The coach Gojko Zec came to lead Crvena zvezda, at a time when some even had their doubts about him. But, in the Yugoslavian championship during the season 1976/1977, his happiest day was when the team’s advantage in the rank was 11 points, and Crvena zvezda won the twelfth title of the National Champion. Zec had been awaiting such a day, to finally prove wrong all the doubts, teases, negativity, set-ups and so on ... He showed a number of people what results hard work could have, because all throughout the championship, he used to spend day and night at Marakana.
Gojko Zec’s assistant, well-known Predrag Stanojević claimed in an interview that all Crvena zvezda coaches were great, because the environment is just great! Led by Gojko Zec, Crvena zvezda crushed everyone standing on their way all throughout the autumn session, suffering only one defeat, when the team was crippled. The packed stadium enjoyed the skills of the red and white team, and if the audience is the best mood indicator, then Crvena zvezda inspired admiration all throughout Yugoslavia in the mid seventies. Compared to the spring session of the same year, the ticket sales revenue got quadrupled in the fall of 1976, and back then it was said that Crvena zvezda’s audience was also fighting for points! Crvena zvezda defeated all rivals who followed in the rank that fall: Sloboda, Hajduk, Velež, Partizan, Dinamo, Olimpija and Radnički. The goalkeeper Boško Kajganić was brilliant in the autumn "eternal derby", but the whole championship was marked by the best scorer of the championship Zoran Filipović, whose scoring total could’ve been even better.
- The goals I scored against Hajduk, and above all the one in Split, as well as against Dinamo in Zagreb, are without a doubt the dearest to me. They were in a way a turning point of the Championship. The goals at the National team goalkeeper’s goals, i.e. Svilar’s and Katalinić’s, were the hardest ones to score – stated the Crvena zvezda offense leader Zoran Filipović.
Crvena zvezda ended the Championship ranked first in the table, far ahead of other teams, with as many as nine points more than the second team, Dinamo Zagreb. The red and white team’s final balance was: 20 wins, 10 draws and 4 defeats, 67:37 goal difference, 50 points in total.
Roster:
Dušan Ajder 1, Milan Babić 16, Petar Baralić 17-1, Vladislav Bogićević 34-6, Zdravko Borovnica 10, Bratislav Đorđević 5, Zoran Jelikić 27, Nikola Jovanović 23, Boško Kajganić 25-23 received goals, Dušan Lukić 23-1, Danilo Mandić 1, Slavoljub Muslin 32, Dušan Nikolić 31-2, Mile Novković 18-1, Aleksandar Panajotović 1, Vladimir Petrović 10, Branko Radović 26, Radivoje Ratković 3, Dušan Savić 25-15, Srboljub Stamenković 18-4, Dejan Stanković 1, Dragan Simeunović 1-1, Dragoslav Stepanović 7, Aleksandar Stojanović 11-13 received goals, Sead Sušić 13-7, Milan Ćalasan 3, Zoran Filipović 33-22, Miloš Šestić 22-8.
Trener:
Gojko Zec