Handball Club Bjelovar ( Croatian Rukometni klub Bjelovar ) is a men's handball club based in Bjelovar , Croatia . From the day it was founded in 1955 until 1991, it was known under the name Partisan . Multiple champion of the Yugoslav national championships, winner of the EHF Champions League and other prestigious tournaments. Now playing in the Premier League Championship of Croatia.
| Bjelovar | |||
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| Full title | Rukometni klub Bjelovar | ||
| Based | 1955 | ||
| Stadium | Školsko-sportska dvorana Bjelovar, Bjelovar | ||
| Capacity | 1500 | ||
| The president | Zeljko Maletich | ||
| Trainer | Dalibor Sokach | ||
| Main coach | Dalibor Sokach | ||
| Competition | Croatian men's handball championship | ||
| 2011 |  Bronze medalist | ||
| Site | |||
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Content
History
The club was founded on February 26, 1955 under the name "Partisan" - in honor of the Yugoslav partisans who opposed Nazi forces during the Second World War . At the same time, the composition included many players from the two handball clubs Sredneshkola and Slaven that existed in the city. In the 1957/58 season, the team got into the main handball league of Yugoslavia and immediately became the champion here in the debut season. A year later, the debut took place at the international level, but it was unsuccessful - a defeat in the home arena from the Dynamo Bucharest.
In total, the team won the championship of Yugoslavia nine times (1958, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1979), becoming the most titled in the country by this indicator. In addition, six times took the second place and six times the third. Three times became the owner of the Yugoslavia Handball Cup (1960, 1968, 1976). The club was most successful internationally in the 1971/72 season, when for the first time in the history of the Yugoslav handball it won the EHF Champions League . Also in 1962 and 1973 he reached the final of the Champions League, and in 1968 and 1971 he stopped at the stage of semifinals. In the 1976/77 season, he reached the semifinals of the Cup Winners' Cup . Partizan has won the Doboya Champions International Handball Tournament six times (1968, 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978) and is still the champion in this respect [1] .
Despite the rich history and many prestigious titles, in the late 1970s, Partizan faced serious organizational and financial problems, and from that moment its results plummeted. So, in the 1979/80 season, the club took the penultimate thirteenth place in the Yugoslav championship and flew out of the major league into the second division. When Croatia separated from Yugoslavia in 1991, the team was renamed Bjelovar, and it still bears that name. Subsequently, the team still managed to break into the main league of the Croatian national championship, but it never became the champion of the country, invariably losing to the Zagreb club dominating in the Croatian handball. The most successful in the standings of the national Croatian championship “Bjelovar” made in 2011, when he became a bronze medalist.
At different times, such famous players as Hrvoj Horvath , Albin Vidovich , Miroslav Pribanich , Zeljko Nimsh , Zvonimir Serdarushich , Pavle Dzhurina , Mirko Bashich and others played for the team.
Titles and Achievements
Yugoslav Championship
- Champion: 1957/58, 1960/61, 1966/67, 1967/68, 1969/70, 1970/71, 1971/72, 1976/77, 1978/79.
- Second place: 1958/59, 1959/60, 1962/63, 1963/64, 1975/76, 1977/78.
- Third place: 1964/65, 1965/66, 1968/69, 1973/74, 1974/75, 1983/84.
Yugoslav Cup
- Winner: 1960, 1968, 1976.
Champions League
- Champion: 1971/72.
- Finalist: 1962, 1972/73.
- Semifinalist: 1967/68, 1970/71.
Cup Winners Cup
- Semifinalist: 1976/77.
Notes
- ↑ Hrvatski rukometni savez Archived copy of September 27, 2016 on Wayback Machine Klubovi
Literature
- Jovan Paripović: Omladinski rukometni klub "Partizan" , Bjelovar, 1982.
Links
- Official Website (Croatian)