[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2461-2462]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             KRESMIR COSIC

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to recognize 
one of the greatest foreign athletes to play in my home State of Utah--
Kresmir Cosic.
  My dear friend from Yugoslavia fell victim to cancer in 1995, but 
this Saturday, Brigham Young University will officially retire 
Kresmir's No. 11 jersey during a ceremony at BYU's final home game this 
season. It is a fitting tribute to a four-time Olympian and two-time 
all-American already enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
  Kresmir--or Kresh, as I called him--is a legend at BYU, but he will 
most likely be remembered for opening the door for foreign athletes in 
American colleges and the NBA. He truly had a global influence--Drazen 
Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, and Vlade Divac are just a few 
players who owe their success in America to their former coach from 
Yugoslavia.
  When I visited Yugoslavia one time, Kresh heard that I would be in 
Zagreb and drove up from Zadar so he could introduce me to one of his 
former players, who was a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter-day Saints in the area. He arrived in a VW bug, and to see Kresh 
unwind out of that little car was a humorous experience.
  I considered Kresh to be a tremendous friend. When he became the 
deputy ambassador for his country, he went out of his way to see me, 
and I was more than pleased to be an advisor and help him. He 
tirelessly walked the halls on Capitol Hill, trying to dispel 
misunderstandings about Croatia and Bosnia and the Serbian war waging 
in his native land.
  The last time I saw Kresh was at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. The 
doctors thought he was in a coma, but when I spoke to him, tears came 
to his eyes, and a warm look of caring showed he understood my words of 
consolation.
  After his death, when once again I was in his native land, I was 
pleased to see his wife, the person he loved so much.
  Mr. President, I have only mentioned just a few highlights from the 
life of this great man. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the 
Record a touching article from the Deseret Morning News that summarizes 
why so many of us in Utah are looking forward to finally seeing his 
jersey hang from the Marriott Center's rafters this weekend.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From the Deseret Morning News]

         Late Cougar Cosic's Talent, Fun Couldn't Be Contained

                            (By Dick Harmon)

       Kresimir Cosic could barely fit into my '63 Volkswagen that 
     day. But who'd have guessed this world, as well, could hardly 
     contain him and, at the age of 46, gave him back to God.
       I was just 17, puttering around in my Bug when I saw the 6-
     foot-11 Cosic walking down the sidewalk of a street in Provo 
     on his way to basketball practice. I stopped and asked if he 
     wanted a ride. He said he did and he crammed himself into the 
     car. It was like putting a praying mantis in a thimble.
       The first thing Cosic did was reach over and turn on the 
     radio. He broke out in a big smile, turned his face to mine 
     and said: ``I love the music.''
       In a nutshell, that epitomized all you need to know about 
     Cosic, the Yugoslavian. He loved life. He loved basketball, 
     and he loved playing to the largest crowds in the college 
     game when they hatched out the Marriott Center back in 1972.
       To Cosic, music played when he had a basketball in ``his 
     hands. He may have been one of the most entertaining players 
     who ever lived. Certainly he was the most gifted passing 
     center to play the game. As they say in Europe, Cosic was 
     Magic Johnson before Magic Johnson.
       On Saturday, folks at BYU will officially retire Cosic's 
     No. 11 jersey during a ceremony at the final home game this 
     season, against New Mexico. There is a generation of BYU fans 
     who never saw Cosic play. They got robbed.
       ``When we toured Europe a couple of summers ago, everywhere 
     we went, they knew BYU basketball because of Cosic,'' BYU 
     coach Dave Rose said.
       Cosic's resume reads like he invented basketball. In 
     Europe, and in his native Yugoslavia, he just about did. A 
     four-time Olympian and two-time all-American, Cosic is 
     enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, 
     Mass.
       Cosic died in May 1995 of lymphatic cancer. The week before 
     he passed, he was distraught when he talked to his former 
     coach, Glenn Potter, because he felt he'd defeated the 
     cancer, but in the process, he'd contracted hepatitis and was 
     going to get a liver transplant. ``The next thing I knew, he 
     died,'' Potter said.
       Cosic's passion for the game overwhelmed his approach to 
     play. Cosic took more pleasure in passing the ball and 
     setting up teammates than shooting. Still he could be heard

[[Page 2462]]

     yelling ``Opa, Opa'' (I'm open, I'm open). He thought himself 
     a point guard, but he was a devastating inside player, a 
     master of the hook, fade-away, running jumper, set shot and 
     long bomb. He was a showman, a Globetrotter-type star who 
     oozed charisma on the court in an era absent of freshman 
     varsity players, dunks and 3-point lines.
       Imagine, if he played today.
       ``This was before the 3-point shot, and you weren't allowed 
     to dunk the ball,'' remembered guard Belmont Anderson, now a 
     podiatrist in Las Vegas. ``He had a Larry Bird range with his 
     outside shot. When he'd take it, the coaches would yell, `no, 
     no, no . . . good shot, Kresh.' They frowned on taking the 
     long shot because you weren't rewarded for it. Imagine what 
     he'd have done if the 3-point shot was in back then or if he 
     was allowed to dunk.''
       Cosic was famous for leading the fast break, making a 
     pinpoint pass or doing a jackknife lay-up, tucking in his 
     knees, going airborne, looking like a camel in flight. He 
     once took off against UCLA's Sidney Wicks, and the Bruin big 
     man looked perplexed--he'd never seen a 6-11 guy playing 
     point guard.
       ``He loved to dribble the ball up court,'' Potter said. ``I 
     remember one day in scrimmage he took off with the ball 
     leading the break, and our point guard, Bernie Fryer, ran up 
     behind him and stole the ball. He was upset. They were on the 
     same team.''
       Said Anderson: ``If you were cutting for the basket and he 
     had the ball, you had to be alert because Cosic could hit you 
     with a pass, and if you weren't ready, it would hit you in 
     the head,''
       Cosic was a master of behind-the-back and between-the-leg 
     deliveries, Potter added. ``I remember one game in the Smith 
     Fieldhouse, Moni Sarkalahti cut for the basket and Cosic 
     passed the ball between his own legs, between the legs of the 
     center guarding him, and hit Moni in the hands for a lay-
     in.''
       Former BYU assistant coach Pete Witbeck called Cosic the 
     best center in the college game, better than Bill Walton.
       Joe Watts, now executive director of the Utah Golf 
     Association, was a sportswriter covering Cosic's final home 
     game in Provo when he penned: ``The thought leaves me with an 
     empty feeling, a loneliness, a sadness, like I'll be losing a 
     friend. Something really good will be leaving my life. 
     Kresimir Cosic has brought me, and many others, some of our 
     most enjoyable moments in basketball. He is without any 
     question the greatest passing center I have ever seen in the 
     game. That alone has been thrilling.''
       UTEP's Don Haskins, on whom Hollywood based the movie 
     ``Glory Road,'' called Cosic the best center in the Olympics. 
     It was a Cosic long bomb at UTEP that handed Haskins his 
     first defeat on the Miner home court since joining the WAC, a 
     five-year perfect league home record.
       Cosic could have had a solid NBA career. He would have sold 
     tickets and helped TV ratings. Instead, he chose to return 
     home to Yugoslavia and help develop others and play for the 
     Yugoslavian Olympic team. He later became the Croatian 
     ambassador to the United States.
       ``That tells you a lot about Cosic when compared to players 
     today who won't even play in the Olympics,'' Anderson said. 
     ``Cosic cared about the game, his country, more than money 
     and fame.''
       Potter remembers Cosic's late return from playing in the 
     Olympics before his senior year. He missed several deadlines 
     to return to Provo. Potter called Cosic twice and asked when 
     he'd come back.
       ``Coach, I'll be there,'' Cosic said twice.
       Finally, when he showed up in Provo, Potter asked Cosic why 
     he'd been delayed so long, for nearly a month. Cosic told him 
     when he was touring Yugoslavia with a national club team, he 
     once told an audience in a gym he had a film for them to see 
     later. It was ``Man's Search for Happiness,'' an LDS Church 
     film explaining the plan of salvation. After that, Cosic 
     said, his phone was bugged and his passport was confiscated.
       Potter recalls an exhausted Cosic leaning against the 
     basketball standard at practices that year. Potter asked him 
     what was up and Cosic told him he was tired, he'd gone to bed 
     about 3 or 4 in the morning the past few weeks. Potter asked 
     him why.
       Unknown to Potter, Cosic stayed up translating the Book of 
     Mormon into Croatian. ``It's something he thought was 
     worthwhile and he had to do.''
       Potter remembers Cosic coming in his BYU office and 
     debating tactics of the game, arguing strategy.
       The bottom line was to give him the ball.
       He was such a good passer you wanted him to have the ball 
     in his hands.
       When Cosic returned to Zadar, Yugoslavia, to coach, he 
     invited Potter to visit him three times. One day Cosic called 
     Potter and asked him to come to Zadar and help him with a 
     coaching problem.
       ``What is it?'' Potter asked.
       ``Coach, I don't know what to tell the guards to do.''
       Potter about keeled over laughing. ``All those times in my 
     office, arguing.''
       Cosic ended up a European hero, opening the door for 
     foreign athletes in American colleges and the NBA. Aside from 
     filling the new Marriott Center night after night in the 
     early '70s, his influence was global. Those who learned at 
     his hand or were influenced by Cosic include Drazen Petrovic, 
     Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja and Vlade Divac--all players on 
     Yugoslavia's 1984 Olympic team coached and handpicked by 
     Cosic.
       In his final years, working in Washington, D.C., as 
     ambassador, Cosic worked to dispel misunderstandings about 
     Croatia and Bosnia and the Serbian war waging in his native 
     country.
       Cosic told then Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee 
     Davidson he'd like to get back into coaching basketball 
     someday but wasn't sure if it was in the cards, with the 
     cancer and all.
       ``But it is what I would like to do, not necessarily what I 
     will do. You never know what will happen. My country may need 
     me to do something more. Or maybe God will have other 
     ideas.''
       He was right. Within six months of that interview, he died.

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