RUŽIĆ,Marijan – Mario (Sušak, 9 Feb 1914 - Rijeka, 24 Jan 2009)
Bocce player and sports worker. Son of Marijan and
Zora (née Čargonja). He graduated from the state Grammar School in Sušak in
1932 and the Faculty of Law in Zagreb in 1937.
Marijan Ružić was a member of the National Liberation
Army from 1943, and retired with the rank of colonel of the Yugoslav People’s
Army.
Ružić became involved in bocce in Rijeka as a member
of the Bocce Club Vežica. While not an active player himself, he made great
contributions in organizational affairs ranging from the local to the federation
level. Along with Miloš Šepić and his associates, he became the
initiator of the establishment of the Bocce Association of the City of Rijeka
(formerly the Rijeka Chapter of the Bocce Federation). At the Founding Assembly
of BAR in December 1973, he was elected its first president. He was the head of
BAR at the time of the greatest expansion of Rijeka bocce, when it was the
leading center of that sport in the country. He was a member of the Executive
Board of the Croatian Bocce Federation and the president of the Bocce Federation
of Yugoslavia (1977-1981). During his term in BFY, the first senior and junior
medals at the world and European championships were won for Yugoslav bocce. He
also performed duties as a member of various commissions, from professional and
judicial to commissions for regulations at the level of CBF and BFY.
Ružić was also active in the Assembly of Referees of
Rijeka as a member of the examination commissions. From 1975, he was a member
of various commissions of the International Bocce Federation (Fédération
Internationale de Boules). He also contributed as a translator of
international technical regulations and other FIB regulations. He is credited,
along with Miloš Šepić, for the introduction of rough playing surfaces
on bocce courts. He earned the title of federal bocce referee in 1971. At the
FIB world congress in 1984 in Split (Croatia), he was elected as the first
bocce official from Croatia and Yugoslavia, as a lifetime honorary member of
the FIB, and is credited as one of the individuals most responsible for the
development of bocce in Rijeka and the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
In 1982, he received the Golden Bocce award on the
occasion of the 30th anniversary of BFY for his many years of service to this
sport, a CBF recognition on the occasion of 50 years of bocce in Croatia in 2001,
and the BAR Golden Plaque on the occasion of 50 years of the Bocce Association
and organized bocce in Rijeka in 2002.
He died at the age of 95 as the longest-serving bocce
official in Croatia.
References: Jakov Jakan Vidović, Sportsko boćanje [Sports
Bocce], Zagreb, 1989; Hrvatsko boćanje 1951 – 2001 [Croatian Bocce 1951 -
2001], Zagreb, 2001; 50 godina Boćarskog saveza Rijeka i B.K. "Benčić GMT”
Rijeka 1952 – 2002 [50 Years of the Bocce Association of the City of Rijeka and
B.K. "Benčić GMT” Rijeka 1952 – 2002], Rijeka, 2002; Damir Škarpa, Eduard
Hemar, Zlatna knjiga hrvatskog boćanja [Golden Book of Croatian Bocce], Zagreb,
2012
