Career
Korać is well-known for holding the Euroleague"s all-time single-game scoring record, at 99 points scored, in a game versus Alvik Basket, during the 1964-1965 season, and for once making 100 out of 100 free throws on a live television show in Belgium. Korać died in a car crash in 1969, at the age of 30, and International Basketball Federation Europe later established the European third-tier Radivoj Korać Cup in his remembrance in 1971. Korać was named one of International Basketball Federation"s 50 Greatest Players in 1991.
In 2002, the Basketball Federation of Serbia named it"s top national cup competition, the Radivoj Korać Cup, after him.
He was enshrined into the International Basketball Federation Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2008, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors.
Korać was born in Sombor, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He started playing for OKK Beograd, at the age of 16, and played as a left-handed forward-center.
Popularly nicknamed, Žućko ("Ginger"), he became one of the best, if not the best, player of the Yugoslav League in the 1960s.
In 1960, Korać was named The Best Athlete of Yugoslavia, and Yugoslav Sportsman of the Year. He was the best scorer of the Yugoslav League for seven seasons, which is a record, and he had a career scoring average in the Yugoslav league of 32.7 points per game. He reached various European champions" competitions with OKK Beograd.
Korać was named a part of the best European selection in both 1964 and 1965.
In a 2 game playoff series against Swedish League champions Alvik Basket, during the 1964-1965 season of the International Basketball Federation European Champions Cup (Euroleague), he scored 170 points. He scored 71 points in the first game of the series, and 99 points in the second game of the series, for a series scoring average of 85 points per game.
He was the EuroBasket"s Top Scorer 3 times (1959, 1961, and, 1963), and he was named the Most Valuable Player of EuroBasket 1961. He was the Top Scorer of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games.
With Yugolsavia"s senior men"s national team, he had 157 caps and scored 3,153 points, for a scoring average of 20.1 points per game.
Away from the basketball court, Korać enjoyed theatre, music, and reading books He was a senior undergraduate, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF), at the University of Belgrade. Surprisingly, he once turned down a contract offer to play with Red Star Belgrade.
On Monday 2 June 1969, Korać died in a car crash just outside of Sarajevo, on the road between Vogošća and Semizovac.
The Yugoslav Basketball Federation decided that no basketball games would be played in Yugoslavia on the 2nd of June again. In 1971, International Basketball Federation Europe established the Radivoj Korać Cup.
After the third-tier European-wide Cup folded in the year 2002, the basketball federation of Serbia and Montenegro renamed its national cup competition to Kup Radivoja Koraća, a name it still carries today in Serbia.