Bohumil Modrý

Bohumil Modrý played for LTC Praha from 1936-50 in the Czechoslovakian League. He competed at three World Championships prior to World War II (1937-39), winning a bronze medal in 1938, and at the 1947 and 1949 Worlds, where Czechoslovakia won gold both years, in addition to his 1948 Winter Olympic appearance, where he helped Czechoslovakia to a silver medal. Modrý was planning to play at the 1950 World Championships in London but word reached the Czechoslovakian authorities that he and 11 other team members were planning to defect, and they were all arrested. Modrý received the longest sentence of 15 years, and he never played competitive ice hockey again. While in prison he was forced to work in the uranium mines, without protective equipment, and this has been implicated in his early death in 1963, shortly after his slightly early release from prison.