He was born on October 29, 1943 in Belgrade. "Coach of high-fliers", "Dušan the Great", "Basketball Zeu", are only few of the nicknames of one of the coaches with most trophies and the greatest coaches of our area of all times. He started his coaching career with juniors of Radnicki with whom he won the Yugoslav Championship. After coaching beginnings in his home club Ivkovic at the invitation of Ranko Žeravica in 1977 came to Partizan that was then in full rise. The opportunity he got in the following year, that was rarely given to the young experts, he used in a sensational way and in one season with Partizan as the first coach he won three trophies (championship, cup and cup I cup of Korac) playing contemporary, quick basketball, game that was then considered to be real discovery in Europe. Ivkovic continued his career in Greece and Russia where during the last 15 yeares he became Ťcoaching Godť. He worked in the following clubs: Radnicki, Partizan, Aris, Šibenka, Vojvodina, PAOK, Panionios, Olympiakos, AEK and currently in CSKA and won: Yugoslav Championship (Partizan 79), Yugoslav Cup (Partizan 79), Championship of Greece (Aris 81, PAOK 92, Olympiakos 97), Cup of Greece (AEK 2000, 2001), Champion of Russia (2003. 2004), Cup of Saporta (AEK 2000), Cup of Radivoje Korac (Partizan 1979) and EURO League champion (Olympiakos, 1997).
Enormous knowledge, originality, decisiveness, firmness, unerringness in selection are Duda's identity cardd. Out of all the coaches, Dušan Ivkovic brought to the national team the greatest dosis of his character and transmitted it to the players- steadiness. He debuted in the national team with gold medal and ended his career of the first coach with the most brilliant medal. Three triumphs at the European Championships (Zagreb 89, Rim 91, Atina 95 - without a match lost), title of the world champion (Argentina 90) and only one lost finals (Olympic games - Seul 88), is it little ?! Besides these, as a selector of the "blue" he won four trophies more: European and World gold, Olympic silver and European bronze. His role in the period of sanctions is especially crucial when Ivkovic together with men that conducted Yugoslav basketball organized tournaments and preparations in Greece, almost in the underground. The national team participated in various tournaments under different names. He fought and managed for us to return to the great scene, and at the same time he coached the coaching personnel and prepared his heirs. He introduced the representative work of Željko Obradovic - after the European Championship in Athens and surrendered him control over the golden team.
In 1997 he was proclaimed the best European coach, and he got a few offers from the NBA, the Decoration of Nemanja, the Award of the Association of Basketball Coaches of Yugoslavia for lifetime work "Slobodan Piva Ivkovic", and he was the Sports Ambassador FRY, president of the ABCY and member of the Expert Council of Basketball Union of Yugoslavia. These could do only the man with charisma and vision, basketball missionary Dušan Ivkovic.