There are little things that are such gems that you must never forget or lose them. It's getting harder and harder for me to do it, but sometimes I can...

Milka

Dino

- It never occurred to me to invent something, except for that one time... -

The main advice and motto of the great Croatian sports journalist and athlete Milka Babović was the following: - It never occurred to me to invent something, to not double-check some information. People want accuracy, that they can trust a journalist, and that is perhaps the only advice I have for young colleagues. However, the exception proves the rule. On one occasion, Milka told an anecdote about her first and last little journalistic lie.

At the time when Milka Babović commented on her first sports races, broadcasts of sports competitions were not as simple as they are today. Each broadcast required a lot of research and preparation, because Yugoslav journalists often did not even have the start lists from world competitions available.

They would catch up to it by listening to live broadcasts in foreign languages. They watched closely as foreign reporters broadcast the first series of the competition. They had a piece of paper in front of them on which they prepared the starting numbers and during the competition they would write down the names of the athletes. Thus, in their reporting, it seemed that they were handling all the important information.

On one occasion, Milka listened to the broadcast of a world competition in parallel and reported on it. The reporter, a Swiss, was extremely incomprehensible. He said that "so-and-so" is performing for Canada. Milka didn't understand anything. In a split second, she had to tell her listeners who was performing, even though she didn't know it herself. – Canadian Elliot performs at number 4. – she said confidently, not knowing who Elliot was or where the name came from in her mind. But the smart Milka also wrote her name on the start list. Thus, in the second and third series, "dwelling Elliot" performed for Canada.

The famous reporter knew that if she, who knows most of the sports names, didn't know who could be Canada's competitor, no one would. And he didn't know. For years, no one discovered that Milka made up the contestant's name, until she told the anecdote herself.

The mysterious Elliot

How did Milka delight the Krleža family?

Milka Babović, the first sports reporter in Croatia, had a reputation as a very serious journalist. In 1957, she got a job at Radio Television Zagreb, where she founded the first sports newsroom. She also started the first morning workout with a TV screen in 1958 in the show "Vežbajte s nama". From the same year, she also edited the TV Zagreb program "Telesport", in which many famous athletes, coaches, doctors and politicians talked about recreation, top sports, doping, the school system of physical education and many other things.

In addition to editorial work, Milka reported on all significant sports events - world competitions and the Olympic Games. She always adhered to high professional standards when reporting. She was very elegant and often chose her words. But guesting with host Voja Šiljko in the show Little night talks revealed Milka's other, playful side. Host Vojo teased Milka that, as an athlete, she must like "bulky" and "macho" types of men.
Milka answered decisively: - No, I like the type of degenerate intellectuals, just like you! - Vojo Šiljak then asked Milka if there is a famous actor that she particularly likes.

Milka, joking, concluded - No, when Leslie Howard died, I became a widow. - The reactions of the audience to that "teasing" performance by Milka Babović were extremely positive. A long time has passed since the aforementioned interview, and Milka was carelessly walking down the street. Suddenly, a car stopped next to her. A high-pitched voice called out to her from the car: - Babovićka, Babovićka! - Milka stopped and turned around.

She peeked out of the car, no less than – Bela Krleža! Delighted, she said to Milka: - Dear child! We were watching you! Why aren't you always as hot and chatty as you were in Little Night Talk?! –

Milka was delighted, but in her defense she said that she could not talk like that in the diary. Bela laughed sweetly at that, and Milka concluded that even her excessive seriousness sometimes needs to be mocked a little.

About macho men

How does "Česka Lokomotiva" sing Ćiribiri bela Mare moja?

Emil Zátopek, known as the "Czech Locomotive", was a four-time athletics champion at the Olympics. One of the greatest athletes in history, he competed in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and in the marathon, breaking many records. Milka Babović was his dear friend.

Once this famous athlete arrived in Zagreb on his way to Kranj for a sports competition. Milka met him at the Zagreb airport, as a journalist, but also as a friend. Then they went together to one of the salons in Zagreb to record the interview.

During the interview, Milka asked him if he remembered their time together during the preparations in Split. Zátopek replied that he remembers those wonderful times well. He emphasized that he remembered two things best. The first thing was the delicious red wine they drank, and the second thing was the song that Milka taught them to sing. Milka was surprised because she did not remember that she had taught them any song. At that, this famous Czech athlete began to sing in Croatian: - Those are not the masts of my boat, but the legs of my Marica, my white Mare, my white Mare, my white Mare, I'm off to the marina! –

When Milka brought the recording to the newsroom, all the journalists were dying of laughter. Coming to their senses, they began to think about whether it was really fair to broadcast such an interview. Namely, back then the rules were much stricter and more attention was paid to form. In the end, they decided to show it, and several years later, that interview served as an exemplary example of a quality journalistic interview for journalism students all over Yugoslavia.

After the wine

Milka, like all other children who grew up during World War II, had a difficult childhood. The father, a state officer, was captured by the Ustashas and taken to Germany, where he died at the very end of the war. She also lost her sister Mara, who suffocated as a fifteen-year-old girl.

Milka was a refugee. In 1941, her family had to flee from Sarajevo. Milka had to leave her room with a view of her beloved Miljacka and the park where she happily played. The Ustashas came to them and told them that they had to leave the apartment where they were living. - They chased us away, but I always say that it wasn't the Croats. They were radical people, as unfortunately there are everywhere. We've been through a lot as a family and the only thing I don't like are nationalists. I am open to everyone. I am not of any nationality. - said Milka later.

Milka's mother fled to Montenegro with her three children. She was counting on rumors that the Italian Queen Jelena would advocate that the captured Montenegrins be moved to that country. She thought that her father would return, but, unfortunately, that did not happen. The family eventually moved to Zagreb.

Despite the war, Milka said that she had a wonderful childhood. In the period outside of her duties as the eldest child in the family, she could do whatever she wanted. She was a very diligent and responsible student. She started doing athletics in 1945 at a cross competition held in Srijemska Mitrovica. She showed a great talent that will soon determine her whole life...

Determined Milka enrolled at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb at the age of twenty, but she did not like that faculty. She transferred to the pedagogical academy because she really loved children or "little people" as she used to call them. She graduated as a teacher with enhanced physical education and Croatian and German languages. At the same time, she was involved in athletics and was a multiple state champion of Yugoslavia and a two-time world student champion (1953 in Dortmund and 1957 in Paris). During the war, when it was almost impossible to travel, Milka, going to competitions abroad, reported on sports results. That is why it is not surprising that, at the time of the formation of the sports newsroom of Television Zagreb, she was invited by the experienced journalist Hrvoje Macanović.

After getting a job at Television Zagreb as a journalist in 1958, she continued training in athletics. - I already worked on television, and I still ran regularly. I remember when my colleague Mladen Delić and I broadcast the Yugoslav championship in athletics from Belgrade. In the morning, I ran the hurdles qualifications, then ran the race, and returned to the cabin to continue broadcasting the event. It was all normal - she recalled later.

Milka was a great worker and a good soul. At the time in the 90s, when some journalists were counting her blood cells and wondering whether they could place her among the greatest Croatian athletes or not, she generously helped refugees by accommodating them in her tiny apartment in Zagreb.

In one of her last longer interviews for HRT, Milka, quoting a well-known writer, said: - You know what, all great things happen by themselves and either hit us on the head or bring good things. But when I come to Brooklyn, I run back to that corner every time to see if baker Kowalski bakes such wonderful pastries as in my childhood. And I remembered that. There are little things that are such gems that you must never forget or lose them. It's getting harder and harder for me to do it, but I can do it sometimes... -

And Milka's commentary on figure skating, her conjuring of colorful dresses from the world championships to the spectators sitting in front of black and white televisions, became one of the jewels of the collective memory of an entire small nation.

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