Name Vatroslav Piacun Role Basketball Player | Died 1999 | |
Vatroslav Piacun (born Skopje, Yugoslavia, April 4, 1931; died Zagreb, Croatia, June 6, 1999), was a Croatian basketball player and coach.
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As a player
The eldest son of Antun and Terezija, Vatroslav moved to Zagreb in 1947. Soon afterwards, he started playing handball alongside Nikola Dasović, who shortly thereafter introduced him to basketball. Piacun began playing competitive basketball for Sportsko društvo Zagreb (the Zagreb Sports Society) and, a year after he first started playing basketball, he helped his team win the Croatian Championship in 1948.
In 1949 the team changed its name to Polet and unsuccessfully petitioned to be included in the national basketball league of Yugoslavia. In September 1950, with the new name Lokomotiva, the team was included into the national league with Piacun playing in the starting rotation.
By 1959, Piacun had played in 65 national competition games scoring a total of 367 points. With Lokomotova, he had also occasionally played in international exhibition matches, most notably in The Netherlands and Sicily.
As a coach
Piacun won his first title as a coach for Lokomotiva with the junior team on 26 September 1954. Several members of that team became well known players and coaches, including Mirko Novosel, later to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Piacun achieved his first international title in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in January 1961. Lokomotiva qualified as a wild card and emerged as champions, ahead of other teams favoured to win, including 1960 European Champions Budapesti Honved, KK Crvena Zvezda from Belgrade and the host team KK Olimpija, with their great player Ivo Daneu. Lokomotiva beat Honved by 70-62. The team again included Mirko Novosel. They lost against the host team and beat the team from Belgrade 94-62, putting Lokomotiva top out of four teams.
Piacun once again coached the team in 1965, when they finished 4th. They had a bad season with some matches annulled. Piacun was even hit during the game in Skopje, and the team was out of the championship race.
Later career
In his later career, Piacun returned for a short period in 1980 as a consultant to women's basketball club Monting, which in 1980 won the Lilliane Roncheti Cup, and Mirko Soboćan as team coach. He also spent some time as a referee.