Petr Kubíček

* 1955

  • “My transfer to Mělník was as if someone kicked me out of a train which went the way which I so desired: play hockey, perhaps make a living of it and thus make the hobby an occupation. It had also meant a loss of ambitions: everyone wants to play at the highest level, play for the national team. Back then I knew that this was also my end in the national team – one was connected to the other.”

  • “The sportsmen had to join the army before 1 July. I had filed my university applications and even had an offer to play as a goalkeeper in Hradec Králové where I was about to study faculty of pedagogy – but even the hockey bosses could not change politics. They thought they would find a way around it, that they would explain it but couldn’t push me through. So I missed my enlistment day. I was supposed to enlist on 1 October when people were only accepted to combat units and I could not apply to Dukla. I asked my coach Klapáč what should I do and he gave me an advice: ‘Get in there now.’ By the way, Klapáč later explained to me why I was leaving the national team. Even though he was a communist he was level with me: ‘Bad luck, your brother had emigrated.’ I was probably the only soldier in the Comecon who voluntarily enlisted earlier than required. I arrived to Liberec and told the officer: ‘Klapáč sends me. I should have come on the first but I couldn’t because of school.’ I then spent two days there in civvies because they had no job for me, then they let me in there. I underwent the application process and thanks to that was able to stay in the Dukla club.”

  • “As a member of the Army Center for Sports my job was to do the sport for which I had gotten there. Depending on the season, there would be single-phase, double-phase or triple-phase training sessions. In the summer we would go to a camp in Hamr na Jezeře. There was a beautiful lake there – later destroyed by uranium industry – and a military base where we ran, paddled, jumped on trampoline, played tennis, worked out… Simply drill as usual in Dukla but we would practically only do sports. We would even get nutritious diet, pocket money and quite some freedom. They did not demand some particular dress discipline and so on. I was with the army and did sports – it was comparable to professional sports. One could not say it out loud back then but in principle, it was sports on a professional level. With the army unit, military employment was the primary one. Only after fulfilling my duties had I time to play hockey. We would go to train in Neratovice twice a week, and once per weekend or twice a week play a game. Emergency had also precedence over hockey: ‘It is your shift, bad luck, you don’t go anywhere.’ It was a military drill and the conditions reflected it. For instance the military diet was incomparable to the one in Army Center, and I suffered from that.”

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Praha, 04.03.2015

    (audio)
    délka: 01:36:28
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
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    základní škola Demlova - Jihlava, 10.04.2017

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    délka: 20:18
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

„No darkness is too dark to get used to.“

Petr Kubíček (1974)
Petr Kubíček (1974)

Petr Kubíček was born on the 7th of May 1955 in Jihlava. In 1969, his brother emigrated to the West, because of this event, after graduating from high school Petr was not admitted to the university and could not play hockey professionally. During his military service (1974-1976) he spent a year as a member of the Army Center for Sports. Since the mid-70‘s he worked at mines and played hockey on the semi-professional level. In 1989, he took part in the revolutionary movement and until 1994 served in various posts at Jihlava‘s municipality. Since the late 90‘s, he had taken up various jobs. At present he manages an elderly people‘s home.