Sport/Basketball

Club history

In 1956 basketball players of the former Tatran Pardubice, whose rather football orientation did not favour basketball very much, contacted the secretary of the Physical Training Association of the Red Star created a short time before (in 1952) with a wish to transfer their sport branch to the Red Star. Negotiations conducted on behalf of Tatran basketball players by Karel KOMERS and Josef ŠLINGR were successful eventually and laid the foundations of a basketball team in the Red Star. Finding suitable sports grounds was the biggest problem for the new club. The only free place was in the former motoring pavilion in Tyršovy sady (park). The conditions were cruel, however. According to the order issued by the basketball union, basketball was only allowed to be played in premises with a minimum temperature of +10 °C. The motoring pavilion was an aged structure built on the occasion of the National Exhibition of Physical Education and Sports in 1931, naturally without any central heating; only a large coke burning stove was available. Basketball could be played here only thanks to the dedication of Mr. NOVÁK, the motoring pavilion manager. Ing. Ladislav FOREJTEK – trainer, organisational worker and treasurer, all rolled into one – was the main basketball organiser at that time. Other fellow workers joined him gradually – Mr. and Mrs HLADÍK, Evžen PANOVSKÝ, Miroslav ŘECHKA and above all unforgettable Jiří KNAP, a victim of a later road accident, a dedicated fellow worker lost by the team.

Period from 1956 to 1962

The period from 1956 to 1962 was a period of stabilisation of the club performance and players’ core group. These factors – together with an increased interest of the Red Star in basketball – brought the team to the victory in the 2nd league in the 1961/62 season and therefore to the historically first participation in the 1st league in the next season. The following players acted in first-league matches in Red Star colours: BARTOŠEK, BEK, BÍLÝ, BRENDL, DIVIŠ, KALHOUS, KOMERS, KOPECKÝ, KUBEŠ, PIŽL, PRÁŠEK, RICHTER, SKŘIVÁNEK, SPEJCHAL and ŠLINGR. The team was trained by Ing. Jaroslav LEVÍNSKÝ, who had replaced Ing. Forejtek (overloaded with working duties) before the season and was engaged with the team until the 1965/66 season, in the course of which (1. 1. 1966) Luboš BULUŠEK took up the position of the team trainer. Hardly anybody could foresee that this small great man would remain in the position of trainer, trainer’s assistant or the main trainer for more than 25 years and would become a legend of basketball in Pardubice. Under his management, the Red Star team permanently settled among the first-league elite, the only worries appeared on basketball fans’ faces after the team relegated in the 1967/68 and 1976/77 seasons, in each case only for one season, however. While the first relegation was rather a result of the unfinished club operation structure, which was gradually transferred to a more and more professional basis, the second relegation could be deemed quite useless. Jiří AMMER, a long-term representative acting in the position of the first trainer, did not succeed in tuning the interpersonal relationships in the team, which finally turned out to be the most important factor. Otherwise, however, Bulušek’s work in Pardubice lasting more than a quarter of a century may be considered highly successful. The 4th position in 1970, 2nd position in 1974, 4th position in 1981 and 2nd position in 1983 in the role of the main trainer, championhsip title a year later, bronze in 1985 and 4th position in 1986 in the role of assistant and the club’s main trainer at the same time belong to the greatest successes achieved by the club throughout its history.

Period from 1971 to 1994

The second half of Bulušek’s activities is closely connected with activities of his most important follower – Jan SKOKAN. This exacting trainer of a new basketball generation was rather an average player in the Red Star, but the trainer Bulušek’s experienced eye soon noticed that it was just him who could be a dignified successor. Starting from the last season of the Pardubice team in the second league (1977/78) he got more and more opportunities for self-fulfilment with the team in the role of a playing assistant and gradually assumed the initiative during training. His exactingness and uncompromising approach were pretty useful for work with new soldiers commencing their military service in Pardubice in an ever-increasing number and quality. All the aforementioned successes after 1977 may thus be considered successes of an inseparable tandem, not the result of work done by an individual. The extraordinary success in 1984 – championship title – was achieved under the management of this tandem by the following players: František BURGR, Jan FALTÝNEK, Jaroslav KANTŮREK – team captain, Ľudovít KRISTINÍK, Stanislav KROPILÁK, Miloš KULICH, Josef KURKA, Ladislav ROUS, Rostislav VANĚČEK, Jiří VOLTNER, Zbyněk ZIKUDA and Miroslav ZUZÁNEK.

Who else had a large share in the aforementioned successes? Quite certainly the player whose name is connected to the history of basketball in Pardubice by an umbilical cord: the team’s long-term captain, playmaker and shooter Jaroslav KANTŮREK. He acted as a basic supporting point and trainers’ extended arm in the first-league dress in Pardubice from 1971 till 1987, then he assisted the trainer Skokan for three years, whom he replaced at the first team helm for the next two seasons. His five-year activities in the position of trainer in Pardubice were not considered to be the best times of his life, but his next engagements – especially with the Chomutov team – showed that he was an expert at basketball and that there were a lot of things he could teach his successors. Jan Skokan then returned to the first team for one year but after a failure in competition he left for Děčín to demonstrate his indisputable qualities as a trainer in 1994; he has been actively engaged there until now. This is also evidence of his undisputed qualities in the position of trainer although a number of experts and basketball fans raise essential objections to his impulsive actions on the bench. At the end of his training engagement in Pardubice, Jan Skokan did not fear to include new faces in the first-league team and laid the foundations for an excellent team ideally coached by the newly formed tandem – Václav JALOVECKÝ and Jan FALTÝNEK.

Period from 1994 to 2000

In 1997, this tandem achieved the second most important success of the Pardubice club – a victory in the CZECH CUP and, at the same time, an excellent 4th position in the CR league table, to which Pardubice basketball players had not managed to penetrate until then. The economic problems of the club and a number of top players leaving it for economically stronger clubs were the basic cause. As early as 1993, Marian PŘIBYL, then eighteen years old, now a CR representative, left for USK Prague. In 1996, the team whose fame could touch the stars started to disintegrate. Super-talented pivotman Jiří TRNKA headed for Opava, followed Ing. Vladan VAHALA a year later, Petr WELSCH left for Nový Jičín, a group of four – David MUSIL, Věroslav SUCHARDA, Jiří ŠENKÝŘ and Ing. Pavel ZAJÍC – went to Ústí n/L. After the depressing 1997/98 season was over, the club officials had to preserve the participation in the top competition by purchasing the right to participate in the league from collapsing Žďár n/S.

The sale of Pardubice capital – the result of long-term and patient, painstaking work with youths – continues, however. Jiří WELSCH, 18, left for Sparta Prague and, through Slovenian Olympia Ljubljana, for the NBA, Lukáš HOUSER completed the Pardubice legion in Ústí n/L., now successfully representing Děčín.

The purchase of a place in the top competition was the first step on the way to stop the decline of club performance. The general partner – OSTACOLOR, a. s., and the Pardubice Metropolitan Authority tried to provide first-league basketball with such conditions which could help it slowly and gradually return to its traditional high level. After years of rapid changes in trainers, the pair of trainers – Mgr. Miroslav MARKO and Milan MAJER – took the helm with the aim of rebuilding a team respected by all CR clubs as a serious competitor in the first-league matches. Despite the extremely demanding training process and completion of the team with new players it showed how difficult task it was to reconstruct the dilapidated foundations. In spite of certain promising results, the team did not manage to stabilise its performance for a long time and permanently belonged to the four teams fighting to maintain their mere existence in the league. Let all of us wish that the last year’s rise is a return of our club to the society of economically strong and sport-prosperous basketball clubs in the CR. The long-term successful tradition of men’s basketball in Pardubice is binding for the team!

At the very end of the century Pardubice basketball fans could console themselves a little with the fact that the core of the men’s national representation team was formed by players who had been taught the basics of basketball in Pardubice: Marian Přibyl, Jiří Trnka, Petr and Jiří Welsch, and also Vladan Vahala until his tragic death in September 2000. It was only the last year’s jubilee fiftieth season that indicated that basketball in Pardubice may think about better future times again after years of pussyfooting. The sixth position in the league should be a springboard for the next fifty years.

In reference to the fifty-year-old basketball tradition in Pardubice, the Basketball Club Synthesia Pardubice entered a qualitatively new stage of its existence. Thanks to the close cooperation with the Pardubice town-hall, it has been using the comfortable conditions of the ČEZ Arena – one of the most advanced halls in the Czech Republic – for the A-team matches since the 2006/2007 season. This also certainly contributes to the fact that the Pardubice team matches can boast of the absolutely highest numbers of visitors in the Mattoni NBL – the last record number was 4,250 visitors who came to see the match with ČEZ Basketball Nymburk (on 7 January 2007).

In spring 2007 the club gained a new strategic investor, which is Natland group and was transformed in relation to this step from a civic association to an ambitious sporting type stock company. The club’s vision is to play quality basketball:

  • with a secure financial background thanks to important partners
  • in the attractive environment of the ČEZ Arena
  • with great numbers of spectators and fans
  • with a strong and stabilised team of players
  • to play at least in the Mattoni NBL semi-finals and to take part in European cups regularly.

The second-league Tesla Pardubice, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation on 2008 and traditionally cooperates with the BK Pardubice team (transfers of players, etc.), is also certainly worth mentioning. Women’s basketball which is mostly played at the elementary school at Studánka by the Private Basketball School and BK Studánka Pardubice is also interesting. The latter plays in the 2nd highest competition of women with ambitions to move to the supreme competition.