"I forgot it in the narrative, it was one of the pivotal matches, it was a rematch. We lost quite a lot in Moscow. We played at the ice stadium [in Brno], there wasn't a single seat, it was sold out. I was working at Zbrojovka at the time, it was ten o'clock in the morning, and I was summoned to the office of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, where I was told: 'Comrade, you are the captain, and you personally guarantee us that no incident will happen during this match.' We didn't know what it was about at the time. I guess the date, 17 April 1969, tells you more. That was the day Dubček was removed, and two companies of border guards with dogs were ready at the football stadium [in Brno] in case anything happened. Of course, the anger of the people was expressed in that famous 'Ussuri, Ussuri!', where, at that time, there was fighting between the Soviet Union and China on the border where the river was. I remember that. The game was played out calmly. We won by nine or ten points but, of course, it didn't help us anymore. But it was one of the games when we filled the ice stadium in Brno for the third time. Unfortunately, there is nothing there anymore." - "How many people could fit in the ice stadium?" - "I think eleven thousand people." - "Did you feel great support from the spectators in that match?" - "Yes. Big, big. It was so thunderous that you couldn't even hear the referee's whistle."
"In 1964, we played the final against Real Madrid in Madrid, and we hoped we could succeed. But when we found out that the Hungarian referee Cifra was coming with us, and he was greeted by Puskás [a Hungarian football star in the service of Real Madrid] right at the airport, we knew it was probably going to be a difficult situation. Although, I have to say that Real Madrid definitely had the quality. We knew it was bad for us. We didn't lose by much, but we lost. We found out that there is not only sporting performance but also economic performance, and we couldn't match Madrid there. But there was a situation there that I want to talk about. Me and Láďa Pištělák were nominated for the European team. The team met the day we left Madrid. And we had to excuse ourselves because of our study obligations. Nobody could understand. Two Poles from Legia Warsaw went instead of us. We couldn't play because Franco was there as the boss of Spain. It was a situation that Láďa and I found very difficult to bear. But it came back to us two years later, then two years later in 1968 in Belgrade, when we played for the European team."
"Of course, no one will understand now that we had a so-called exit clause when we went out. It couldn't be lost, and we weren't allowed to miss a day's return. As for the customs declaration, these were tales we told ourselves for years and years, for better or for worse. The checks were often very bad. Speaking of which, I recall a more amusing story. It was near the end of my career, 1969, and we were playing the Champions Cup in Belgium. We were coming back to Prague, and we were afraid of the customs, but it was 18 or 19 March 1969, and the customs didn't pay any attention to us. They were watching TV, and you probably know what was on. A hockey game between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. So we slipped through without any checking, which is such a funny postscript to that time."
"You said that after the war you and your Dad went to...?" - "Krásná Lípa near Rumburk, he was setting up a hosiery factory there. The Germans had been moved out, and it had to be put back together somehow. But then February 1948 came, my father was still in Varnsdorf for two years, and we left Krásná Lípa with my mother and brother for Třebíč." - "In Krásná Lípa, how do you remember the post-war years when you went there? Right in 1945?" - "No, it wasn't until the autumn of 1946 that we went to Krásná Lípa. I remember the night shootings that were quite often there. It had to do with the fact that Krásná Lípa was close to the border, and the border was not guarded. So there were disturbances. I can't say what it was about, but it was a common denominator of the border areas at that time." - "Where did you live there? How did you get...?" - "A beautiful German villa, just outside the factory, but I was only at school for a year and a half, and the memories of my classmates faded from my mind." - "Your Dad, when February 1948 came, does he remember anything? Did he suffer through it a lot? Did he tell you about it?" - "Well, I was a ten-year-old boy. I remember they rang the bell, there were two militiamen. They told us to move out in twenty-four hours. They offered us an apartment in Krásná Lípa in a ruined building. My mother took us immediately, we moved and went back to Třebíč to my grandmother. Then, to the family house. It was difficult for us to get there."
František Konvička was born on 11 August 1938 in Okříšky near Třebíč. He lived with his parents and older brother in Třebíč. From the Second World War, he remembers the air battles between Nazi and Allied fighters or the knocking of window panes during bombing. His paternal uncle Karel Konvička, who joined the anti-Nazi resistance, was executed by the Nazis on 2 July 1942, at the end of martial law declared after the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. František Konvička‘s father worked in the Baťa hosiery factory, and after the Second World War, he moved with his wife and two sons to the North Bohemian town of Krásná Lípa. There, he got a position in the management of a hosiery factory, which belonged to a German owner before the liberation. His father was a member of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, and after the communist takeover, his family had to leave the villa where they lived in Krásná Lípa. The mother and her two children returned to Třebíč, while the father worked in Varnsdorf for two more years. František Konvička started with basketball in Třebíč and played in a team that won the junior national championship in 1956. In the same year, he debuted in the senior national team. In 1957, he graduated from the Třebíč Business Academy. From Třebíč, he moved to Zbrojovka Brno, where he got to the Technical University. However, after the intervention of the Třebíč communists, he had to leave the college after a week. The same happened a year later. It was only in 1959, thanks to the intercession of the officials of Zbrojovka Brno, that he could enter the first year of the Brno Technical School. In 1959, he won a silver medal with the Czechoslovak national team at the European Championships in Istanbul. He repeated the same success at the 1967 European Championships in Helsinki and took a bronze medal from the 1969 European Championships in Naples. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he was part of the national team that finished fifth. In 1964 and 1968, he contributed to Zbrojovka Brno‘s progress to the final of the European Champions Cup, where the team lost to Real Madrid each time. In the 1968 Intercontinental Cup, he and Zbrojovka won second place, but after the victory over Real Madrid, Brno fell short to the American team Akron Wongfoots. In the 1960s, František Konvička played twice for the European team. In the poll for the best Czech basketball player of the 20th century, he finished in 5th place. He won six Czechoslovak league titles with Zbrojovka and won the league three times with Brno as coach between 1974 and 1980. In 1974, as coach, he led Zbrojovka to second place in the European Cup Winners‘ Cup. He was assistant coach of the national team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (9th place) and at the 1981 European Championships in Prague and Bratislava (3rd place). From 1988 to 1990, he served as the President of the Czechoslovak Basketball Federation. From 1997 to 2010, he was an official in the club Basketbal SK Královo Pole. He played basketball until he was seventy-nine years old. He retired in 2023 and had three children.
František Konvička meeting with Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková, 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday. Showing the flag of Spartak Brno's rival basketball team, the famous Real Madrid
František Konvička meeting with Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková, 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday. Showing the flag of Spartak Brno's rival basketball team, the famous Real Madrid
František Konvička meeting with Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková, 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday. František Konvička stands in the middle surrounded by young basketball hopefuls
František Konvička meeting with Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková, 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday. František Konvička stands in the middle surrounded by young basketball hopefuls
František Konvička in an old photo of Spartak Brno, second from the left, the photo in the hand is from a meeting with the Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková, year 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday
František Konvička in an old photo of Spartak Brno, second from the left, the photo in the hand is from a meeting with the Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková, year 2023, congratulations on his 85th birthday
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
