Milan Orlowski

"Then I had to pass through security at the airport and that made me very nervous. It was at the Prague Ruzyně airport and I was travelling to the World Cup in Hong Kong. I was invited there by the world federation, which covered all the costs. Flight tickets and all. But I had no money in my pockets. They were wondering I had no cash on me. I told them that they were awaiting me in Amsterdam and that we were then going to the World Cup. This made them suspicious and I had to undergo an inspection. They went through my handbag and my suitcase. I had around a thousand German Marks hidden in there, which was a great amount of money. They went through everything including a bag for documents but didn't find anything. They were getting ready for a body-search. This was it for me. I told them I wanted to talk to their supervisor, that I was no crook and wouldn't have them strip me naked. The officer went to get his supervisor and in the meantime, I took the thousand Marks and put it in the bag which already passed the inspection. The head of the shift came over and asked what were my complaints. I told him I was going to represent Czechoslovakia and instead, was getting a body-search as if I had stolen something. But his colleague insisted on the inspection. He got me stripped but luckily didn't look again in the bag. I walked through the customs zone and then had two whiskeys at the bar. My hands were shaking and I was incredibly nervous. Such were those times."

"I played ping pong but was enrolled as a worker at the Kolben factory. We had a workers' salary. In order for it to be good, I was enrolled as a steelworker. Once, I came to the factory to collect my salary. Nobody ever saw me there and I was getting twice as much as the guy standing in the cue behind me. He made a huge scene there. So, they said this couldn't go on and started to send me money to a bank account. We were effectively Sparta's employees and got a decent pay for what was the standard back then."