Milorad Pavić was born in Valjevo, Serbia, on 11 November 1921 and died on 16 August 2005. He played for Red Star Belgrade, and was taken hostage by German forces during the Second World War. He returned to Red Star as coach between 1957 and 1964, winning three Yugoslav championships and three cups in more than two hundred matches, then built a career in western Europe: Standard Liège, where he won two Belgian cups, Club Brugge, and Athletic Bilbao, with whom he won the Spanish cup in 1973.

Benfica appointed him for 1974/75, the first full season after the Carnation Revolution, a period in which the club lost its access to players from the African colonies and Portuguese football was reorganising itself. He took charge of 43 matches, winning 29 and losing only four, and won the national championship at the first attempt along with the Lisbon honour cup. His first match was a 4-2 win over Monterrey on tour in July 1974 and his last a penalty shoot-out victory over Badajoz in the Iberian Trophy in June 1975.

He was a defensive organiser by instinct, drilling a compact shape and a well-protected back line, and he asked his side to attack quickly once the ball was won rather than to hold it. He left after the single season and coached Málaga, Sporting, Celta de Vigo and Espanyol in Spain and Portugal, returning twice to Standard Liège in the 1980s.