Personal information | |
---|---|
Born | Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia | January 13, 1932
Died | February 14, 2023 | (aged 91)
Sport | |
Sport | Water polo |
Hrvoje Kačić (13 January 1932 – 14 February 2023) was a Croatian water polo player, legal scholar and politician.
Kačić was born in Dubrovnik on 13 January 1932. [1] At the age of 18, Kačić played for the Yugoslavia national water polo team at the 1950 European Water Polo Championship at which the team won bronze. [2] During the 1950s he became out of favour with Yugoslavia's communist regime and had his passport confiscated on three occasions. [2] He was jailed by the regime in 1952 which prevented him from joining the national team at the 1952 Summer Olympics. [2] He was also expelled from university.
Kačić competed with the national team at the 1956 Summer Olympics, during which his friend and teammate Ivo Štakula defected to Australia. [2] In 1957, he was awarded the Sportske novosti Croatian Sportsman of the Year. At the 1959 Mediterranean Games he won a gold medal. [1] On the club level he was a long-time member of Croatian waterpolo club Jug from Dubrovnik, multiple national champion.
In 1956 he finished a degree in law. [3] He later finished a doctorate in law in 1965 at the University of Zagreb, specializing in maritime law. [4] Kačić also wrote about history. [5] He has collaborated with Ivo Pilar Institute of History. [6]
Kačić was elected to the Croatian Parliament for the first time in the country's first democratic elections in 1990 as an independent candidate. [7] From 1994 to 2001 he was president of the State Commission for Borders of the Republic of Croatia. [7]
In 1994 he received the Croatian Olympic Committee's Matija Ljubek Award. [8] He has served on the committee which gives out the Franjo Bučar State Award for Sport. [9] Kačić still actively supported Croatian water polo, retaining a position in the Croatian Water Polo Federation and supporting the national team. [10]
Kačić died on 14 February 2023, at the age of 91. [11]