We knew we had to beat the Russians
Josef Černý was born on October 18, 1939, in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem. Beside him, his parents had eight daughters. His hobby in skating on a local pond developed into a full-time job. As a promising sportsman he was chosen by the ice-hockey club in Pilsen. Then he was transferred to Rudá hvězda [Red Star] Brno, where he stayed from 1958 to 1978. At that time he belonged among the ice-hockey elite. His is the first Czechoslovakian ice hockey player to have scored over four hundred goals in the league. He represented Czechoslovakia at twelve world championships. He was a member of a team that beat the Soviet team in 1969, which was widely seen by the public as a symbolic victory over the Soviet Union which then occupied Czechoslovakia. In 1972 he chose to end his career in the national team. Later he regretter the decision as the team won the gold at the world championship shortly after. He worked as a coach and a player in foreign clubs. For five years he trained ice-hockey players in Italy, where he learned about the events of November 1989. He returned to Brno, worked in ice-hockey clubs and dedicated time to his hobby, keeping of postal pigeons.