I started to focus more on hockey. As a 17-year-old, I was in the national team completely by accident. One teammate could not travel for political reasons, and I had a passport as a junior representative. I traveled to the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. There I scored a wonderful goal that I have never seen in my life. I shot out of fear when I saw two two-meter Swedes. I weighed 68 kilograms at the time. I didn't want to go among them because I thought they would break my bones. I hit one in the shoulder and scored a goal. My teammates were hugging me, I didn't even know why. You scored, a rookie, they told me. I still remember that first goal for the national team. That was the basis of my decision to stay with hockey.
For me, the best player is not the one who earns the most. I had teammate Ševčík, who worked like an idiot, and Havel, who had to defend for us. And Jiřík and I were famous because we scored goals. But they were defeated because they had to keep coming back, fighting and passing. We were in the papers, but he was the hard worker, and he was the best player, not us. We only took the extract from when raspberry juice is made. We benefited from the fact that the others worked for us. We were grateful to them for that, we scored goals and that's why we won.
My biggest sporting success in tennis was winning the junior champion of Czechoslovakia. I was in seventh place in the seniors, although I only played for three months in the summer, while the others already played all year round. In tennis, I was three times champion of Slovakia. We were the only four Slovaks who won the Pardubice junior in 70 years. The first was Meruňka who ended up in New York because he ran away. The second was me, the third was Lukáč, he was a coach in Austria, and the fourth was Mečíř. Since then, no one has won from the Slovaks. That was my big success. After that, it was a great success that I got out of such a bad situation three times, where I had already been written off. I was able to stand on my feet again. First thanks to the first wife for taking care of me so I could stand on the ice. Twice thanks to the second wife who got me back on my feet. I was completely out of it. Someone eats food because they think about injustice, I did the opposite. I was looking for a way to apply myself when I don't do sports.
Jozef Golonka comes from a working-class family. His parents encouraged him to play sports from an early age. His father was a worker and a football player, his mother worked as cloakroom assistant and taught him to figure skate. For a long time, Jozef could not decide whether he would pursue professional tennis or hockey. As a junior, he won the Slovakian tennis championship three times, but he also enjoyed hockey. He finally won in his next sports career. He started his successful playing career in the club Sokol NV Bratislava, where he worked from 1955 to 1957. He later graduated from the University of Economics and then also coached at the Comenius University. He played for Slovan Bratislava between 1959 and 1969 and experienced the best years of his long hockey career there. From the end of the 50s, he received offers to play in the NHL. They tried to get him, for example, to the Canadian club in Toronto. However, he was warned in the club that when he emigrated, the communists would persecute his parents and also his sister. That’s also why he never emigrated and stayed to play for Slovan. Finally, the witness had problems with the regime after the legendary match between Czechoslovakian hockey players and the Soviet Union. It took place in March 1969. Hockey players made a symbolic gesture when they refused to shake hands with USSR players after the match. In this way, they showed a rejecting attitude towards the occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. After ending his playing career in the mid-70s, Jozef also devoted himself to coaching for about 20 years. He worked in the club Zetor Brno, in Slovan Bratislava, he also led the Czechoslovak under-20 national team. He also coached several German teams. He also considers meetings with the Queen of England or the King of Sweden to be his life’s achievements. Today he is a pensioner in Bratislava.
