This prized object from the collection represents the original Bohemians Praha, who folded in 2005, only to be soon resurrected (the successors being one of two current Czech clubs to be known, contentiously, under the name) & currently operating once again in the top division of domestic football.
As the club was known as Bohemians CKD Praha from 1965 – 93 (amongst many a name change over its lifespan), the pin badge’s vintage dates from this period, as historical artefact, with the object itself, & its lovely green, cream (aged from white) & gold colour scheme (like that, coincidentally, of the Lokomotiva Praha badge), being another of those tiny (particularly in this case), exquisite examples that cannot but help dandify a lapel.
The curiosity of the kangaroo emblem, in a Czech context, is, apparently, the result of a pair of the animals being presented to the club during a 1920s tour of Australia, which were subsequently donated to Prague zoo upon their return home.
Bohemians Prague would have appeared on the radar of continental football during the early 1980s, when the club reached the semi-finals of the 1982 – 83 UEFA Cup & won its solitary Czechoslovakian league championship during the same season.
The name itself has an obvious appeal, although being a more of a geographical-cultural fact than a signifier of arty unconventionality (for all that Antonin Panenka, the moustachioed king of the coolly chipped penalty to which he has given his name was a Bohemians player back in his day), & the green & white colours of the team’s strip ensured they would be ripe for a bit of favouritism, which, through various travails, prevails.
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