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Curious Iowa: Does Sokol still have a presence in Cedar Rapids?
The Czech organization was created in 1862 and has been promoted athletics, cultural programming ever since
Dec. 23, 2024 5:30 am
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Edvard Beneš, former president of what was then known as Czechoslovakia, said “it is not possible to imagine the development of our nation without Sokol, without Sokol thinking.”
Sokol was created in 1862 in Prague, and arrived in the U.S. shortly after. In 1873, a Sokol unit was established in Cedar Rapids. Generations of Eastern Iowans — Czech or not — have been involved in the organization’s athletics and cultural programming ever since.
One Cedar Rapids resident wrote to Curious Iowa — a Gazette series that answers readers’ questions about our state, its people and our culture — asking about the history of Sokol in Czech culture and whether Sokol still has a presence in Cedar Rapids.
It does, and we spoke with Sokol Cedar Rapids and a local expert on Sokol history, and dug through newspaper archives to answer the question.
What is Sokol?
The word Sokol means “falcon.” Sokol is a physical fitness society that was started by philosopher and gymnast Miroslav Tyrš with the help of Jindřich Fügner. Tyrš was inspired by the patriotic German gymnastics association turnverein, which started about 50 years earlier. Sokol was the first Czech gymnastics club but it also included marching and other militaristic training.
During this time, the Habsburgs ruled Czech lands and suppressed the Czech language and culture.
Dr. Robert Tomanek, author of “Czech Immigrants and the Sokol Movement” is a Sokol expert from Iowa City. He said that “Sokols were fitness people” who were “philosophical and goal oriented about independence and democracy.”
“The goal was to inspire the Czech people and to revive a personal national consciousness. In other words, the Czech identity,” Tomanek said of Sokol. “That’s what they were looking for because there was so much German being spoken … it really turned out to be that it was a physical education system. The identity they [were] aiming for is a healthy mind in a healthy body, and they stress morality as well.”
What is the significance of Sokols during World War I and II?
Tomanek said Sokol was a powerful movement for democracy and for freedom and that’s evident in the role it played in World War I and II.
In WWI, Czech men who had defected from the Austro-Hungarian army and former prisoners of war formed the Legionnaires and joined forces with the Russians. Many of these men were Sokol members.
“When Czechoslovakia was formed, [first president of Czechslovakia Tomáš] Masaryk said that if it wasn’t for the legions, there would never be a Czechslovakia,” Tomanek said. “And then if it wasn’t for Sokol, there would have never been legions.”
In 1939, the Nazis banned Sokol after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Sokol organization was important to the resistance of the Nazis and Sokol families assisted in the assassination of a leader of the Nazi Secret Police.
More than 8,000 Sokols were imprisoned in concentration camps, according to the Sokol Museum. Almost 5,000 were executed or died in concentration camps, including Sokol President Dr. Stanislav Bukovsky in Auschwitz.
After World War II, Sokol returned, but communism was taking over Czechoslovakia. At the 1948 Slet — a Sokol festival and athletics competition know for its displays of mass calisthenics — tensions were high as participants rallied against communism. Sokol was banned by the Communist government shortly after.
Following the Velvet Revolution, communist rule ended in Czechoslovakia and in 1990, Sokol returned. Allison Gerber, of Springville, competed at the International Slet in Prague in 1990.
“They were still holding the gymnastics competition, but it was right after the rebellion happened in ‘89, and so the gymnastic competition was very limited to numbers,” Gerber, now 72, told The Gazette. “And I was fortunate enough to be able to be included in a small group. And now it’s progressed and there are thousands of kids and adults competing and participating.”
Gerber took first place in the women’s division, which included beam, uneven bars, floor exercise and vault. She remembers that the routines were shared with her in Czech.
“And then I can remember, a couple of days before I was to compete, I found a lady that was very fluent in the Czech language … it was like, can we just go over these one more time to make sure that what I’ve been learning is what I’m supposed to be performing?” Gerber said.
Gerber received the honor of carrying the name plate for American Sokol during the Grand March that year. She said she’s received awards throughout the years, and congratulations from people across the country.
“It’s just overwhelming, these people, the closeness that we feel for one another.”
There’s a lot more to the history of Sokol that we can fit in this story. If you’re interested in learning more, check out Tomanek’s book “Czech Immigrants and the Sokol Movement.”
What does Sokol look like in Cedar Rapids today?
The first U.S. Sokol club was founded in St. Louis in 1865 by K. Prochaska. According to an article published in The Gazette in 1911, three future Cedar Rapids residents helped Prochaska organize a Sokol unit. Their names were John Letovsky, B. Letovsky and J. V. Vostronsky.
In 1873, the first Sokol was established in Cedar Rapids as a gymnastics branch of the Bohemian Reading Society. It was the second club west of the Mississippi River. Three years later, Cedar Rapids Sokol, a separate organization, was organized. By 1881, the two groups unified under the name Association Tyrus Cedar Rapids Sokol.
Sokols were some of the first to recognize women’s equality. Locally, the Sokolice, the women’s auxiliary, was organized in 1891. In May of 1989, the women’s auxiliary merged with the men’s Sokol unit, Gerber said.
In 1896, the group purchased a house on Third Street, near Seventh Avenue, which was converted into a meeting place and gymnasium. When they outgrew the space, they bought the adjacent corner and built a one-story brick gymnasium, which was dedicated on Jan. 13, 1901. Later, that property was sold to the Rock Island Railroad and the organization moved to 417 Third St. SE, the current home of The District CR restaurant. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
In 2008, floodwater rose four feet into the Sokol Hall and Gymnasium and destroyed all of the group’s kitchen equipment, as well as mats and other gymnastics equipment. Today, the club’s gym is on the southwest side of town, at 5200 18th Ave. SW, where they have been since March 2009.
Throughout the organization’s history in Cedar Rapids, Sokol has been involved in much more than athletic competitions. Gerber, who is the secretary for Sokol Cedar Rapids and the National Financial Secretary for American Sokol, said that Sokols were a place for Czechs to speak their native language — in fact, the club’s minutes were recorded in Czech until 1960. In addition to athletics, plays were put on, English classes were taught, and kolache bakes, dumpling boils and game nights were held.
Sokol Cedar Rapids has 47 senior members and 33 students today, Gerber said. The Cedar Rapids unit offers gymnastics classes, although every Sokol in the U.S. has different offerings depending on community demand.
While Sokol Cedar Rapids holds stretch classes for seniors and used to teach parkour, the unit in Cleveland offers aerial silks and hoops, Gerber said. The Pacific district doesn’t offer gymnastics but holds monthly hikes.
Gerber said Sokol is “a very rewarding organization.”
“It’s been a real rewarding aspect of my life,” Gerber said. “It’s helping the kids and giving them the confidence to do things.”
Find more information on Sokol Cedar Rapids’ offerings at sokolcr.com.
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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com
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