Václav Nedomanský

* 1944

  • "The last time I was in Bratislava I was monitored by listening devices and allegedly personally. Especially my coach Starší and Gut, they were the two who gave the most news from the hockey environment. I couldn't contact [my parents]. All the mail was found in the file that's here. All the mail was stopped, opened. In short, there could be no contact. My parents' phone was tapped. The connection, when it was there, always went down. I couldn't talk, the mail didn't come. My father, when he was on his deathbed, I think 1984, I telephoned - he was in hospital and they brought him in a wheelchair. He came to see me once when it was clear he was dying, so they let him go. At first they wanted my parents to come here [to Canada] and talked me into coming back. The embassy had people who contacted me. We told them through my lawyer to stop or they would be expelled from Canada. So it stopped. There was no contact, no cell phones, no internet. I came here for the first time in about 20 years when I could."

  • "I was already living in Toronto at the time. So, by coincidence, Vlado Dzurilla and Jirka Holík were visiting me in the evenings, and we maintained a relationship as much as we could. Guys took risks, they had to run away from the team and not say anything because they were being watched. Vlado says: 'I don't give a shit about them. I'm coming to see you, we've been friends for 20 or 10 years and I want to see you.' Jirka was also so casual. I saw the games, it was amazing how they played and held their own. Vlado was catching tremendously, he had style, he was willing to stop their [the Canadians'] shots more than his passes. He made a tremendous name for himself. He could have played there if he wanted to."

  • "Back then, the system worked in such a way that officials in the leadership were under the influence of various organisations. And the all-pervasive secret police phoned ahead that such a bus was coming, it was already picked out. I remember we missed a game, we were dropped off and checked. One day they said, 'All out!' And the coach: 'What is this stuff?' - 'We don't know.' He took it and threw it in the ditch. I remember personally, everybody had to come out. Even, as Mr. Panenka says, they undressed us, and when it came to me, I took my pants off and I had my underwear on. The customs officer says, 'I have too much respect for you, you don't have to take off your underpants, get dressed and go!' That was a hard story to forget."

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    Praha, 25.02.2024

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    duration: 02:47:19
    media recorded in project Tipsport for Legends
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He fled to Canada for hockey. They didn’t let his dad see him until he was dying

Václav Nedomanský enjoying a goal for the national team in the early 1970s
Václav Nedomanský enjoying a goal for the national team in the early 1970s
photo: archive of a witness

Václav Nedomanský was born on 14 March 1944 in Hodonín. He inherited his sporting genes from his father, who played football and rode in motorcycle races. After elementary school he graduated from grammar school. From the age of 16 he played for the Hodonín adult A team in the second league. After graduation, he was taken to the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in Bratislava, where from 1962 until 1974 he defended the colours of the Slovan CHZJD club. In 1965 he won a silver medal with the national team at the World Championships in Tampere, Finland, and repeated the same success a year later in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. In 1968 he finished second at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble. There, the national team defeated the Soviet Union for the first time in a long time. In 1969, at the World Championships in Sweden, Václav Nedomanský was there for both famous victories over the Soviet Union, which occupied Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In 1972 he won a gold medal at the World Championships in Prague. In 1974, the communist regime refused to let him join the North American NHL. He decided to emigrate and left Czechoslovakia with his wife Vera and three-year-old son Václav Václav. In North America, he was the first hockey player from socialist Eastern Europe to play in the professional WHL and NHL. He played for the Toronto Toros, Birmingham Bulls, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers. After his playing career, he coached in West Germany and worked as a scout for NHL clubs. His daughter Victoria was born in Canada. In 2019, he was inducted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2024, he and his second wife, Marcela, lived in California and raised their adopted daughter, Julia.