On this day, in 1941, in Novi Sad, Ivica Brzić (1941 – 2014) was born, a member of the first champion generation of Vojvodina and on four occasions the coach of the Old Lady.
He started his career in the youth categories of Vojvodina in 1954, and four years later he continued in the youth categories of Novi Sad, where he was a first team player from 1960 to 1964, during the period when Novi Sad played in the First League of Yugoslavia.
He spent the autumn part of the 1964 season in the jersey of Željezničar from Sarajevo, and from January 1, 1965 to June 30, 1972, he played for Vojvodina. He played 200 official matches for the Old Lady and scored five goals, and is considered one of the best players in the history of the club. With Vojvodina, he won the first title of champion of Yugoslavia in 1965/66 and played in the European Champions Cup.
He continued his foreign career in 1972 in Austria, where he played for six years in Alpina and Voest, and as a player of Voest from Linz, he won the Austrian championship in 1974 and played again in the Champions Cup.
He played one match for the B national team of Yugoslavia, and one friendly match for the A national team on September 18, 1966 at the JNA stadium in Belgrade against the USSR national team, which ended in defeat (1-2). He participated with the Yugoslav national team in the 1968 European Championship in Italy, where the national team won second place, although he did not played any game at that championship.
He worked as a coach in Yugoslavia, Spain, Austria and Peru. He coached Vojvodina four times, and in 1988 he participated in the creation of the team that won the second title in the history of the club a year later.
He was also the coach of Rad in Serbia, and in Spain he coached Osasuna, Mallorca, Real Oviedo and Hercules and recorded more than 200 games, while with Osasuna in 1985, for the first time in the history of the club, he secured a place in the UEFA Cup.
He coached both clubs in Austria, where he played, and left a special mark in Peru, where he was twice state champion with the Universitario, and once with Alianza, and once he was a runner-up. He also coached Sport Boys. He led Bluming in Bolivia, and ended his coaching career on the bench of Vojvodina, in 2008.
He worked as a scout for Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday for South and Central America. As the greatest recognition in his career, Brzić pointed out the fact that in five clubs in which he played, he was the team captain in four.
He passed away on June 1, 2014 in his home town Novi Sad at the age of 73.