He dethroned the Russians, then nearly went blind. The hockey legend took the gold from Prague

The golden generation of the first world champions was scattered by the communist will, which sent them to camps and criminals. And subsequently, the players for the Czechoslovak national team were selected not only according to their performance, but also according to their “staff profile”. Sometimes the best just sat at home because they didn’t have the right background or opinions.

But the main reason for the gold shortage was called the Soviet Union. What about the fact that only amateurs from other countries were allowed to play in the world championships, Soviet players, pretending to be workers and peasants, although they only played hockey, but no one was very interested in the facts at that time. Thanks to this, the Russian machine collected one title after another soon after entering the world scene.

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Czechoslovakia gradually switched to the Soviet model. The players in the highest competition since the 1960s were almost exclusively hockey professionals, although they mostly went to various patronage businesses for pay, where they were managed as workers or officials. Due to this, however, the fights with the Soviets gradually began to settle down. And in 1968, another huge motivation was added. Soviet occupation was a huge betrayal in the eyes of the majority of the population of Czechoslovakia. And the valve of resistance, which was practically unthinkable with a gun in hand, became hockey.

World Championship was supposed to be played in Prague less than a year after the occupation in 1969. But that was not possible at all due to the mood in society. It was played in Stockholm, and the Czechoslovak hockey players there, after two wins against the Soviets, did not give up on their opponents, and some of them even pasted communist stars on the national emblem of their jerseys. They were celebrated heroes at home, but the new communist leadership of the country, installed from Moscow, gradually started “normalization”, which gradually blunted even symbolic resistance.

In 1972, the standardizers had already come to the conclusion that they had the situation firmly in their hands, so the world championship, postponed for three years, could finally take place in Prague. But the inveterate communist manipulators trained in Moscow left nothing to chance. Before the start of the championship, they called all the journalists to the secretariat of the Communist Party and openly threatened them. In the Sports Hall, where the championship was held for the first time, cameras were deployed to monitor the slightest infractions.

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At every match, the first row of seats behind the goalposts were occupied by “civilians” who behaved in a peculiar uniform, and before the matches started, Esteban cordons of members with white helmets always marched up the steps between the sectors. They became even more “famous” later in November 1989. In 1972, during the championship, they took out one of the spectators who, in their opinion, behaved too spontaneously or wildly. Such were the starting conditions of the tournament.

“Those cops weren’t watching hockey at all, they were looking into the auditorium to make sure there wasn’t any trouble. Of course. It was the first start of the Russian team after the occupation in Prague,” recalls its then participant, national team defender, in an interview for the Nosiči ledu podcast about the Prague championship for more than half a century Vladimir Bednar. “They expected something to happen, but it didn’t. Because we beat them, there was peace. If we had lost, it would have been a lot,” he adds.

From today’s point of view, even sports facts must be acknowledged. Notably absent from the championships were the two overseas teams from Canada and the USA, who at the time boycotted the world championships due to not being allowed to use the services of professionals, even though they were originally promised. And the Nordic countries were weakened by quite a few players who headed to try their luck in North America, where there was a great hunger for players after the emergence of NHL competition in the form of the WHA. Anyway, the most difficult task was still there – to defeat the Soviet Union, who had won an incredible ten world championships and Olympic tournaments in a row!

However, the selection of coaches Pitner and Kostka had good conditions for success, after many battles from previous years the team matured and had an ideal age composition. There were only two hitchhikers named Josef Černý and Jan Suchý. Former captain Černý refused to continue representing after the scandal at the recent Olympics, when the union leadership pressured him to have his team draw with the Soviets, which would send the Americans to third place. The legendary fighter didn’t need that. And the key defender Jan Suchý caused a traffic accident in which his passenger died under the influence of a slightly above-limit level of alcohol. Instead of the championship, he waited to go to prison…

Even so, the entire Czechoslovak team pursued success with calmness and self-confidence. In the first match with the Soviets, there was a 3-3 draw, which did not solve anything. Both teams continued to win, and so the decisive battle between the two countries took place on April 20, 1972! Without exaggeration, the entire country watched the match. The goals of two future emigrants, Václav Nedomanský and Richard Farda, sent the Czechoslovaks into the lead, but they lost it partly due to the fault of Jaroslav Holík, who first made a mistake in the passing game and then allowed himself to be sent off unnecessarily. But the rebel Holík wasn’t going to leave it like that – at 2:2, he won the puck and decided the match with his most famous goal in his life!

A day later, the tournament ended in duels, when the Soviets only drew with the Swedes 3:3 and the Czechoslovaks defeated Finland 8:2. And after the match, after more than two decades, gold hockey pucks finally hung around the necks of Czechoslovak fighters. The joy of fans throughout Czechoslovakia was indescribable. And one of the luckiest was the still very young Pilsen defender Vladimír Bednář at that time. He had only been playing hockey at the highest level for five years, and yet he already had two national championship titles and experience from the memorable 1969 championship, where he contributed to the famous victories over the Soviets. In 1972, he finally received the title of the most famous, he was the world champion.

Unfortunately, his joy was short-lived. Half a year after the championship, an unluckily bounced puck hit him in the eye, and for a long time it was not certain whether he would become completely blind. In the end, the worst prognosis was not confirmed, but the following year Bednář could forget about hockey. With his bulldog tenacity, he was able to return to the league’s stadiums again, even though he had significant limitations.

In the Ice Bearers podcast, he himself talks about it by saying that he was “just scrambling”. The incredible first five years of his professional career, when he was able to win two league titles and bring back four medals from three world championships and one Olympics, as well as the reputation of one of the biggest hockey legends in Pilsen, can’t be taken away from him.

Ice Bearers

• Author: Tomáš Kučera
• Editor: Pavel Vondra
• Music: Martin Hůla
• Sound design: David Kaiser

The Seznam Zpráv podcast series, in which Tomáš Kučera describes the most interesting moments of our rich hockey history and interviews those who were personally present at the greatest successes.

Every Thursday – from 21 March – to be listened to as a bonus episode of the related podcast Nosiči vody on Podcasty.cz, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast applications.

Photo: ČTK, Getty Images, Seznam Zpravy