First published in the Stanislav Libenský Award 2025 catalogue.
The title is not my own invention. In the early 1970s it was coined by Martin Růžek – actor, National Artist and a Slavia supporter with the bearing of a statesman – who for many years chaired the Slavia Friends’ Association. A matador in his own right, he led the club’s “artistic front”, the circle of artists and intellectuals that rescued SK Slavia Praha for Czech sport and brought it back to the top.
If you look for the first hundred personalities behind the return of Dynamo Prague to its historic name, Slavia, and to its traditions in 1964, you will find – alongside the writers Jan Procházka, Ludvík Aškenazy, Milan Kundera and Bohumil Hrabal, the actors Jan Pivec, Ladislav Pešek and Stella Zázvorková, the opera singers Eduard Haken and Milada Šubrtová, the architect Jan Zázvorka, the filmmakers Miloš Forman and Miroslav Ondříček and the jazz musician Karel Krautgartner – the name of Stanislav Libenský. He never hid his affection for, and support of, the athletes in red and white.
Although at times he was something of a globetrotter, his contribution to the club’s visual culture was unmistakable. He designed the Josef Bican Cup, and he was co-author of, and adviser to the artist and actor Miloš Nesvadba on, countless club souvenirs and commemorative certificates. He approached everything with a craftsman’s integrity and great verve. He was not in the habit of apologising, and his approach to everything was infectious to those closest to him.
But that is only part of the story. Among his Slavia friends he also enjoyed himself enormously – at the famous carnivals, in his studio at UMPRUM (the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague), or at home “on the hillside” in Železný Brod alongside Jaroslava Brychtová. He was an appreciative listener to all kinds of stories, and he had his favourites: the uproarious tales of the actors Vladimír Menšík and Stella Zázvorková, Josef Kemr’s dry humour, and the well-known raconteurs Milan Neděla, Karel Effa, Jan Skopeček and the singer Milan Chladil were very much to his taste.
And finally: Professor Stanislav Libenský was also a major financial supporter of his club, above all in its difficult early years – so much so that those most in the know consider him the most important of all. He truly wrote his name into the club’s history in letters of gold. Martin Růžek was right: he truly was a matador with a kind face.
Vladimír Zápotocký
former Slavia youth player and later club official, a friend of the Professor since 1967