František "Franz" Bican (1891–1921) was a Czech professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for ,

Club career

Bican made his official debut for Hertha Vienna on 9 September 1912, in 3–0 loss to Wr. Amateur SV. Hertha Vienna just survived a relegation battle this season against

Wacker Vienna Wacker may refer to: People *Wacker von Wackenfels *The Whacker, poker player Garry Bush's nickname *Wacker (surname) * ''Wacker'', a colloquial term for an inhabitant of Wirral, England; a partial synonym for "scouser" Places *Wacker (Heve), a ...

as Bican scored four goals in six games.

Personal life

František was married to Ludmila Bicanová, . They went on to have three children; František Bican in 1910,

Josef Bican Josef "Pepi" Bican (25 September 1913 – 12 December 2001) was an Austrians, Austrian-Czechs, Czech professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. He is regarded by some to be the ...

in 1913 and Vilík Bican in 1918. František’s father was also called František. His father had another son who was called Josef. His grandson was

Ivan Bican Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the Bul ...

, who played football for

Škoda Plzeň Škoda means "pity" in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto responsi ...

Death

Bican sustained an injury after being tackled at the

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

studs up. The kidney got infected. František died at the early age of 30 in 1921 after refusing an operation on his infected kidney. This was when František was just 10, Josef was 8 and Vilík was 3. Hertha Vienna officials gave František a nice funeral and told Ludmila that they would take care of her sons and would even give them an education. At first they visited the boys every day and would bring something to help out. However this soon changed as they would come every week, once a fortnight and within three months it was as if they had forgotten about the Bican family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bican, Frantisek 1891 births 1921 deaths People from Strakonice District Footballers from the South Bohemian Region Czech men's footballers Men's association football forwards