Vatroslav Piacun was a Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 basketball player and coach.

Career

The eldest son of Antun and Terezija, Vatroslav moved to Zagreb in 1947. Soon afterwards, he started playing handball

Team handball

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

 alongside Nikola Dasović who shortly thereafter introduced him to basketball. Piacun began playing competitive basketball for a team called "Zagreb" 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 Yugoslavian national basketball league. In September 1950, with the new name "Lokomotiva", the team was included into the national league with Piacun playing in the starting rotation.

Through 1959, Piacun had played in 65 national competition games scoring a total of 367 points. "Lokomotova" and Piacun had occasionally also played in international exhibition matches, most notably in The Netherlands and Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

.

Coaching

The first title for Lokomotiva, later Cibona, Vatroslav won coaching junior team September 26, 1954. His boys became well knows players and coaches: Đorđe Bjegović, Šunjić, Ivan Šiprak, Milan Vidaković, Vrhovac, Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel is a former Yugoslav basketball player and coach.He played from 1952 to 1966...

 - Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...

 2007, Magić

Magic

Magic may refer to:* Magic , the art of appearing to perform supernatural feats using sleight of hand or other methods* Magic , the use of paranormal methods to manipulate natural forces, such as witchcraft...

, Petrović

Petrovic

Petrović is a slavic last name,found in countries with slavic population.Examples of souch countries are : Croatia,Serbia,Montenegro,Bosnia and Hercegovina,Slovenia,Macedonia,Russia,this surename or last name is not tied to nationaliti,some people tie this last name to Serbian and Montenegrian...

, Marijan Catinelli, Zdilar, Borišić, Štuka, Marko Rittig, Boris Lalić.

Ljubljana New Year's Tournament

The first international title Vatroslav accomplished in Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 in January 1961. "Lokomotiva" got wild card and managed to be the best. Honved

Honved

Honvéd may refer to;* Honvédség, the Hungarian army.* Budapest Honvéd FC, a Hungarian football team....

, having all Hungarian representatives and European Champions in 1960, KK Crvena Zvezda

KK Crvena zvezda

Košarkaški klub Crvena zvezda is a professional basketball club based in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name Crvena zvezda means Red Star and it's part of the Red Star Belgrade sports society ....

 from Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 and KK Olimpija as the host team, with great player Ivo Daneu

Ivo Daneu

Ivo Daneu is a retired Slovenian basketball player and coach.He played for Branik Maribor and Olimpija Ljubljana , won Yugoslav league in 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1970)....

 were not good enough. Playing Honved

Honved

Honvéd may refer to;* Honvédség, the Hungarian army.* Budapest Honvéd FC, a Hungarian football team....

 and the result 70-62 showed the quality and talent of team members:: Zvonko Petričević, Dragan Kovačić, Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel is a former Yugoslav basketball player and coach.He played from 1952 to 1966...

, Eduard Bočkaj, Ivan Franić, Matan Rimac, Mladen Momčinovič, Matko, Vladimir Anzulović, Vilim Kocijan, Duško Džepina, Ilija Matijević and Boris Lalić. Losing against the host team and powerplay over team from Belgrad 94-62, made "Lokomotiva" the best of four teams.

Vatroslav once again coached the team in 1965. The team ended 4th. Team members: Dragan Kovačić, Zvonko Petričević, Eduard Bočkaj, Milivoj Omašić, Matan Rimac, Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel

Mirko Novosel is a former Yugoslav basketball player and coach.He played from 1952 to 1966...

, Zdenko Grgić, Tomislav Bajza, Stipe Vrcan, Roman Jurca, Vladimir Gruškovnjak, Đorđe Novaković, Marijan Fotivec, Krešimir Kralj, MIlan Vlatković, Topalović. The season was bad with some annulled matches, Vatroslav even got hit during the game in Skopje

Skopje

Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...

, and the team was out of the championship race.
Vatroslav came back for a short period of time in 1980 as consultant in women's basketball club Monting which in 1980 won Lilliane Roncheti Cup, and Mirko Soboćan as team coach.

Vatroslav spent some time as referee, see referee identity card, which is in his sister's, Nevenka Lončarić, possession.

Sources

• Zoran Kovačević: "Vukovi s Tuškanca",
• "Vjesnik
  Vjesnik
  Vjesnik is a Croatian daily newspaper, published in Zagreb. Through its history, it has been considered a newspaper of record.The paper was originally printed as a monthly publication by the League of Communists of Croatia starting in 1940...
  
  ",
• Nevenka Lončarić (Vatroslav's sister),
• Božena Lončarić