STANIĆ, Slavko (Luigi) – Điđi (Gradinje, Municipality Oprtalj, 16 Feb 1942 – Kastav,
28 Oct 2005)
Bocce player and sports worker. Son of Anton and
Regina (née Puhar). He graduated from Technical School of Mechanical
Engineering in Rijeka.
He was born in Istria during the Kingdom of Italy;
hence his personal name Luigi was entered in the birth register. However,
following the war in the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he changed his
name to Slavko and used it all his life. He grew up in the area of the former
municipality of Pazin, but in 1957, he moved to Rijeka with his family. He
lived first in the city neighborhood of Kozala and then in Podmurvice, and in
1971, he permanently moved to the city of Kastav. His father was a shipyard worker
and his mother a housewife.
Slavko, known under the nickname Điđi, was one of the
founders of the Bocce Club Kastav in 1974. Then, in 1980, he moved to
the Bocce Club Drenova from Rijeka. During two decades he was a
first-team player and technical and sports manager. With the Drenova
team, he won the Inter-Republican League in 1986, and then played in the
federal bocce league of Yugoslavia until 1990. In the federal league, he won
the third place in 1988/89 and 1989/90. In that period, he played and led the
team for which, among others, Dinko Beaković and Slavko Olić
played, and Čedo Vukelić, Zvonko Jelovica and the brothers Sandro
and Simon Gulja earned their first affirmation. He won medals at the
republican championship of the Socialist Republic of Croatia in precision throwing
until 1990.
After Croatia gained its independence in 1992, he
played with Drenova in the Croatian First Bocce League from 1994 to 1997
and again in 1999. However, the successes from the period of the former
Yugoslavia were no longer achieved. At the end of the 1990s, he participated in
the reconstruction of Bocce Club Kastav. He earned the title of bocce
instructor for levels 1 and 2 and national bocce referee. As a coach, he led Croatia’s
men’s national team at several international tournaments.
He held numerous positions in sports. He was the
president of the Croatian Bocce Federation, the Bocce Association of the
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and the Bocce Association of the City of Rijeka.
At the Croatian Bocce Federation, he also performed the role of the president
of the Sports Commission and was a member of the Executive Board. On April 22,
1977, he participated in the Founding Assembly of the Sports Association of the
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in Rijeka and was elected to the first Executive
Committee. He was the president and member of the organizing committee at two
world bocce championships held in the city of Rijeka: in 1995 at the cadet WC
and in 1997 at the senior WC.
In his professional career, he worked as a manager for
the installation of central heating for the company Monter, but continued as a
private business owner from 1993 until his retirement.
Stanić was also actively involved in politics, as a
member of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS). He was a member of the
presidency of the IDS Chapter Associations in Rijeka, and the president of the
city branch of IDS in Kastav. From 2001 to 2005, as a member of the Kastav
Municipality, he was in charge of sports, culture, technical culture, and environmental
and consumer protection. It is due to his efforts that Kastav received a bocce court.
In his honor, since 2013, the Stražnica bocce court in Kastav has carried the
name "Slavko Stanić.”
In 2001, he became the recipient of the Croatian Bocce
Federation award on the occasion of 50 years of bocce in Croatia. In 2002, he
was awarded the Golden Plaque of the Bocce Association of the City of Rijeka on
the occasion of 50 years of the Bocce Association and organized bocce in Rijeka
in 2002. He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award issued by the Sports
Union of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in 2004, as well as the City of
Kastav Award for outstanding merits in the development of Kastav sports, which
was awarded to him posthumously in 2006.
Source: Statement
of Slavko''''''''s daughter, Elda Gržinić from Kastav, from the archives of Bocce Club
Drenova from Rijeka (prepared by M. Štefan).
References: 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; "Kastavskom
boćalištu ime dugogodišnjeg uspješnog sportskog i društvenog djelatnika” [Kastav bocce court named after successful
sports and community worker], Glas Kastavski 63, Kastav, June
2013; Slavica Kleva, "Svečano otvoren Boćarski dom Slavko Stanić” [Grand opening of the Slavko Stanić Bocce
Center],
Novi list, Rijeka, 24 Septermber 2021
