Strahinja Alagić

Strahinja "Braca" Alagić (Serbian Cyrillic: Страхиња "Браца" Алагић; 14 August 1924 – 10 October 2002) was a Serbian professional basketball player and coach. He dedicated his coaching career is the most to women's basketball. With Crvena zvezda he won the FIBA EuroLeague Women in 1979.^[1]

Strahinja Alagić

Personal information
Born	(1924-08-14)14 August 1924 Kozarac, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	10 October 2002(2002-10-10) (aged 78) Belgrade, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serbian
Career information
Playing career	1945–1952
Number	3, 9
Coaching career	1947–1985
Career history
As a player:
1945	Yugoslav Army
1946	Partizan
1947–1952	Crvena zvezda
As a coach:
1947–1951	Crvena zvezda Women (youth)
1952	OKK Beograd (assistant)
1953	OKK Beograd
1954	Yugoslavia Women
1957–1960	Crvena zvezda Women
1968	Yugoslavia Women
1974–1981	Crvena zvezda Women
1976	Crvena zvezda Men
00	Radnički Kragujevac Women
00	Sloboda Women
00	Radnički Kragujevac Men
Career highlights
As player: 6× Yugoslav League champion (1945, 1947–1951) As coach: 10× Yugoslav Women's League champion (1958–1960, 1973, 1976–1981) Women's European Champions Cup winner (1979) 4× Yugoslav Women's Cup winner (1974, 1976, 1979, 1981) Ivković Award for Lifetime Achievement (2003)
Medals Women's basketball Head coach of  Yugoslavia EuroBasket Women 1968 Italy Team

Alagić was a member of the first managing board of the Crvena zvezda basketball club.^[2]

Playing career

Alagić started playing basketball after the end of World War II as a member of the Yugoslav Army basketball team. The first Yugoslav national championship held in Subotica in 1945 where his team won the title by beating the Serbia selection in the finals. Next year he moved to newly formed basketball club Partizan together with seven teammates such as Aleksandar Nikolić and Mirko Marjanović.^[3]

After spending a year in Partizan, Alagic moved to Crvena zvezda where he played the longest and where he achieved major successes. In the period from 1947 to 1951 he won five national championships with Nebojša Popović, Srđan Kalember and others.^[4] In July 1950, he won an international cup tournament with the Zvezda in Milan, Italy.^[5]

Coaching career

After ending his playing career, Alagić devoted himself to coaching. First of all Alagić worked as a coach of women's team, although he briefly coached the Crvena zvezda men's team. With women's team of Crvena zvezda he had a lot of success, especially in national competitions. The most important club's success in the history of women's basketball is winning the European Cup in 1979 with Crvena zvezda.

Alagić had a big success with the Yugoslavia women's national team, which in 1968 led to the first medal in Eurobasket.^[6]

Career achievements

Player

• Yugoslav League champion: 6 (with Yugoslav Army: 1945 and with Crvena zvezda: 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951).

Coach

• Yugoslav Women's League champion: 10 (with Crvena zvezda: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1972–73, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81)
• Yugoslav Women's Cup winner: 4 (with Crvena zvezda: 1973–74, 1975–76, 1978–79, 1980–81)
• FIBA Women's European Champions Cup winner: 1 (with Crvena zvezda: 1978–79).

See also

• List of EuroLeague Women winning coaches
• List of Red Star Belgrade basketball coaches