Mgr. Ludmila Ordnungová

"We won that. But in the finals, when we played Russia and America, there was an awkward moment. An error occurred at the recording desk. Luboš Dobrý took a time-out and made a substitution. He put player number 12, Jarka Dubská, on the field. She hadn't played yet during this game. She stepped on the court, the referee threw the ball, and the judge from the table interrupted the game. He said that player 12 had already been disqualified for four fouls and came on again, that it was a technical foul, so the player had to leave the field. We were saying, how is that possible when she wasn't playing before, so it couldn't be true. Mister Jones, chairman of the entire basketball federation, was quirky. He didn't look like a basketball player. Mister Jones was short and fat. He was always smoking cigars, sitting by the benches with the players at scorer's table level, and smoking a cigar. He was allowed to do it during the match, or perhaps he allowed it himself. The referee said the player was not allowed to play, and we got a technical foul. They threw three free throws. Luboš Dobrý went to Jones and told him that our player didn't play. Mister Jones came to the table and said, 'Show me the record!' The judge said he would not show it. Jones told him: 'This is the World Cup!' But the judge sat on the record sheet because he knew there was a mistake and didn't want to admit it. He took out the record sheet, and it turned out he had made a mistake. It was the Russian player 12 that was fouled. And she was already on the bench. They argued. The break was quite long. They said, let's finish the match, and we can file a protest after. But it has to be subsidized by $100. Our group did not have 100 dollars, but Ambassador Kubíček said: 'I will give you 100 dollars. When you win the protest, you will return it to me.' The leader of the expedition, Vašek Mudra, was also an athlete, but he was from Dukla. He, as the leader of the expedition and God's Eye, said: 'That is unthinkable. We can't protest against the Soviet Union, that's impossible!' So with that, we finished the match. We lost it, but it was close, and that was the end of it. If this had not happened, we still might have lost, but we lost face completely. Everyone told us. Then the organizers also told us: 'Both teams are off. We will allow you to play again. The court will be free.' But it wasn't possible. One cannot protest against the socialist Soviet Union. There can't be any mistake.'

"Big, it wasn't even a moment, but the entire May Revolution. That's how I remember it. I was a ten-year-old child, and those were such emotions. To this day, I know what I was wearing. I know how heavy the cobblestones were because we lived opposite the radio station, so that's where a tram stopped. They put the tow tram perpendicularly across the street, dug up the cobblestones, and placed those in the tram. Dead Germans were also put there. They put the Czech fighters who died in our basement. I am still traumatized by that to this day. Long after the revolution, I saw them lying there sprinkled with lime. The memories of the revolution are vivid because mom and dad helped the Czechs in the radio station building. A baker stayed in the house next door. He had been baking bread and rolls since the Saturday the revolution began. And because the shelters connected in the block, people went there to buy rolls and bread. Mom and Dad also shopped there. Mom cooked potato soup. She also made coffee and some chicory, and they brought that to the people that reported on air about what was happening and how people should help at the radio station. Those are the memories of the revolution for me, and they are still vivid.”