Second Division, Czech people’s league. A whole bunch of former top division members here, but the championship was dominated by one team,which at the end did not get promotion.
Spartak PS (Usti nad Labem) finished last with 21 points and was relegated.
Lucky boys, LIAZ (Jablonec) – back in the 70s they played top league football, but now they were at the bottom of Second Division. 15th with 22 points. But there was Czech team relegated from First Division this year, so LIAZ survived.
VOKD (Poruba) – 14th with 22 points.
VP (Frydek-Mistek) – or TJ Valcovny plechu – 13th with 23 points. Played briefly in the First Division, but this was solid second-division club. Which had a weak season for some reason, but managed to escape relegation.
Vagonka (Ceska Lipa) – 12th with 26 points. Many Czechoslovak clubs were attached to industrial plants and this one had distinctive railway sound: railways-cars making factory, most likely. ‘Vagon’ – wagon – railway-car.
VTZ (Chomutov) – 11th with 27 points.
Auto Skoda – or AS (Mlada Boleslav). Belonging to automotive-making giant Skoda, but it was not the ‘flagship’ club – just the team belonging to Mlada Boleslav’s plant. 10th with 28 points.
TZ Trinec (Trinec) – 9th with 28 points. They played in the first division once upon a time, then gradually declined to mid-table second division team.
TJ Gottwaldov (Gottwaldov) – like TZ Trinec, their memories of top-level football were fading away and the mid-table of Second Division was the norm. 8th with 31 points.
DP Xaverov (Prague) – 7th with 31 points. The only club from Prague in the Second Division, but nothing more than that: a modest club,without ability to climb up. What the name means and represents needs a Czech to tell: it is TJ Drubezarsky Prumysl. Xaverov, as they were better known, seems to be the city district they hailed from. A club from the capital, though… and thus perhaps the only team with some familiar names in it, for veteran players could join the small club for their last playing days. Better than going to the provincials… Dusan Herda was a regular for Slavia (Prague) for years, now he was kicking the ball for Xaverov.
Spartak Hradec Kralove ZVU (Hradec Kralove) – another former first division member. 6th with 32 points.
Skoda (Plzen) – 5th with 33 points. One may expect more – much more – from the team belonging to the headquarters of giant manufacturer. They played regularly in the first division during the 1970s, but now – down and out.
Relativity… modest VTJ (Tabor) was ahead of Skoda. 4th with 34 points. Promotion was out of their wildest dreams, of course, but they were solid second division member and under their own circumstances, had an enjoyable good season.
Sklo Union (Teplice) – 3rd with 34 points. Up and down, then up and down again. Quite a disappointing season, for they constantly aimed to return to top flight. Ambition is one thing, reality – another.
Dynamo JCE (Ceske Budejovice) – another club quite familiar with first-division football. However, they were not exactly up to the task – much better than the rest of the league, but too weak to really push up: Dynamo finished 6 points behind the league winners. But there was happy ending for them.
Zbrojovka (Brno) was unquestionable leader and winner of the league – 21 wins, 5 ties, 4 losses, 45-20 goal-difference, 47 points. 6 points ahead of Dynamo, the only team looking like a challenger. The best team by far and it was even a bit strange why Zbrojovka was in Second Division – as names go, they had more formidable squad than may be half of the first division teams. Kroupa, Rygel, Vaclavicek, Jarusek… getting old, though. So far, so good – Zbrojovka was going back to their familiar top league. But it was not to be – they was caught attempting to fix a match and were disqualified for promotion.
Dynamo (Ceske Budejovice) was awarded promotion in the place of Zbrojovka. No wonder, triumphant team celebrated in the streets of Brno, cheered by happy fans.
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