jurina was born in našice. standing at 1.94 m, he debuted as a handball player with the local team rk nexe našice; in 1976 he moved to rk partizan bjelovar, winning the yugoslav national championship in 1977 and 1979. in 1980 he was a member of the yugoslav handball team which finished sixth in the handball olympic tournament. he played all six matches and scored 33 goals. jurina was elected three times as best yugoslav player