Mgr. Bohuslav Ebermann

„My grandfather was a tradesman, my mother the daughter of a tradesman, so logically I had a harder life. When I then took the exams for the vocational school - and I studied quite well, I think I was more convinced that I passed the exams. Because my classmate from Vochov also copied a lot of things from me - and he passed the exams. And considering that his father was on the party's regional committee, it was nothing strange. At that time, I played hockey quite well and already at the age of sixteen they wanted me in the 'A' team. At that time it was called Spartak Plzeň. Well, that required parental consent. So the whole committee of Škoda came to Vochov and they asked my mother to sign so I could be “aged” (a term for a health assessment to play in a higher sports category). Because otherwise I wouldn't be able to play. She signed it under the condition that they would arrange for me to get into the vocational school. So the department arranged it, and I got in. Although I was - I would say - on the black list, or the red list, when my mother asked Mr. Forman why I didn't pass the exams, and the colleague who copied from me did, he said he looked into my papers and that I was condemned to manual labour.“

„I enlisted on the 1st of July 1968, and the Russians came on the 21st of August, right, so the military had a quite interesting start. We were at the training camp in Hodonín, in Dukla Hodonín, because the basic players of Dukla Jihlava went on a trip abroad - on a tour of Italy, Switzerland and West Germany. Us newcomers who came to Jihlava, we weren’t in formation yet and so we went to training in Dukla Hodonín. Well, now you're lying in the barracks, you're lying on the bunk, and all of a sudden the boys were playing the radio and with it came the news about the Russian invasion of the republic. We somehow didn't believe it, we were still joking, well, and then they said, come and see how the tanks drive around here on the main street in Hodonín. So we stood there in uniform, we didn't have any weapons, they took them all from us, so we couldn't do anything, it wasn't possible to defend the republic, it wasn't possible with our bare hands. Well, in the newspaper they ended up saying that Dukla Jihlava received offers from West Germany to play in their competition, from Italy - that they would play a competition, Switzerland, that they would play in the Swiss league. So we were kind of scared as to what was going to happen next. But luckily, Dukla returned, because probably for one simple reason, that they were all soldiers, and they were also long-serving soldiers, and if they had stayed in the West, it would have been desertion - and that is a grievous sin.“