Steve, I though so too, that's why I spent hours trying - the springs are really stiff and have a pretty long return on the hooks and the holes are rather small so as to prevent them from easily coming undone. Using needle nose pliers I was not able to get enough sideways bend to get the end hooked into the hole. The only thing I didn't try, because I don't have one, is a needle nose visegrip - I still wonder if that would work... And someone else may have better luck/skills than I do.
But after removing the clevises and unbolting the masters, there are only two bolts on top to remove to get the pedal assembly out of the car. When I found my spring broken, I was due for a master cylinder rebuild at the time so it wasn't all that much extra work. I did replace both springs while I had it out
Dave