at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy and played basketball with OKK Beograd while Selimović played with ŽKK Voždovac. The couple has two daughters and a son.

Tanjević identifies as a Yugoslav, stating in 2013 in an interview for a Slovenian website: "I don't have a country anymore, because my country was Yugoslavia [...]". Though temporarily residing in different cities throughout Europe due to his various club head coaching jobs, his family's primary residence since the late 1980s has been in Trieste, Italy.