Slavko Rudolf
(23. 02. 1930. – 08 .06. 2013.)
Slavko Rudolf was from his earliest youth actively involved in sports. After World War II, working together with a group of young people in his native Brezje, near the town Sveta Nedelja, he founded a Club of physical culture Concord that gathered local youth within the sections for football, volleyball and athletics. At his initiative, the local leadership allocated land to the Club for sports fields, and by voluntary work of all Clubs members the first local court was built and it still exists today.
In 1951, Slavko Rudolf started a three-year study at the Department of Physical Education of Academy of Pedagogy in Zagreb, and after finishing it he got employed as a physical education teacher in Primary school St. Martin, where he founded the School sports association, along with local handball and football club.
In 1961, he participated in the formation of the Association for Physical Culture (APC) of Samobor and on its constituent assembly he was elected secretary. He later was elected as a member of the Executive Board of APC of Zagreb and the Commission for Propaganda of ACP of Croatia. His work in all these bodies actively contributed to the faster development of sport in Samobor and beyond.
In his capacity of ACP of Samobor secretary, he advocated for the massification of sport in schools and for the formation of the Municipal Board of School Sports, which took over the organization of competitions and other sport events of school youth. He also launched and organized competitions for workers (nine disciplines for men and five for women), worked on the establishment of municipal leagues in football, handball and volleyball, and at the same time organized seminars for professional staff in sport.
Together with Ivica Sudnik and Hrvoje Macanović in 1962, he founded Croatian Sledging Association, where he served as secretary and was responsible for organizing a number of sledging events at the level of work collectives and municipalities, as well as at the republic level and federal level of former Yugoslavia.
He was appointed secretary of the Commission for Physical Culture of the Republic Secretariat for Education, Culture, Technical and Physical Culture in 1963, and as part of that duty he, among others things, participated in the preparation of medium-term plan for the development of physical education in Croatia from 1964 till 1970.
In 1966, he was elected president of the Society of Physical Education Teachers of Zagreb, where he was particularly engaged in organizing consultations and seminars for professional development of physical education teachers. He also initiated the launch of the program for education of physical education teachers at the College of Physical Education, now the Faculty of Kinesiology, which studies he finished himself after it was finally founded.
In the fall of 1966, he was elected president of the Fund for the promotion of physical culture of Samobor and remained in that position until the establishment of the Autonomous interest community of physical education of Samobor in the mid-seventies. In its work, he was actively involved and has been delegated to the Autonomous interest community of physical education of Croatia.
In the same period, he headed and participated in the establishment of several sports clubs in Samobor. In the second half of the sixties, he was the vice-president of the Hiking Club Japetić, in 1968, he was one of the founders of the Ski Club Samobor, where he served as secretary during the next 10 years, and in 1974, he was one of the founders and the first president of Basketball Club Samobor.
At the end of his second term in office of the secretary of the Commission for Physical Education of the Republic Secretariat for Education, Culture, Technical and Physical Education, in the early seventies he started working as a physical education teacher in the Gymnasium in Samobor.
In his new workplace, he continued to strive to improve physical education and achieved remarkable results. In the Gymnasium, he renewed the work of the School Sports Association and his high school students, in a variety of sports disciplines, participated in all the sports events in Samobor, as well as in a number of sporting events in the city of Zagreb. In 1979, the Gymnasium female table tennis team won the second place in the state championship in the Sports Games of Elementary and Secondary Schools and female handball team won the fourth place in 1978.
In 1979, he was appointed manager of the Sports Hall of Elementary School Bogumil Toni in Samobor, which duty he performed for the next 18 years, until his retirement. He advocated that more children, youth and adults use sports facilities of the school, organized competitions in indoor sports for all age groups, and was engaged in the renewal and improvement of the facilities of the sports hall and during his leadership the new hall for martial arts was equipped.
A special recognition was indicated to him by his involvement in the organizing committee of the Universiade, held in 1987 in Zagreb.
Even after his retirement he remained active in Samobor sports scene, namely through his duties of vice-president of Samobor Sports Association, member of the Assembly for sport of Zagreb County, member of the Presidency of the Croatian Association of sporting recreation, secretary of Sporting recreation club "Sports for All" of Samobor, secretary of SKI Club Samobor, and through participation in the organization of a number of sporting events at the city and county level.
Slavko Rudolf was for his longtime sports work awarded many prizes and awards, of which the most important are:
1970. – The May Award of the Republic Secretariat for Education of Croatia
- Physical Culture Award of City of Samobor
- Gold Plaque of the Association for Physical Education in Croatia
- Trophy Dren of Zagreb Alliance for Sporting Recreation
- Trophy of the Association for Physical Education in Croatia
1994. – Plaque for Lifetime Achievement of the Croatian Association of Sporting Recreation
1996. – Prize for Lifetime Achievement of the City of Samobor
1997. – Prize for the deserving kinesiologist with the Charter for Lifetime Achievement of Croatian Kinesiology Association
1997. godine – decorated by the President of the Republic of Croatia with the Order of the Danica Hrvatska with the figure of Franjo Bučar
