The team's first major tournament appearance was at the 1954 European Championship, hosted by Yugoslavia, in which it finished fourth. The team's biggest success in the following decades were a bronze medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The team disappeared during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, and its last major tournament appearance was at the 1991 European Championship in Israel, where they finished as runners-up losing to the Soviet Union in the final.