Sport/History of sport

Pardubice – City of Sport

The city of Pardubice is proud of its moniker as the “city of sport”. Let’s take a journey through the history of sport in Pardubice from the 1840s to the present day and try to answer the question of whether the city truly has the right to be proud of this moniker.

By PaedDr. Radovan Brož

Beginnings in the saddle

Most modern sports were born in industrially-developing England and reached continental Europe over the English Channel. It is only natural that the origins of sport in Pardubice centred on hunting par force (horseback pursuit); Pardubice was at that time only a small, provincial town of four thousand people, but it was also home to aristocratic families. The first par force hunting event was run on 15th September 1841.After this there were hunts four times a week until Christmas. In autumn the hunts would bring guests from all over Europe and together with English horse-racing (colloquially known as “turf”) these had a decisive influence on the origins of racing in Pardubice. The first steeplechase was organised by the hunting society in the surroundings of Trnová on 14th October 1842. Four brave horses and riders embarked on this race over 18 obstacles. The surroundings of Studánka, Ráby and Nemošice were the places for riding until a permanent race track was created by Cvrčkov wood to the east of Popkovice in 1856. Noblemen Max Ugarte, Emil Fürstenberg and Oktavián Kinský were the men responsible for establishing the Great Pardubice Steeplechase (Velká pardubická). The first winner of the race run on 5th November 1874 was the stallion Fantom ridden by English jockey Sayers. This difficult track was mainly run by thoroughbred horses with professional jockeys. The course was between 3.5 and 4 miles long during the first three years of the race and the ploughed land was far deeper than we know today. The famous “Taxis Ditch”, which was named after Egon Thurn-Taxis, was jumped from the very first year, but it was not until the 1890s that a hedgerow originally some 120 cm in height (now 150 cm) replaced the hedge in front of the 5-metre wide ditch. The starting point of the race became the same as it is today in 1877, but the track entered the wood twice in the area of the airfield and continued in an arc around the stands. The first citizen of Pardubice to win the Great Pardubice Steeplechase was army vet František Bartosch on Yamagata the mare in 1912. Par force hunts were run for the last time in 1913, but the famous Great Pardubice Steeplechase returned right after the First World War.

The Sokol Pardubice gymnastic society was founded on 20th June 1863 a year after the establishment of Sokol Prague, which was initiated in the style of the classical-age sports clubs by revivalists Tyrš and Fügner. Mayor of the town Václav Bubeník sat at the head of the committee. Training was originally taken outside, but moved indoors to the newly-built technical secondary school gym hall in 1882. Training for juniors began in 1885 and training for women, something which caused shockwaves at the time, started in 1905, as did training for school pupils. The society had 360 members by 1912. The Sokol gymnastic movement in Pardubice moved with the times. Basic physical education was soon joined by fencing, cycling, hiking, skating and even buglers, drummers and finally a brass band. They also took part in gatherings as part of mass performances and in sporting events. The first performances of the long-jump and high-jump (from a springboard) were recorded by a chronicler in 1891, as was the first shot-putt, which involved a 15-kilogram chunk of granite.

Readers of the local newspaper were able to read a surprising story (even accompanied by a good photograph!) in 1882. Six citizens of Pardubice had sailed the 9-hour section of the River Elbe between Pardubice and Kolín in four-oar vessels (one helmsman, one alternating). However, this unique example did not lead to the immediate development of water sports.

Cycling, however, developed to a considerable extent in Pardubice during the 19th century. The first high, wooden bicycle was built by Mr. Vorbach the locksmith, who enjoyed trips around the surrounding area on his creation. Another pioneer of the bicycle, V. Hromádek, was spoken of as a trick cyclist.

The Czech Cyclists Club (Klub českých velocipedistů) was founded in 1885 and František Kašpar, father of the famous aviator of later years, was elected to its head

The club built a 300-metre long earthen track with banked bends and this was opened by the wood now on the western edge of the Dukla housing estate on 28th September 1889 with an international race meet. Over 100 members went on trips on high bicycles and later low rovers. Vincenc Chomrák made himself famous with his long journeys, in which he travelled Western Europe and took part in races at his destination. Running and walking disciplines joined cycling at a meet on the Pardubice track on 23rd September 1894. A challenge race over 100 yards saw a runner beat a cyclist in a time of 11 seconds. Cyclists from Pardubice also established the tradition of racing from Prague to Pardubice. However, interest in cycling waned at the end of the century and the track fell apart. The “Vpřed” Cyclists Club was formed in 1910, the members of this group promoting touring, trick cycling and bicycle polo.

The name of V. Chomrák is also associated with the development of motoring. Indeed it was in Pardubice in 1906 that he set up the very first driving school in the whole of Austria-Hungary.

The first car was made in Pardubice in 1901 by Mr. Vyčichlo in line with French sketches. Two years later a motorcycle race was run between Pardubice, Vysoké Mýto, Hradec Králové and back to Pardubice. Eleven pioneers took part in the race. The winner, riding a Laurin & Klement machine, took 1 hour and 51 minutes to complete the track.

But let us now return to the end of the 19th century. One propagator of all things modern and progressive in Pardubice was Baron Artur Kraus. It was he that translated the rules of tennis from English in 1896 and he who organised the first tournament in the courtyard. It was he who ordered the first pair of skis from Scandinavia two years later and who together with Hugo Ferfel made the first attempts at skiing in the meadows beneath the chateau and on the slopes at Vinice. It was also Kraus that made the first (unsuccessful) ornithopter in an attempt to copy the flight of the birds. It goes without saying that he was among the first people in the town to own a bicycle, motorcycle and car.

Another popular pastime among the reputable people of Pardubice and the young was skating. People were able to skate beneath the chateau ramparts or along the regulation of the River Chrudimka and on Matiční Lake. It was here that some boys playing football in summer began to play hockey. They took the dimensions of the pitch and the number of players from football and simply added curved sticks and smaller balls. The first documented match involving players from Pardubice took place in 1909, but was staged in Chrudim. The first match on ice was played on Matiční Lake in 1913 between SK Pardubice and Česká sportovní společnost Prague.

Tennis was played on two courts at SK Pardubice (from 1903) and on private courts. One watchful observer of games involving the district president and the upper echelons of society was a certain Vilém Weiss, a gangly lad who would later go on to become one of the founders of the LTC Pardubice tennis and ice hockey club after the war.

Football pioneers in pumps

Football arrived in Pardubice thanks to students at universities in Prague. In spite of the lack of understanding shown by teachers at the technical secondary school, Pardubice Sports Club (Sportovní klub Pardubice – SKP) was set up in 1899 on the foundations of the students’ football club. Football began to spread quickly. It was played in Olšinky, beneath the deanery, at Na Zavadilce and on the army training grounds. The equipment was modest to say the least. Goals were carried in, players played in walking shoes and 10-20 hellers were collected for the ball and strips each week. The first match between two towns here was played in Chrudim and ended in a 19-1 thrashing! The club registered with the Czech Football Association in 1901.

The East Bohemian Fair in 1903 acted as the impulse for further sporting development in the town. The sports pavilion was home to bicycles, motorcycles and cars. There were tournaments of fencing and Greek-Roman wrestling as part of exhibitions. An angling club and par force hunting society were both set up. SK Pardubice built a football pitch with an improvised athletics track in Olšinky and it was here that the first major meets were held outside of Prague, with a host of Czech records broken according to a journalist of the time. The most important fact was that this was the impulse for setting up the SKP athletics club in 1906. This organisation was accepted in the Czech amateur athletic union in 1912 and immediately celebrated a championship title, long-jumper Rosenbaum leaping 633 cm.

Work at the sports club continued in the years that followed. A stand for spectators was built, the complex was fenced in and a tennis court and children’s play park were created. FC Civil Service London were invited over to Pardubice as part of celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the club, the English team winning 5-0. However, there was a sensation with the first defeat meted out to Celtic Belfast from Ireland on its European tour in 1913, the winning margin 3:1. Other football teams were set up in Pardubice in the years before the First World War - Pardubický team, Polaban, Meteor, Polabí Rosice nad Labem, FK Sparta, Studentské sportovní sdružení (Students’ Sports Club), SK Svítkov and Čechie.

However, the pride of sport in Pardubice in those pre-war days was without doubt aviation. One major event was the landing of French balloonists in Pardubice in 1891. There then came Baron Artur Kraus’ attempts to take to the skies “by his own steam”, as it were.

Then, in 1910, cousins Ing. Jan Kašpar and Evžen Čihák built the first aeroplane in the hangar on the edge of the military training ground and fitted it with Kašpar’s engine. However, since his attempts to fly were unsuccessful Ing. Kašpar decided to buy a factory machine in France. He flew the entire training ground in this on 16th April 1910 (a distance of around 2 km) and organised the first public aviation show on 19th June of the same year. There followed other shows in different Bohemian towns and cities until on 14th and 15th August 1910 a total of one hundred and thirty thousand enthusiastic spectators from Prague gathered in Prosek. Ing. Jan Kašpar built a new machine through the winter and made his first flight in this to Chrudim and back without landing in-between. He was then able to fly the 120 km to Prague on 13th May 1911, landing in Chuchle. Evžen Čihák took over organising the shows after Kašpar had a serious accident in the autumn of the same year. Jan Kašpar also founded a flying school in 1912, but eventually lost all love for aviation after the hangars and planes within burned to the ground.

And then the fateful shots were fired in Belgrade in 1914 to spark the frenzy of war. Many young men were conscripted to the unpopular Austrian army and many young sportsmen died on the battlefields. The First-World War certainly disrupted sport in Pardubice and elsewhere.

Sport in an independent republic

Sportsmen and women and Sokol gymnasts returned to their playing fields and gyms with relish right after the creation of an independent republic and the arrival of peace. The town earmarked some land beneath Bubeneč for sporting purposes and Studentské sportovní sdružení (Students’ Sports Club), later to become AFK, began creating playing fields there together with Pardubický team. New clubs were set up in the suburbs - Slovan played in Zámeček, Slavoj in Dolíček and Nemošice on a stud farm.

The register of sports clubs in the district was swelled by the names of Olympie, Fantovka, Český lev, Telegrafia, Viktoria, Polaban Lány, Novoměstský SK and Rudá hvězda (Red Star). A football club was then set up at Explosia Semtín in 1925.

The Czechoslovak Jockey Club took over the running of the Great Pardubice Steeplechase (Velká pardubická). By now an increasing number of half-blood horses and amateur jockeys, often army riders, took part in the race. The development of riding was also helped along by the establishment of the military equestrian training centre in Pardubice. The first winner of the Great Pardubice Steeplechase from the army was Captain Rudolf Poppler in 1926. Another person from the training centre, Captain František Ventura, even became Olympic champion in show jumping on his horse Elliot in Amsterdam in 1928.

SK Pardubice celebrated twenty years of its existence with a successful festival of sporting celebrations at Olšinky one year after the war. The first road race from Chrudim to Pardubice was run and swim meets were held in the River Chrudimka. The club then staged the Olympic qualification heats for Czechoslovak athletes in 1920, in which twice Czechoslovak champion František Šrettr won through to the games themselves. The SK women’s handball team was very strong and also showed up well in athletics competitions. Sokol Pardubice I built its own playing fields right next to SK and opened a beautiful gym hall here in 1923. The club expanded its repertoire of sports, with volleyball, handball and sporting gymnastics particularly successful. The famous history of men’s and women’s volleyball here began in 1926.

Aviation did not manage to recover in post-war Pardubice right away. Ing. Kašpar left this world of his own will after the collapse of his business and E. Čihák concentrated on work for Czechoslovak State Airlines in Prague. It was not until the 1930s that the East Bohemian Aeroclub (Východočeský aeroklub) was born and set about building a new airfield and promoting sports aviation. Motorcycles of various cc engines first thundered around the neighbouring racetrack in 1929 in the battle for the Golden Helmet (Zlatá přilba) of Czechoslovakia. The name of the race and its unusual trophy were supplied by founders A. J. Trnka and F. Hladěna. The race attracted some ten thousand spectators in its very first year; people were simply fascinated by the speed of the motorbikes, which tore along the straights of the racetrack’s grassy circuit at up to 150 km an hour.

Cyclists took part in road races, touring, hurdling exhibitions, dancing and even fox hunting. Women began to race too. A member of SK Pardubice Zima was nominated for the Olympics in Paris in 1924, as was an athlete called Machaň, the first Czechoslovak to jump over seven metres in the long-jump. Also well worthy of note in this regard was teacher at the Pardubice technical school Antonín Březina, who trained his students in athletics and tennis. His athletics team won the prestigious secondary schools cup in Prague five times. An independent LTC (Lawn Tennis Circle) was set up in 1922 due to the major interest in tennis at that time. Within two years the club had built four courts on the site of the former riding hall at the foot of the chateau, building the foundations for the famous Pardubice Juniorka club. Miss Jaroslava Červenová, later Mrs. JUDr. Křížová, won a total of four junior championship titles. Then in 1928 Pardubice was treated to an exhibition by professional world champion Karel Koželuh. It was also on the courts of the LTC that the ice hockey club was established by teacher Vilém Weiss in 1925.

There was a great upsurge in the rambling movement after the war. Chalets were built and canoes, kayaks and similar boats were made beside rivers. The first race of sporting watercraft was organised by ramblers in 1929 and ran from Červinkův topol at Ležánky over the Hrčáky rapids to the confluence of the River Elbe and River Loučná and back. The STOP society of rambling camps then organised races, including swimming races on the River Chrudimka with the cooperation of the railway army.

Skiing enthusiasts came together as the SKI Klub in 1923. This club organised courses for young people on Kunětická hora, travelled to the Iron Mountains (Železné hory) and the Eagle Mountains (Orlické hory), to Svratka and to Zvíčina. Skiers from Pardubice settled in the Kuehnel (later the Valcha) chalets on the slopes of Black Mountain (Černá hora) in the Krkonoše Mountains. All-rounder Ing. Ladislav Franc, a participant in the academic world championships in ski-jumping, was a home-grown stand-out.

The idea of organising a major fair of physical education and sport arose in Pardubice soon after the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic. These plans were brought to fruition in 1931.Functionalist exhibition pavilions made of wood and reeds were built on stilts on the meadows of the flood plain of the chateau moat based on the designs of architect Karel Řepa and Ferdinand Potůček and a new sports stadium was built with concrete cycling track, clinker athletics track and a small, covered stand. The Industrial Museum building was the central fair palace. President T. G. Masaryk opened the fair on the last day in May. Some 190 events were organised throughout the four months of the fair. Most attention among the one and a quarter million visitors to the fair was drawn to the Masaryk Games athletics tournament, with the participation of the European elite, an aviation day, cycling and riding events and the exercises and parades of clubs, scouts and Sokol members. The East Bohemian marathon was run for the first time, a race that later brought fame to multiple champion and Olympic competitor Josef Šulc. It was at these games that Pardubice athlete Jiří Markl equalled the Czechoslovak triple-jump record. The 3rd Golden Helmet motorcycle race and the Great Pardubice Steeplechase both went ahead during the fair. The first woman took part in this famous steeplechase in 1927, Countess Lata Brandisová, who gradually improved on different horses of the Kinský breed until she famously won the race on Norma the mare in 1937. Her victory and that of sergeant-major František Juhan in the equally popular Golden Helmet race had a powerful patriotic charge in those times of growing fascism. The J. K. Lobkowicz Memorial speedway race was held every year between 1932 and 1938 on the cinder track of the athletics stadium.

However, the racetrack was also the scene of the tragic demise of Captain Rudolf Poppler in 1932. He lost narrowly to the popular Gyi lovam in that fateful year after winning in 1926 and 1930 and later fell from mare Ella at the low double-bar in the subsequent Kinský Memorial so unfortunately that he later died in hospital.

While athletics in Pardubice did not spread to any great extent in spite of the Czechoslovak men’s championships being held in the city in 1932, the opening of the 500-metre long concrete cycling track had a fundamental influence on the development of cycling here. Czechoslovak sprint champion František Florián, a teacher, and his successor F. Tesař stood out from the crowd. Explosia Semtín took a leading position in athletics in the town after a high quality track was built by the company factory. Indeed it was on this track that the final training camp was staged for Czechoslovak participants in the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936.

The construction of the athletics stadium drove the AFK football team out beneath Vinice, where they opened a pitch in 1934, one year before Explosia did the same on the site of what is now the Semtín heating plant. Both clubs then joined the divisional leagues. Their local rival SKP settled in a new stadium and won promotion to the national league in 1937 thanks to the planning work of chairman Ing. Vencl and the support of the East Bohemian Power Station Union. They finished ninth in their first year and boasted attendances of around ten thousand. The following season was even better, the team finishing a creditable fourth in the table. Pardubice midfielder Arnošt Kreuz even played at the World Cup in France in 1938.

Regular ice hockey competitions suffered from the whims of the winter weather and were often not even held at all. Apart from the LTC, which played among high boards on the courts beneath the chateau, the other teams in the competition included Svítkov, who played on a rink by the railway line from 1937 onwards, and AFK Pardubice, who watered their tennis courts by the River Chrudimka.

Tennis became more and more popular and other courts were built: at the back of the athletics stadium, at the Tennis and Swimming Club for Officers behind the AFK courts, at the horseback garrison barracks, at the Explosia factory and in the Telegrafia complex. The former motoring pavilion in Tyrš park (Tyršovy sady) was used in winter after the national fair had finished here.

River swimming pools were also used for recreational purposes in Pardubice – the Občanská, Turistická and Ostende pools on the River Elbe, the Vojenská pool on the River Chrudimka and the Na špici pool on the confluence of both rivers. Other popular places for swimming were the weir on the River Loučná and the River Chrudimka in Nemošice, the drifts on the River Chrudimka and the Rozhrna and Skříň ponds in Bohdaneč. Unfortunately, all the people of the city had during winter were the small baths in Hronovická Street.

Surprising development during the Second World War

The tense political situation culminated in the occupation of the now-pruned territory of the republic on 15th March 1939 and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The arrival of the wehrmacht and the Gestapo in Pardubice meant a ban on activity at Sokol clubs and on scouting and the disruption of the traditions of the Great Pardubice Steeplechase, the Golden Helmet and other motorcycling races, not to mention aviation. Skiers were not allowed access to Czech border mountain ranges. It meant the persecution, imprisonment and death of brave resistance workers that were sportsmen and women or Sokol members. Of these men and women we should mention leader of the Silver A parachutist troop Captain Alfréd Bartoš, a pre-war member of Sokol Pardubice I., another member of this particular club Věra Junková, colleagues of the parachutists, founder of the Golden Helmet motorcycle race and racer František Hladěna, both vice-chairmen of SK Pardubice Erno Košťál and Dr. Vladimír Žváček and of the sporting aviators correspondent Jaroslav Lonek.

However, because the German occupants, using the example of the Roman emperors, allowed the people in the Protectorate bread (in exchange for ration coupons) and the right to play games, the bans on the clubs in question and on other entertainment paradoxically led to the development of a number of different sports clubs and an influx of members. There were even new disciplines in Pardubice, especially rowing, boxing and basketball. This was also the greatest period in the history of football in Pardubice. Sporting events in Pardubice, for example a run through the city, four years of the championship marathon and rowing races on the River Elbe, enjoyed unprecedented attendances. Athletics, volleyball and other clubs took off in a number of suburban areas. The railwaymen's sports club was founded, as were other ice hockey clubs - Rapid na Haldě, Studánka, Rosice, Dražkovice and Kampa. The first regulation of the River Elbe inspired Ing. Beran to set up the Czech Rowing Club in 1941. Its members gifted the club the Arosa chalet by a bend in the River Elbe and the eight-oared Perun, built in 1886 and used until the 1960s. Within a year the club had over 200 members. The Czech Rowing Club also welcomed canoeists and organised the “Three Rivers of Pardubice" race for them. The route along the Elbe, Chrudimka and Halda through Ležánky was around 11 km long, with the winning pair Kopecký-Hendrych taking 1 hour and 16 minutes.

The strong volleyball team switched from the banned Sokol club to SK and won the Bohemian and Moravian Championships on the courts between the athletics and cycling track of the athletics stadium.

A men’s factory team at the Telegrafia plant devoted itself to basketball. The most successful cyclists of the era were Václav Machek, Jar. Golombiowský and road racer J. Pavlas. The adaptation of the dirt track for cycling was also popular. Rubber tyres were obviously a precious commodity. In much the same way tennis players had to satisfy themselves with well-worn balls.

But let’s return to football. In 1939-1940 and again one year later SK Pardubice came a fantastic third in the top Bohemian and Moravian league. However, Sparta Prague attracted goalkeeper Horák and defender Zástěra and when promising attacker Cejp also left the club went into decline and dropped down the table. AFK Pardubice also made vain attempts to enter the league after winning the divisional league, where they played against Explosia Semtín and one year later Slavoj Pardubice. There were no football competitions held during the final year of the war.

Post-war enthusiasm and confusions

The one-thousand-year empire broke up, followed by liberation together with new enthusiasm. First of all, wartime damage to sports grounds also needed repairing. Enthusiasts filled up the craters on the race course created while the allies were bombing the airport and the mineral oil refinery owned by the Fanto Company – and both famous sports events in Pardubice could be renewed. A record number of 60 thousand spectators watched the first victory of Miloš Svoboda, an officer from Pardubice riding Titan already in 1946, and a year later an unbelievable number of 130 thousand motorcycle fans saw the Golden Helmet, which the winner – Hugo Rosák – put on his head after the competition. The fans also saw another native of Pardubice – Miloslav Špinka come third in the finals. Just a few more words about the “Great”. Major Svoboda riding Vítěz also won in 1952 and became faithful to the race as its most respected historian. Lata Brandisová also jumped into the saddle but failed to finish the race after falling down. The Golden Helmet was organised every other year but after 1951 there was a ten-year pause due to the cold war and a lack of machines.

Construction of the winter stadium commenced; it was open, without any roof then, on 20th December 1947. Owing to training at the stadium, LTC Pardubice won the division in the 1948/49 season and also the qualifications for the national league after the union with Sokol. The team started to play in the league first of all under the name of Slavie and later Dynamo after the next reorganisation. The stadium was covered with a roof in 1959. It is difficult to name only some players without hurting the others. Perhaps Broňa Danda, goalies Vláďa Nadrchal and Vláďa Dvořáček, and also Standa Prýl and Jiří Dolana representing the team most often should be mentioned.

SKP football players descended from the league already in the first post-war year and then experienced purposeless changes and dirty tricks more than necessary. Already as the MZK team, they should have returned to the top competition in 1948 as the trade union league winners. In the additionally ordered qualifications, however, they were defeated in three matches by the newly created ATK team having available a large group of footballers hastily drafted to the army. Milan Sandhaus, later an excellent actor engaged in the East Bohemian Theatre, and Jiří Zamastil, an ice hockey player, were excellent midfielders in the MZK team and later Tatran (the team of a building company).

League volleyball players continued in excellent performances on the Sokol playgrounds again; Ota Koutský and Ferda Totter put on the national team dress. The team of basketball women-players from Sokol Pardubice I. also played the league in the 1950s; versatile athletes and volleyball players were also team members. Men coached by the editor Šuhájek played successively in teams such as Kožena, Rubena, Chemik and Tatran mostly in the regional championships. In 1956 they ended under the patronage of Rudá Hvězda (Red Star), but they continued playing in an exhibition hall (Autopavilon), which was impossible to heat up in winter. Water scouts restored their activities, built a boathouse on the bank of the Elbe river opposite the slaughter house and became members of their own club. A slalom race was organised at Hrčáky, and also ČSR championship of juniors in 1950. From slalom racers, who found their place in the VCHZ club, the team of canoeists with Josef Hendrych, Slepička, Flégr and Řehoř won the world championship. Josef Hendrych won a total of two gold medals, four silver and one bronze in six world championships. Rowers also chose the water level of the Seč dam for their training and moved to a temporary carriage there in 1955. The girls’ four won the national championship twice, and the best skiffer – Slavoj Mejzlík – was nominated for the European championship.

Olga Reschová, a daughter of the already well-known organiser of sports in Pardubice, became the first female cycling champion in 1948.

Thousands of visitors used to go to the velodrome to see the battles between the local V. Machek and Prague sprinters and also the finishes of the Peace Race. In 1949, Jan Veselý was the winner in Pardubice, followed by Vlastimil Růžička a year later. The silver medal of Václav Machek on the tandem with Fouček from the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 was the still unsurpassed result of a cyclist who grew up on the cycling track in Pardubice. Sprinters Bureš and Řehounek as well as Václav’s brother Karel Machek were excellent track race cyclists. All of them won the title of the ČSR champion. Josef “Eman” Křivka, who took part in the Peace Race many times, was successful on the road. The Dukla club headed by V. Machek and represented by tandem world champions Vačkář and Vymazal, as well as Miklušica, Škvarenina, Kučírek, Řezáč, Jelínek, Daler, Puzrla, Doležal and others started to be engaged on the concrete track of the summer stadium in 1956. The Dukla’s fame was terminated in 1970s together with the track coming to the end of its life. Perhaps it was just the fact that the track could no longer be used for training that led to excellent results achieved by cyclo-cross riders – Jan Hanzl, Petr and František Klouček and by Jana Poloková on the road. Athletes “united” in Sokol, later Slavie and finally Dynamo continued to organise the East Bohemian Marathon and also brought up two national hurdle race champions – Mirka Fendrichová-Trkalová (she also broke the Czech record in the 80m hurdle race) and Ota Šťastný (400 m). In 1959 the second club named Red Star was formed as a police component at the new stadium in the Dukla housing estate. Figure skaters from Pardubice not only trained for spectacular revues but Věra Suchánková and Zdeněk Doležal, twice European champions in pair skating, also recruited from them. The acrobatic Svazarm team on motorcycles was also very popular as an exhibition sports.

Dukla, the first league football team, originally called Tankista Prague, came to Pardubice after the next reorganisation of the army sports in 1956.

A number of talented players, later internationals, introduced themselves in league football matches on the new Ramovka football field at Svítkov as well as on the summer stadium. Some of them soon became infected with bad football manners, however, and when they sold a match to Sparta fighting to be saved, Dukla was punished with losing three matches by default and left the league after three years. Dukla then joined became VCHZ, whose team played in the Czechoslovak Cup finals in 1968 and returned to the league for one year, for the last time so far.

In the meantime, ice hockey players were adopted by the Tesla factory, with whose support they climbed up to the 3rd place in the league table as early as 1960. A number of players played in the national team in world championships as well as Olympic Games and brought medals – Dolana and Prýl from Stockholm (WC) and Innsbruck (OG). Consistent work with young players showed results and Pardubice ice hockey was always based on players grown up here. The club of Pardubice ice hockey friends has organised pupils tournaments for all age groups for a number of years, the juniors have won the championship already three times. At the world championship in Prague in 1972, Czechoslovak players with the forwards from Pardubice – Martinec, J. Novák and Šťastný – won the most prestigious medal – similarly as in 1976 and 1977. In 1973, Pardubice trainers – Sekera, Novák and Střída together with the ice hockey team, team management and the general public in Pardubice enjoyed the first domestic ice hockey championship title.

In the 1960s important sports events were organised in Pardubice – international winter university games, matches in groups of the World Championship as well as European Championship in volleyball, and the European Championship in handball. VCHZ volleyball players played in the league competition on open courts at the winter stadium. Record holders and Olympic contestants also grew up in athletic clubs – the first Czechoslovak long jumper Jarda Brož (more than 8 m), sprinter Matoušek and half-mile runner Šlégr. Even now popular competitions for the fastest pupils of elementary schools and Březina’s cup for secondary school pupils were established for young people. Swimmers also waited for an indoor 25-metre-long swimming pool opened in 1964 and the trainer Miroslav Švec led, through swimming lessons for nurseries and elementary schools, Lenka Churáčková, Světla Michková and Lída Rýznerová to the national representation; Lída Rýznerová swam across the English Channel as the first Czechoslovak woman in 1988 – long after she terminated her career.

Last forty years

Jan Novák was her no-less famous predecessor from Pardubice, who swam across the Channel in 1974 and 1975.

The Golden Helmet speedway race was moved to the cinder speedway track at Svítkov after several mortal injuries on the grass of the horse racing route. The just system of the speedway was appreciated by world leading riders as well as by spectators. Olsen from Denmark won here seven times, Jiří Štancl five times – he took part in the “Golden” seventeen times. What the father did not manage, his son did – Milan Špinka from Pardubice wearing the RH Prague dress. Aleš Dryml, a world vice-champion on a long track, was another successful Pardubice native. From thirteen starts he managed to enjoy second place twice and third place also twice. Excellent Ivan Mauger and Barry Briggs, multiple world champions, never won in Pardubice.

RH basketball players appeared in the league as early as 1962. The best players from the whole republic were recruited to the club and so we could admire performance of Brabenec, Kantůrek, Zuzánek, Hraška and Kropilák. The title of the republic champion in the 1983/84 season and the preceding participation in the Cup Winners’ Cup has been the greatest triumph so far. Unfortunately, home matches were played in Žďár nad Sázavou, as the hall in Dukla did not comply with regulations. We left skiers in the first republic. In the 1950s Dynamo club members bought a chalet in Javoří důl (glen), where they built a ski-lift and have organised the Shield of the City of Pardubice. Tesla downhill skiers use the slopes at St. Peter and Prkenný důl at Žacléř. The Red Star chalet at Malá Úpa, where the Krakonoš shield on the 15 km track has been organised since 1960, became a cross-country skiing centre. Water sportsmen were not lazy either. Since 1963, they have been active at the confluence of the Elbe and Chrudimka rivers – at Špice (Peak). They competed in gates below Záhorský weir – no longer in existence. Petr Sodomka, eight-times world champion, trained here as well. The Elbe regulation and construction of a weir forced canoeists and kayakers on smooth routes to move their activities up to the neighbourhood of the tourist swimming area. The Dynamo club became the best youth club in the country. Consistent work resulted in the successes of Petr Procházka, Alan Lohniský, Walda Fibiger and Zuzana Horáková. Two gold Olympic medals from Atlanta for Martin, the son of the head trainer Josef Doktor were then the top success. The Doktors moved their activities to Lukovna near Sezemice. Petr Netušil, a canoeist is another successful sportsman who has grown up in the club. Rowers – also concentrated in Dynamo – moved to the new Elbe riverbed in 1965, where they built a new, modern Arosa in the period from 1971 to 1975. Better conditions brought Jitka Cabrnochová-Kunstová to the oars with Czechoslovak tricolour. The importance of the Pardubice tennis tournament of juniors is witnessed by the list of winners’ names, but only those from Pardubice will be mentioned. Štrobl, Kacovský, Čížek, Pohl, Davídek, but first of all Suchánková, the figure-skating champion of the republic, were winners in singles. In the 1980s tennis players themselves built an indoor hall below the castle, but they lost an old wooden clubroom to a fire. Tennis has undergone a huge development especially due to a number of recreational players, which has been witnessed by the construction of new courts and indoor halls.

An important date for development of sport talents from Pardubice, the region and, in a number of sports, from the whole republic was the 1st September 1984, when a sports school, later the sports grammar school after reorganisation, opened its gates. Each year, more than 220 young sportsmen study here; they are led by experienced professional trainers to develop their talents. After twenty years in existence, the sports grammar school may boast of hundreds of school leavers who completed university education, but also of Olympic medals, world and European titles. Its existence was justified by the gold medals of Martin Doktor and Milan Hejduk.

We left the Great Pardubice Steeplechase after Miloš Svoboda became the winner for the second time. Then the event became a show of horses above all from the East-European bloc; Soviet horse Epigraf won three times in succession. The turn behind the grandstands was cancelled and spectators have been able to watch to whole race in the area in front of the grandstands since then. The second courageous amazon woman Eva Palyzová came for the second money twice. Václav Chaloupka’s era followed with Korok and the fourth victory with a horse named Václav. Pavel Liebich also won with Sagar from Kladruby three times. In 1977 the old wooden grandstand terminated its service life and a new one was built of reinforced concrete.

We are coming to the last years of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century in the Pardubice sports chronicle. Let us continue on the racecourse. Josef Váňa with gelding Železník recorded their fourth victory and added even a fifth with Vronský. After a change leading to democratic conditions it was the Horse-Riding Club that leased the racecourse and modified fences including the Taxis landing edge. Horses from the British Isles returned to the start, but it was Peruán with Zdeněk Matysík in its saddle and also a German jockey riding three horses belonging to Czech owners and trainers that recorded another three victories. In 2004 the Great celebrated 130 years of its existence.

In the same year, the second most famous race in Pardubice, the Golden Helmet, celebrated its 75th anniversary. The series of victories achieved by Scandinavian and English riders was interrupted by young Topinka in 1996, the last years belonging to the Australians. But reducing the activities of Pardubice speedway riders only to organisation of this unique race would be a mistake. They have brought up a number of excellent riders, who have become Czech Republic champions in teams. Over the last few years we have seen the commencement of the careers of Aleš and Lukáš – Dryml’s sons, who managed to battle through to the league of world champions, and of that of the junior champion Suchánek.

From collective sports, most often watched in Bohemia, it is ice hockey that is clearly ahead of football. When legendary players Martinec, Novák, Šťastný and Paleček returned their representation and club dresses, Hašek, Fr. Musil, Mečiár, Šejba and Janecký, and later also Lubina assumed their roles. Pardubice was happy with the titles of republic champions in 1987 and 1989. After 1989 a number of players went abroad, Dominik Hašek obtained trophies for the best goalie and the most useful player in the prestigious NHL, and finally also the Stanley Cup in the Detroit team. He also contributed in a decisive way to the famous victory of the Czech ice hockey team at the Olympic Games in Nagano in 1996. Young Milan Heyduk started his surprisingly excellent performance in the golden team; in 2003 he was the best goal scorer of the regular season in NHL. He also came to Pardubice to show the Stanley Cup here, which he had gained with the Colorado team. A little crisis occurred in Pardubice, however, as the management failed to keep the leading players. The town intervened in the problem, purchased the winter stadium, invested hundreds of millions in its reconstruction and also acquired important influence in the club. Strong sponsors were also solicited and ice hockey returned to the zenith of its fame. We will certainly not have to wait for the next national title for a long time.

After the state had been dissolved, VCHZ football players returned to the Synthesia name, then the formerly famous SK Pardubice was renewed but its existence was not long. Due to strong financial support, Atlantic Lázně Bohdaneč appeared in the supreme competition for one year. After it was relegated, another merger occurred and now the consolidated FK AS Pardubice team has a good position in the 2nd league. The most precious item is the system of development of young football talents in a number of clubs. One top team would be easily made up from players brought up there, playing in the 1st league. The summer stadium was only reserved to football after the concrete cycling track bends had been pulled down.

Conditions for athletes in winter preparation were much improved by the construction of covered facilities at Olšinky. Dynamo athletes selected their own way in the AC club, the name in Dukla was first changed to AFK SKP, and now to Hvězda SKP (SKP Star). At the Olympic games in Sydney it was Lenka Ficková, an AC member, and Jitka Buriánková, who had been trained there, that drew attention with their 7th place in the 4x400m relay race. Roman Šebrle, the current decathlon record holder and silver Olympic contestant, learnt the basics of all disciplines at the AC hall for nearly five years from the age of fifteen. Teams of women and men from this club also tried the Czech extra-league for a few years, AFK SKP teams are fighting for leading position of the second highest division. Juniors brought hundreds of medals from CR championships to Pardubice, AC girls even bronze medals from the European championship in 1999. Adults also join young sportsmen in winning the national championship titles, e.g. recently Vokolek from AC in cross-country running, Šádková in a half-marathon and in running uphill, Švaňhalová in middle distances, Mlateček in 1500 m. As for Hvězda SKP, throwers are successful above all – Kárniková became a champion in shot-putting. The reconstruction of the town stadium in Dukla with an eight-lane polytane track is a new impulse for athletes who have organised a big cross at the racecourse for the past 46 years, recently under the head of the European association, and also the traditional half-marathon to Chrudim and back.

The aforementioned title gained by basketball players was a stimulus for reconstruction of the hall in Dukla. The management correctly focused on the upbringing of youth teams. Juniors became regular league participants, and also CR champions several times. When police support was terminated an autonomous club was established and league participation could be maintained with support firstly from Ostacolor and now from Synthesia. The club boasts most of all about Jiří Welsch, the second Czech player in the NBA, who grew up in the club. Girls’ basketball is also flourishing in the town. Petra Kulichová gained her position in the Olympic nomination in 2004 due to her performances. Handball players are also doing very well in the close vicinity of the hall in Dukla, still waiting for a regular hall in Pardubice. So are successful futsal players, who have played their league matches at Heřmanův Městec.

A chess club had already been founded in Pardubice at the end of 1920s but only the current organisers from ŠK Infinity dared to organise the Czech Open, the largest chess tournament in this country. The tournament taking place during the summer months is a meeting of the Czech elite and a real pride of the town. It is accompanied by a number of other competitive chess and social games. The men’s team participates in the Czech extra-league with great success. The Aviatic Fair named after Ing. Jan Kašpar, the aviation pioneer from Pardubice, is another important event of not only national importance.

Swimmers acquired excellent conditions after the fifty-metre swimming pool had been completed. Two indoor swimming pools existing next to one another were a luxury, however, and the twenty-five-metre pool was therefore reconstructed to an exhibition facility ten years ago. Jana Myšková, an Olympic contestant and a holder of a record in the free style sprint gained her place amongst top swimmers although now she competes in the colours of Hradec Králové. Divers also have excellent conditions here. In 1994, the European championship of juniors in swimming and diving took place in the premises and five years later it was the world championship of juniors. In view of the conditions it is rather surprising that the swimming club is the most successful in the cup of long-distance swimming in open waters. The outdoor swimming pool near Cihelna was opened for the general public from Pardubice; having undergone a few reconstructions it was converted into a modern water park. Similarly the outdoor part of the swimming facility at Olšinky was also made even more attractive after installation of a spiral chute and slides. Rowers should also be given a few lines here. They made the maximum use of the possibility for preparation of selected juniors at the sports grammar school. From the long list of successes it is the title of the junior world champion for René Kocián in pair fours in 1992, the sixth position of Součková and Mikulová in the world championship at Račice (1996) that should be mentioned. Petra Andrlová then won seven championship titles as well as the “Primátorky” in Prague. The silver medal for Jakub Hanák from the 2003 world championship and also his silver participation in the Olympic four in Athens in 2004 is the latest success. Orienteering, not only in Bohemia but also in Pardubice, has developed fairly dynamically over the course of the last twenty years. The contestants also bring sets of medals to the town, e.g. junior Martina Dočkalová brought the most precious one from the world championship and so did the runners engaged in less well-known radio orienteering. Roller skating has developed wonderfully in recent years as a kind of free-time sport activity.

What else has the chronicler not managed to insert into the limited number of pages? Certainly widespread table tennis with the champion Libuše Uhrová, and similarly skittles with Gutvirt, a junior world champion in 1998 and Radka Malá, a medal holder. Boxing matches in the Grand or in the summer ring with Lívanský, weightlifting with representatives Utíkal and Strejček, judo with Vachun, fencing with Žíla, triathlon with Tomáš Petr and Petr Polanský, senior participants in the Ironman in Hawaii, or with Vendula Frintová, European champion up to the age of 22, were not mentioned. Successes achieved by Lenka Vlčková, a native from the Krkonoše mountains, downhill skiing representative competing in Pardubice colours, are not mentioned either. Neither are the successes achieved in the young sport of kick-box with Macák, Wackowiakovský and Šubert, who are well-known in the world. A nice sports ground was built near the Závodu Míru housing estate by skate and bicross riders and a number of young talents have been concentrated around the sport promoter Živný. Women figure skaters set out on the path of synchronised skating and do not have any competitors in the country. Our respect and admiration also belong to handicapped sportsmen and sportswomen – certainly to Veronika Foltová, a double European champion in discus and javelin, to Martin Zvolánek, a holder of a bronze medal from the Olympic Games in Sydney, or to the captain of the Czech ice hockey representation Tomáš Kvoch, who also shows his will by conquering Sněžka and other mountains on a wheelchair. Not much space has been reserved to other football clubs in Pardubice, or league ice hockey of women here. Or to the names of the most outstanding organisers and trainers of all sports, either voluntary or professional. Sports in Pardubice would certainly deserve a large publication.

Let us return to the question in the introductory part. Perhaps these several pages have persuaded the reader that whole generations of our ancestors as well as contemporary citizens deserve the proud title: Pardubice – city of sports.