"They took away our trade in the fiftieth year, that was the first thing they took away, and then the Russians came and wanted to pull the republic over to the side of the Russian prominents and bosses. My father was in the army as a non-commissioned officer, and when we talked about it, it left a terrible stain on us, that a few fools sold us out to the Russians. That's how we can evaluate it. And there were too many who went along with it. They had to, because otherwise they would have all lost their jobs."
"I packed up and [headed towards] Libava. This is a military base, it was full of soldiers then. There were maybe ten thousand of us there, an awful lot. That was rolled up from certain crews that joined the army at that time. There were all sorts of things there. Mostly there were these religious people. I had two friends like that. Then when we met, they thought I was some kind of informer. You guys don't play games with me, I'm just like you, but in different clothes. You wear a uniform in church and I wear a uniform on the playground. I guess that's how we got caught. One was called Simko, the other was called Hráček. I remember that to this day."
"Well, yes, Konopásek! I made a [tackle] to his right, he jumped on it, I spun to the left and got to Modrý, the goalie. In layman's terms he caught my swallow, it wasn't a shot, it was just a swallow. Yes, I got away from [him]." "It was like cat and mouse, that game?" "They played and they let us. The disparity in performance, they were world class players. And then they almost locked them all up."
Svatopluk Klinkovský was born on 2 October 1928 in Zlín. His father and mother worked in the family business, moving furniture and accommodating employees in their home. The family lived near the Bata family and maintained common contacts. He started playing hockey as a child and during his career he played for a number of clubs, including SK Bata, SK Prštné, Svit Gottwaldov and Spartak Gottwaldov. After finishing his schooling at the Masarykova Primary School, he went to his parents to study and then moved on to the Chamber of Commerce and Trade. The Second World War and the subsequent communist coup affected the family greatly. The father was imprisoned by the Gestapo, probably for resistance activities, after 1948 the family lost all their property and as tradesmen they became inconvenient to the regime. Svatopluk Klinkovský therefore spent more than three years in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions, at the unit in Libava. He finished his hockey career eight years later, he still managed to play at the Zlín Hockey Stadium, which he helped build during his brigades. As the oldest living Zlín hockey veteran, he was featured in the documentary Ševci 90. In 2020, he passed away shortly before his 92nd birthday.
