[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 94 (Friday, June 9, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8083-S8084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             KRESIMIR COSIC

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, a beloved friend and adopted son of Utah, 
Kresimir Cosic, passed away May 25. At that time I paid a tribute to 
him on the floor of the Senate. Since then, others have also paid 
tribute in Utah newspaper articles. I ask unanimous consent that these 
comments be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  There being no objection, the material ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                 [From The Deseret News, June 3, 1995]

                           (By Lee Davidson)

                   Cosic Was a True Man of Principle

       Washington.--He skipped the chance to be a basketball-star 
     millionaire and never looked back. Instead, he choose to 
     sacrifice for his God, his country, his friends and his 
     family.
       But that made Kresimir Cosic, 46, who died last week, among 
     the happiest people I've ever known, even when he suffered 
     from cancer.
       As Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said--giving maybe the highest 
     honor I've seen a politican offer at the death of another--
     ``I never saw Kres without a smile.''
       That's hard to say about other sports stars and celebrities 
     who spend millions or act outrageously thinking it will make 
     them happy. Cosic found the type of joy through service that 
     money cannot buy, nor can sickness or even death destroy.
       My own story of Cosic begins where most others end--after 
     his basketball career, mostly because I didn't meet him until 
     he arrived in Washington as deputy ambassador for Croatia. 
     That's when I wanted to find out how an athlete became an 
     ambassador.
       Of course, Cosic was among the greatest of all basketball 
     stars at Brigham Young University and led the former 
     Yugoslavia to many Olympic medals (including a gold in 1980) 
     as a player and a coach.
       But Cosic's power in politics (and religion) came because 
     the 6-foot-11 center--who could dribble, pass and score from 
     three-point range as well as a guard--turned down offers from 
     the Los Angeles Lakers and others that would have made him a 
     millionaire.
       Cosic said riches weren't as important as his country and 
     helping The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.
       He returned to Yugoslavia and almost single-handedly turned 
     it into a basketball powerhouse with world and European 
     championships. He found and developed players such as the 
     Chicago Bulls' Toni Kukoc (a Croat) and the Lakers' Vlade 
     Divac (a Serb).
       They would become millionaires, unlike Cosic. That didn't 
     bother him. During an interview at his middle-class home last 
     year, Cosic would not dwell on unfound riches, but instead 
     his eyes twinkled when he told how rewarding it was to coach 
     such players from differing (and now warring) ethnic 
     backgrounds.
       He didn't return to Yugoslavia just to build a basketball 
     team. He wanted to build principles of democracy and sought 
     to reconcile ethnic groups of Yugoslavia. Such work would 
     later win him the prestigious Freedom Award.
       He also wanted to build up the LDS Church there and at age 
     23 became the country's presiding elder.
      He even translated and published The Book of Mormon in 
     Serbo-Croatian and assumed all responsibility for it 
     before the Communist hierarchy.
       Cosic's politics and religion were an irritant to Communist 
     leaders--but his popularity and talent on the basketball 
     court made them withhold action against him.
       His patriotism showed again when Yugoslavia dissolved into 
     a multisided civil war at the end of communism. At the time, 
     Cosic was coaching a professional team in Greece--and could 
     easily have stayed far from the conflict.
       But he contacted leaders of Croatia (whom he knew because 
     he was a sports hero) to volunteer for whatever they needed. 
     Because he has lived in the United States and had contacts 
     with key members of Congress, they sent him to Washington as 
     a deputy ambassador to tell their story.
       After a year into his assignment, the cancer was 
     discovered.
       Even with it, Cosic looked--as always--for a bright spot. 
     The energy-depleting treatments forced him to stay at home. 
     Instead of complaining, he spoke with a smile about how nice 
     it was to have more time with his wife and three children.
       He said it also gave him a chance to work on his family 
     history, which he said he had been too busy for too long to 
     research well.
       Even with illness, he seemed to be almost always at the LDS 
     Church's Washington Temple. Some church assignments of my own 
     often took me there, and I always ran into Cosic. I joked 
     that the must live there. He smiled and said he enjoyed the 
     peace he found there--and enjoyed being near a temple, which 
     he lacked for most of his years as a member of the LDS 
     Church.
       That's how I will remember Cosic. Always finding a reason 
     to be happy no matter what problems he faced or opportunities 
     he had to skip--even though they were often not only big, but 
     monumental.
                                                                    ____

                 [From the Deseret News, May 26, 1995]

                             (By Brad Rock)

              Colorful Cosic Brought Joy to BYU Basketball

       Pete Witbeck can see him even now, dark hair tousled and 
     untamed, laughing in the doorway of the coaches' office 25 
     years ago. Which is how he wants to remember Kresimir Cosic.
       Cosic, one of the legendary basketball players in BYU 
     history, died early Thursday in a Washington D.C. hospital at 
     46, after fighting cancer for over a year.
       The loss cast a pall over the athletic department at BYU. 
     It wasn't only that they lost a former player; it's that with 
     the passing of Cosic, a little of the joy was lost from the 
     game, too. Because nobody played for the joy of it all like 
     Cosic.
       He arrived on the BYU varsity basketball scene in 1970 like 
     a cool wind off the Adriatic Sea, where he played as a child. 
     He was a gangly summation of tendons and bones, loping down 
     the court and driving everyone--the opposition, the coaches, 
     the fans--a little crazy. He had an 18-foot skyhook and a 
     baseline hook and a set shot beyond what is now the 3-point 
     arc. His game ranged from unorthodox to unpredictable to 
     flat-out weird.
       ``Everyone just fell in love with the guy and the way he 
     played,'' says Witbeck.
       When Witbeck, now BYU's associate athletic director, was an 
     assistant basketball coach for the Cougars, he recruited 
     Cosic from the former Yugoslavia. Since Cosic lived under a 
     Communist regime, contact was limited.
       Several years after first being contacted by BYU, when the 
     Yugoslavian national team was in Naples, Cosic defected. He 
     arrived in Salt Lake City in the still-dark hours of the 
     early morning, where Cougar officials picked him up at the 
     airport. ``It was like an episode from `Mission 
     Impossible,''' says Witbeck. ``Cloak-and-dagger.''
       Once in Provo, though, Cosic never turned back. As anyone 
     who ever saw him lead a fast break can attest, Cosic wasn't 
     one to turn back. ``When you got Kres, you got 110 percent of 
     him,'' says his friend, Bill Nixon.
       Bursting to the forefront after a year on the freshman 
     team, Cosic caught the fans, the opposition and even the 
     coaches by surprise. He was a reedlike 195-pound, 6-11 center 
     who loved bringing the ball up the court. The guards 
     complained that centers shouldn't be leading the break, but 
     to no avail. Cosic would smile engagingly and protest that he 
     only brought the ball up because he was open.
       Cosic's versatility was astounding for his era. In a time 
     of mostly slow, post-up centers, Cosic ranged across the 
     court. Before David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon or Sam Perkins, 
     there was Cosic. He could make a wraparound pass, dribble 
     between his legs, put up a finger roll or nail the perimeter 
     shot with surprising adeptness. He was Pete Maravich with six 
     more inches. Fans packed the Smith Fieldhouse and later the 
     Marriott Center to see him cast his spell.
       Witbeck's enduring memory is of a tight game for the 
     conference championship against rival Utah. Cosic was 
     bringing the ball down
      the middle on a fast break, when Utah guard Mike Newlin came 
     over to check Cosic, expecting him to pass it to the wing. 
     But Cosic unexpectedly lifted into the air near the free 
     throw line, tucking his knees under his chin like a 737 
     folding up its landing gear, and laying the ball off the 
     glass.
       Cosic looped out from under the basket, trying hard not to 
     smile. The coaches, who had been worrying about Cosic losing 
     the ball out of bounds, exhaled. The Utah players gaped in 
     astonishment. ``The things he'd do were unbelievable,'' says 
     Witbeck.
       Cosic ignored overtures from the NBA in order to return to 
     Yugoslavia, where he spent most of the rest of his life in 
     church and civic work. When he died, he was serving as 
     Croatia's deputy ambassador to the U.S.
       But it's his career at BYU for which he will be most 
     remembered. Of all the stars in the school's history, none 
     could turn heads like Cosic. As fierce a competitor as was 
     Danny Ainge, as dramatic as Michael Smith, as accurate as 
     Devin Durrant, as spectacular as Jeff Congdon, as unstoppable 
     as Mel Hutchins . . . nobody could bring the crowd to its 
     feet like Cosic.
       ``Nobody who ever played for us was in his class,'' says 
     Witbeck. [[Page S8084]] 
       And none exuded the elation of basketball in quite that 
     way. In a sport now dominated by trash talk and shattered 
     backboards, navel rings and disrespect, there is something 
     sweetly appealing in the long-ago memory of Cosic, racing 
     exuberantly down the court, wondering what to do with the 
     ball, once he got to the hoop. Wondering if there were 
     anything in the world quite so much fun.
       ``I can see him now,'' says Witbeck.
       Witbeck can still see Cosic, all elbows and knees, taking 
     in a rebound and turning to start the break. He pictures the 
     18-foot hooks and the court-length passes. He envisions the 
     angular shoulders filling up the frame of his office door. 
     And when he does, for just for a moment, he too can feel the 
     joy of the game.

  Mr. HATCH. In these articles you find that Kresimir Cosic dazzled 
many with his grace on the basketball court at Brigham Young University 
and wherever he played or coached. He is also remembered as a devoted 
patriot who served his country, Croatia, and ours, as Croatia's Deputy 
Ambassador to the United States.
  Although Cosic suffered later in his life from cancer, he still 
remained in service to his faith, family, and country.
  I hope my colleagues will take the opportunity to read these 
articles, because they truly describe the great man Kresimir Cosic was.


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