Rugby is the love of a lifetime
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Eduard Krützner was born on 16 April 1935 in Prague into the family of Eduard Krützner Sr. and Jaromíra Krütznerová. He spent the war period alternately in Prague and Dobřichovice, where he stayed in the family villa. Here, for example, he and his friends got into fierce conflicts with members of the Hitler Youth unit who were staying there. From childhood he was active in sports - in Dobřichovice he played tennis and volleyball, in Prague he played hockey for Sparta and swam for Slavia. At secondary school he became fascinated with basketball, in which he represented the school, and was subsequently approached by the management of Slovan Orbis to play for them. With the club, he won both championship titles and was able to compete in the European Nations Cup, where he made it to the finals with the team. In the autumn of 1956 he met at work with enthusiastic rugby players Jan Kudrna and Miroslav Vondráček, who invited him to train rugby in Vysočany. From 1957 he was already in the starting line-up of the club RC Praga Praha, where he won many championship titles. In 1959, he joined the Czechoslovak national rugby team, where he worked until 1972. He played 43 international matches and was captain for eight years. In 1962 he finally retired from basketball and devoted himself fully to rugby. In 1968 he was nominated to the European team that played against Germany in their 60 years of rugby celebrations. The following year, after a match against France in Besançon, he was offered a transfer to France. As he did not meet the conditions for a Czechoslovak athlete to transfer abroad at that time, he had to wait a few more years. He finally succeeded in his dream transfer in 1971. He started playing for the French club Olympique Besançon, with whom he fought his way to the 2nd division, and a year later to the top 1st division. After returning to the Czechoslovakia, he began to devote himself fully to coaching and led his parent club RC Praga Praha to seven championship titles as coach. In 1974 he became a member of the Sports Commission in the world organization Fédération International de Rugby Amateur (FIRA). Since 1985 he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of this organization. In 1990 he became the Secretary General of the Czech Rugby Union and was subsequently elected its President in 2003-2007. In 2017, he received the honour of being inducted into the Czech Rugby Union Hall of Fame. At the time of recording in 2025, Eduard Krützner was living in Prague.
