František Vinklárek

It was a coincidence. I come from Haná - I was born in Lipník nad Bečvou. At the age of fifteen I went to a military high school and because I wanted to continue on this path, I got to Vyškov in Moravia. Here I also joined the handball team for the first time. Then I did my military service in Tábor and later in Písek. It is known that in both towns I immediately started playing for the local Dukla, which were in the second league.

In 1962 I was transferred to the garrison in Pribram, where the first national handball league was played. But with bad results. It was second to last. I decided to save it in the league. But mind you, I was normally doing my military duties and all that coaching I did in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. My free time was absolutely sports.

I picked future players in the youth teams. For example, I took the car and went to another city to watch the junior and youth championships. Three or four years later, when the boys entered basic military service, I called them up to my team.

During the training sessions I emphasized physical and technical preparation. I took notes from every game on what the defense was like and what the forwards were like. I wrote all this down in a black notebook, which the boys called a "fizzle pad". Thanks to that, Dukla Příbram could always come up with some new tactics that the other players weren't ready for. We introduced a lot of offensive and defensive systems that were new for all civilian teams. Players often said they hadn't even arrived in Pribram yet - and they were already losing.

From second to last place, we were suddenly eighth in the league. Then third place, then second the next year, and it culminated in us becoming national champions twice. In the beginning, two hundred people came to watch handball, only in 1968-1970 we regularly had more than a thousand spectators. This was the peak of sport in Pribram and the boys were very popular.

This was evident, for example, in the first decisive match for the national championship. On the basis of a bad referee's decision, the spectators invaded the field. Later it came out that the referee had deliberately harmed the Dukla team.

When I returned from vacation after the holidays in 1970, I learned that, Dukla Pribram was cancelled. For reorganization reasons. I couldn't believe it at all. Well, it was an affair, we had delegations of spectators coming to see us. There was even an article in Rudy Pravo with the headline The champion of the republic is lost - what do you say, Pribram generals? The Sports and Physical Education Association and the Minister of National Defence became interested. The commander of the garrison justified it by saying that he didn't need athletes, but soldiers. The rest of the players were transferred to Jince, Dobřany and Most, where they continued in the second league. They couldn't accept it, and neither could I. In the end, in the army you listen, so there was nothing to be done. This is how the glorious history of Dukla Příbram ended.