The National Sports Academy ‘Vassil Levski’ has turned 75. The anniversary was marked by several events, an international scientific congress and a concert show among others. Over 500 former and current students took part in the latter. This is a good occasion to look back in the institution’s history which contains numerous little known or even completely unknown facts. Rector of the Academy Prof. Pencho Geshev presented the whole thing in short in an interview for Radio Bulgaria:

“A decree of the Tsar established in 1942 a State Higher Education School for Physical Training. Then in 1947 the name was changed by a Higher Education Act to Higher School for Physical Culture. In 1953 the name Higher Institute for Physical Culture ‘Georgi Dimitrov’ was adopted. In 1995 the school became the National Sports Academy and in 1999 it received its current name – National Sports Academy ‘Vassil Levski’. In the beginning there were four departments and 92 students – 77 girls and 15 boys.”

An analysis of that period back in time could assess the opening of a new educational institution as a really brave and wise move of our statesmen. It shows that their statehood was real, because despite of the war coming, they thought of the next generation’s future. The decision for the establishment of the sports higher education school became a fact after three-month-long debates at the Parliament. Tsar Boris III played the key role in its adoption.

The new institution, unveiled on 15 November 1942 in the aula of the Sofia University remained without its own building and other facilities for a long time. The students’ trainings were held thanks to the academy’s cooperation with the sports organizations in Bulgaria, which would provide their halls and stadiums for training and competitions. In 1948 then-PM Georgi Dimitrov gave his permission the Higher School for Physical Culture to use the building of the Santa Maria Catholic College in Sofia. The rectorate of the Academy was completed in 1995.

Still, each institution has its present days and future, besides its past. Prof. Geshev talks more on the Academy’s achievements through the years in its work with students:

“At the moment we have 3,500 students and 250 lecturers. There were certain periods of time when the interest of the foreign students was quite serious, especially to kinesiotherapy. Now the situation is similar and the students come from Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. We have a total of 250 foreign students right now. There has been this increasing interest to our PhDs over the past years, especially by Turkey. We’ve had wannabe students from Kazakhstan as of one year too. Our PhDs are some 150. My piece of advice to all the students is to prepare themselves with the purpose of their training – their turning into very good experts in their sphere of work. In the course of these 75 years the Academy has maintained this constant spirit, passed over from generation to generation and I think that despite all problems across our society and its higher education, the sports academy has been developing in a stable manner.”

The words of the rector mean optimism and relief for the society, as there are good samples of job well done in the sphere of the higher education, despite the scandals. Dozens of renowned ex-students of the National Sports Academy are the proof for that, as they bring glory to this country and unify the Bulgarians the way no one else has succeeded to do so far.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev