Miroslav Dvořák (October 11, 1951 – June 12, 2008), nicknamed "Cookie", was a Czechoslovak professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

who played three seasons in the NHL with the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

. He is also well known as a famous player of

Czech Extraliga The Czech Extraliga ( cs, Extraliga ledního hokeje, ELH) is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic. It was created by the 1993 split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League following the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The leag ...

(Czechoslovak) team HC České Budějovice, where he spent most of his active career.

Playing career

In 1967 he started professional ice hockey career playing for HC České Budějovice Junior team and from 1970 became a member of 'senior team'. In the same year Dvořák was named the best defender of

World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

held in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. During his military service he moved to the army team

Dukla Jihlava HC Dukla Jihlava, founded in 1956, is an ice hockey team in the Czech Republic. It won the Czechoslovak Extraliga title 12 times: six consecutive championships beginning in 1967, then in 1974, four consecutive championships beginning in 1982, an ...

where he spent 2 seasons. He also played for

Czechoslovak national ice hockey team The Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team was the national ice hockey team of Czechoslovakia, and competed from 1920 until 1992. The successor to the Bohemia national ice hockey team, which ...

and won 8 medals overall in the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annua ...

in years 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982 and 1983 and represented Czechoslovakia on

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

and

1981 Canada Cup The 1981 Labatt Canada Cup was the second best-on-best ice hockey world championship and involved the world's top six hockey nations. Tournament games were held in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. The Soviet Union national ice hockey team ...

s and on

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

as well. He was drafted by

in the 3rd round in 1982 and played 3 seasons in

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, playing in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

for Philadelphia. He had to wait until his thirties to play NHL, as playing overseas under the age of 30 was strictly prohibited because of sports rules during communism era in Czechoslovakia. He left professional ice hockey after the 88-89 season and went back to Czechoslovakia to play for HC České Budějovice.

Death

Dvořák died in the Czech Republic after a long battle with throat cancer at the age of 56 on June 12, 2008. His family played composer

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

's "

New World Symphony New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

" at the funeral.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

*TCH totals do not include statistics from the 1970–71, 1972–73 to 1974–75, and 1976–77 seasons.

International

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dvorak, Miroslav 1951 births 2008 deaths Czech ice hockey defencemen Czechoslovak ice hockey defencemen Olympic ice hockey players of Czechoslovakia Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Czechoslovakia Ice hockey players at the 1976 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players HC Dukla Jihlava players Motor České Budějovice players People from Hluboká nad Vltavou Deaths from cancer in the Czech Republic Deaths from esophageal cancer Sportspeople from the South Bohemian Region Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in the United States Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Expatriate ice hockey players in West Germany Czechoslovak expatriate ice hockey people