The Victorian Ice Hockey Association, currently trading as Ice Hockey Victoria is the governing body of ice hockey in Victoria, Australia. The Victorian Ice Hockey Association is a branch of Ice Hockey Australia.
Ice Hockey Victoria is the first ice hockey association formed in Australia. 12 September 1908 is the date of the formation of the first ice hockey association in Australia. The meeting at the Melbourne Glaciarium occurred directly after an evening ice hockey game between the Brighton Ice Hockey Club and the Melburnians, which resulted in a 2–2 tie. The meeting was for the purpose of organising a club for the following season and the following committee was appointed: Lorimer, Ward, Errol Forster Woods, Walter Purbrick and Andrew Lambert Reid. Mr. Purbrick was nominated as honourable Treasurer and Mr. Reid was nominated as the Secretary.[1]
The name of the association was the Victorian Amateur Ice Hockey Association (VAIHA). The association consisted of 4 ice hockey clubs:[2]
Beavers
Brighton
Glaciarium
Melburnians
The Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club was formed in 1907 and was the first ice hockey club to form in Australia and they are named for the Melbourne Glaciarium as the in house representative team. The remainder of the original 3 teams were formed in 1908. The Melburnians Ice Hockey Club consisted of the Melbourne Grammar School field hockey team and the team was named the Melburnians after the school. The Brighton Ice Hockey Club team were also named after a school, Brighton Grammar School. The Beavers Ice Hockey Club were named after their sponsor, Melbourne architect, Isidor George Beaver. The games were played in two 10-minute halves.
The School Club era
Melburnians IHC 1910 – Champions
The inaugural Victorian Amateur Ice Hockey Association season began with the first game being played at the Melbourne Glaciarium on the evening of 19 June 1909 between Brighton Ice Hockey Club and the Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club.[3][4][5][6] The Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club would finish the regular season in first place and would be given the title of the minor premiers. The playoff format would then see the semi-finals have the first place Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club play the second place Melburnian Ice Hockey Club, who upset the minor premiers 3–1. The 3rd place Beavers Ice Hockey Club would be beaten by the 4th place Brighton Ice Hockey Club with a score of 5–3 and see the playoff championship be held between the Melburnian Ice Hockey Club and Brighton Ice Hockey Club. The Melburnian Ice Hockey Club would win convincingly 7–1. Due to finishing first during the regular season, which meant they were the 1909 season minor premiers, the Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club was able to issue a challenge to the Melburnian Ice Hockey Club for the Grand Challenge Championship. This championship was held on the evening of 27 September 1909 and the Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club won by a score of 3–0 and were awarded gold medals.[2][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
For the 2nd season, the association ran under the auspices Victorian Amateur Ice Hockey and Sports Association and from the local competition, players would be selected to represent Victoria in the annual Inter-State Series.[14] The first game of the season began at 9:00pm at the Melbourne Glaciarium on 22 June 1910 between Beavers Ice Hockey Club and Brighton Ice Hockey Club resulting in a 5–3 win for Brighton.[15] The playoff champions were the Melburnian Ice Hockey Club, who are seen posed with a trophy cup.
In 1911 the Melbourne Glaciarium was leased from 30 September that year, cutting the season shorter than usual, embracing 4 Ice Hockey clubs again.[16] An ice hockey team was formed for girls and matches would begin for them every Saturday after the afternoon public skating session.[17]
The 1912 season saw the addition of the Ottawa Ice Hockey Club in the absence of the Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club in the competition. Due to the season being short, it was necessary to play two games per night. The association would also now go by the name Victorian Ice Hockey Association.[18][19] The Association would continue for another 2 years until the Great War.
The Great War
As the Great War began, plans for the abandonment of ice hockey until the end of the war were considered.[20] The rink management would go on to organise speed contests in the absence of a hockey season.[21] No cup was to be contested in the 1915 season[22][23]
In 1916, though the season was again cancelled, the Victorian Ice Hockey Association were considering younger players to fill the void left by many players at war. There was no certainty that ice hockey would be played.[24]
Competition would resume in 1917 with a 2-team league consisting of the Beavers Ice Hockey Club and Ottawa Ice Hockey Club. The Melbourne Glaciarium management presented a trophy for the shortened competition.[25] The premiership trophy was to be presented by Melbourne Glaciarium manager, Percy Watson, at the annual dinner. The Dinner was held at the Francatelli Cafe at 7:00pm on 14 September 1917.[26] The Dinner was held at the Magpie Tea Rooms, Collins Street where the premiership cup was presented to Beaver Club captain Roy Marks.[27]
Hockey players began to practice upon the opening of the ice skating season.[28] A match was held between a Blues and Whites team during a carnival on 27 July 1918.[29][30]
In 1920, the Melbourne Glaciarium did not operate an ice floor due to the popularity of dancing and was converted into a Palais de Dance. This meant that no ice hockey was played in Victoria, nor any ice sport played for this year.[31]
Post Great War Era
A cup was donated by John Edwin Goodall in 1921, not to be confused with the Goodall Cup used for the inter-state competition, this Goodall Cup was used as the premiership trophy for the Victorian Ice Hockey Association's ice hockey league.[32][33]
As the ice hockey season opened for 1924, 5 men's ice hockey teams were formed and 1 women's team.[34]
The Suburb Club era
1927 Essendon Ice Hockey Club
In the year Essendon won its first Premiership, earning the right to hold the Goodall Cup, they also held the first Presidents Cup donated by the Victorian Ice Hockey Association president Mr. P Sutherland.[33]
Inter Rink Club era
With the opening of the St. Moritz Ice Palais on 10 March 1939, a new strategy was to be made to allow the competition to make use of now having a second rink.[35] This decision resulted in the disbanding of the current ice hockey teams and the formation of an ice hockey club at each rink, who would submit teams into the Victorian Ice Hockey Association season competition. On 19 April 1939, the Victorian Ice Hockey Association held a meeting to spread the competition across a second rink, with the St. Moritz Ice Palais officially opening a month before.[35] The result of the meeting was that the Association decided that two new ice hockey clubs would be formed, one for the Melbourne Glaciarium and the other for the new St. Moritz Ice Palais, both clubs would seek affiliation with the VIHA. Between the two new ice hockey clubs they would provide four teams for the new 1939 VIHA season which would involve an inter-rink competition played between the Melbourne Glaciarium and St. Moritz Ice Palais. The St. Moritz Ice Hockey Club teams would be named the St. Moritz Bombers and the Smokey Bombers. The 3 existing VIHA teams would disband and join the new ice hockey clubs. Those teams were Essendon, Hawthorn and Brighton.[36] The 2 new ice hockey clubs would be named the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club and the Glaciarium Rangers Ice Hockey Club and they were coached by Mr. Fred Palmer and Mr. Hugh Lloyd. Instead of both clubs producing 2 teams for inter-rink competition as originally planned, they each submitted only 1 team into the competition. The teams to compete would be the St. Moritz Bombers and the Glaciarium Rangers.
The St. Moritz Ice Hockey Club would create its own inter-club "house league" season at St. Moritz Ice Palais by dividing into 2 teams that only played against each other . These teams were the St. Moritz Bombers and Foy's Gibsonia Flyers, who were sponsored by Foy & Gibson.[37]
The ice hockey season was scheduled to begin on 7 May 1940 with the first game of the St. Moritz Ice Hockey Club inter-club matches. Mr. Wallace Sharland was elected president of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association.[38] On 29 April 1940 a meeting was held at Melbourne University and it was decided that they would form an Ice Hockey Club in hopes that inter-varsity games could be arranged with the Sydney University ice hockey club. The prospective ice hockey players would be coached by members of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association.[39] The St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club created a new team called Rhodes' Topliners, who were sponsored by Rhodes Motor Company PTY LTD. They were to compete against the other sponsored team, Foy's Gibsonia Flyers, for their inter-club competition. A trophy was donated to the St. Moritz Ice Hockey Club inter-club season by Mr. O.T. Dixon[40][41]
Initial reports stated that ice hockey would be discontinued for the entirety of the 1941 season due to the activity of World War II but the Victorian Ice Hockey Association decided to continue the inter-rink competition. Enlistments had reduced the numbers for senior players but the focus on improving the standard of junior players would be relied upon to raise the senior competition standard.[42] Each rink was still represented by an ice hockey club with the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club at St. Moritz Ice Palais and the Glaciarium Rangers Ice Hockey Club operating in the Melbourne Glaciarium. The combined membership between both clubs exceeded 100 players but key players would be subject to compulsory participation in World War II and enlistments. One such key player was Canadian Hugh Lloyd who became a member of the R.A.A.F. leaving a vacancy in the coaching role at the Glaciarium that veteran ice hockey player Alfred Massina would need to fill.[43]
Due to incidents that occurred in the inter-rink game between the St. Moritz Bombers and Glaciarium Rangers where fighting occurred between players which included involvement with spectators and 3 players being ordered off the ice, an ongoing ban continued to be in place against these 3 St. Moritz Bombers players from playing in the Melbourne Glaciarium.[44] Before the season would start, the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club held a meeting on 25 May 1941 and decided that if the Melbourne Glaciarium management refused to lift the ban on these 3 players, the St. Moritz Bombers would not submit a team to compete against the Glaciarium Rangers in the inter-rink competition this year. Meanwhile, the Glaciarium Rangers Ice Hockey Club had decided to create their own house league and formed 4 new teams that would play exclusively at the Melbourne Glaciarium. These teams were: Collingwood, Hawthorn, South Melbourne and Essendon. The Victorian Ice Hockey Association held a meeting on 29 May 1941 with the managers of each ice rink to discuss the future plans for the inter-rink competition, while each rinks hockey club continued independently with their own house league season at their respective home rink.[45][46] It was later confirmed just before the season that there would be no inter-rink competition for the 1941 season.[47]
On 13 July 1941 A campaign was started to make ice hockey a popular sport in post war years, inviting juveniles between the ages of 12–14 to put on skates and receive coaching from senior members of the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club. Over 30 young people attended.[48] World War II would result in the ceasing of regular ice hockey activity in Victoria for a few years, many players had enlisted and lost their lives while serving their country.
Interstate competition
1909: The Inter-State Series
The first ice hockey uniform for Victoria 1909The first ice hockey team representing Victoria 1909Victoria – Goodall Cup Champions 1913
The first inter-state ice hockey championship was held between a state representative team from Victoria and from New South Wales. This tournament was a best-of-3 format and saw Victoria win the series 2 games to 1.[49]New South Wales was represented by a newly formed team in 1909 and travelled to Melbourne on 29 August 1909 which marked the first national interstate competition for senior men's hockey in Australia.[50]
The first game of the series had a final score of 2–1 with New South Wales defeating Victoria.[51] Friday 3 September 1909 the Victorian team defeated the New South Wales team 1–0, giving Victorian goaltender Charles Watt the first recorded shutout in the history of the Inter-State Series.[52] In the third game of the series both teams had won a game each. Victoria defeated New South Wales 6–1 and became the first team to win the Inter-State Series in Australia.[53]
The proprietors of the St. Moritz Ice Rink granted ice time to the Victorian Ice Hockey Association, free of charge to run a Lightning premiership for 8 B grade teams on 9 July 1954. All proceeds for the matches would go to the hockey association for the betterment and growth of the sport in Victoria.[54]
1922: The Gower Cup
The first inter-state women's ice hockey championship tournament was held in the first week in August 1922 between New South Wales and Victoria, New South Wales won the first game of the series 3–0.[55]
Leagues
For the 2019 Season, Ice Hockey Victoria established 4 leagues:
Senior Ice Hockey
The primary competition for Ice Hockey Victoria takes place in the Winter Season.
Premier League – The top senior checking league in Victoria.
Senior B – The 1st tier of senior non-checking hockey, which has no gender restriction for eligibility.
Senior C – The 2nd tier of senior non-checking hockey, which has no gender restriction for eligibility.
Senior D – The 3rd tier of senior non-checking hockey, which has no gender restriction for eligibility.
Minor Ice Hockey
The 2019 Minor Hockey League consists of 3 age levels:
Pee Wee (Under 12)
Bantam (Under 15)
Midget (under 18 before 30 September)
Women's Ice Hockey
Established independently and operating out of the Olympic Ice Skating Centre the Ice Hockey Victoria Women's League IHVWL now operates under Ice Hockey Victoria sanction.
Summer Ice Hockey
Recreational C Division I
Recreational C Division II
Recreational C Division III
Recreational C Division IV
Awards and trophies
2018 Premier A individual Award Winners
Ice Hockey Victoria continues to present the original perpetual trophies for team and individual accomplishment for the season, the oldest award still presented today is the H.H. Kleiner Trophy which was first presented in 1946. Each level of hockey has its own playoff trophy as well as 4 individual trophies for: Season MVP, Highest Goal Scorer, Best Defenceman and Best Goaltender. In each case for individual awards, the original trophy is presented to the winner as well as a keeper trophy that they can take with them.
H. H. Kleiner Memorial Trophy
H.H. Kleiner Trophy
The H.H. Kleiner Memorial Trophy is a perpetual trophy awarded to the playoff champions of the Premier A level winter season competition for Ice Hockey Victoria. Since being awarded to the Western Suburbs in 1946 for its inaugural year, the trophy has always been awarded to the highest level of competition in Victoria, Australia. The trophy's namesake is Harry Hans Kleiner, the original proprietor of the St. Moritz Ice Palais. The H. H. Kleiner remains as the oldest Victorian state level competition trophy that is still contested and the original trophy is still being awarded and presented to the playoff champion of Victoria's highest level of state ice hockey to this day.[56]
History
World War II would result in the ceasing of regular ice hockey league activity in Victoria for a few years, many players had enlisted and lost their lives while serving their country. Leading up to the war time activity, enlistments had reduced the numbers for Victorian senior ice hockey players but the focus on improving the standard of junior players would be relied upon to raise the senior competition standard. Before the war each rink was still represented by an ice hockey club with the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club at St. Moritz Ice Palais and the Glaciarium Rangers Ice Hockey Club operating in the Melbourne Glaciarium. The combined membership between both clubs exceeded 100 players but key players would be subject to compulsory participation in World War II and enlistments. One such key player was Canadian Hugh Lloyd who became a member of the R.A.A.F. leaving a vacancy in the coaching role at the Melbourne Glaciarium that veteran ice hockey player Alfred Massina would need to fill. The Victorian Ice Hockey Association held a meeting on 29 May 1941 with the managers of each ice rink to discuss the future plans for the inter-rink competition, while each rinks hockey club continued independently with their own house league season at their respective home rink. It was later confirmed just before the season that there would be no inter-rink competition for the 1941 season. On 13 July 1941 A campaign was started to make ice hockey a popular sport in post war years, inviting juveniles between the ages of 12–14 to put on skates and receive coaching from senior members of the St. Moritz Bombers Ice Hockey Club. Over 30 young people attended. From scrimmage sessions being held during the wartime activity, enough players would be available to form a league by 1946 consisting of 4 teams: Northern Suburbs, Southern Suburbs, Eastern Suburbs and Western Suburbs. This would be the first time in a few years that a league would exist but as the Melbourne Glaciarium did not operate an ice floor in 1946 due to the popularity of dancing, the 1946 competition would only operate inside Harry Hans Kleiner's St. Moritz Ice Palais and the modern era of club ice hockey would begin. Harry Hans Kleiner donated the trophy we know today as the H.H. Kleiner Trophy to the first champions, the Western Suburbs.[56]
Traditions and trophy history
Due to an alleged miscommunication between Ice Hockey Victoria executive in 2016 the Jets Ice Hockey Club won the playoff championship in two games, securing the H.H. Kleiner Trophy, but it was not brought to the venue by members of the Association, making this the first time in its history that the winning team was not presented the trophy after winning it.
For the 2018 IHV Winter season, the H.H. Kleiner trophy was refurbished, fixing the trophy that had become more fragile with time. Part of the work that was undertaken included a lengthening of the central brass cylinder to allow more champions to be inscribed on the award.[56]
Basil Hansen Memorial Trophy
The Basil Hansen Memorial Trophy is currently awarded to the playoff champions in the Premier Reserve league. The trophy namesake is Basil Hansen, an Australian ice hockey champion.
Don Reddish Trophy
The Don Reddish trophy is currently awarded to the playoff champions in the Premier C division I
Clive Connelly Trophy
The Clive Connelly Trophy is currently awarded to the playoff champions in the Premier C division II
Uniform and Logos
Past Uniforms for Victoria State Ice Hockey Team
1909 – The first team
1913
1921
1922
1928
Presidents
29 July 1914 second president of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association. National Library of Australia
Winter Sports in Australia encompasses a great variety of activities across the continent of Australia, including winter sports played in snow and ice such as ice hockey. Climate varies considerably from the tropical North to temperate South in Australia, and sporting practices vary accordingly. Ice and snow sports like Skiing in Australia are conducted in the high country of the Australian Alps and Tasmanian Wilderness. Australia has relatively low mountain ranges, but a long history of participation in recreational skiing and the Winter Olympic Games. Australians have won olympic gold in ice skating, skiing and snow-boarding events. Australia's generally flat geography and usually mild winter climate otherwise provide ideal conditions for international non-snow/ice winter sports and team games like rugby union football, rugby league football, and association football (soccer), which are all popular sports during the Australian winter and in which Australia has enjoyed considerable international success. Australian rules football is a home-grown winter football code with a wide following throughout Australia. Many other sports are also played or watched in Australia through the winter season.
The Goodall Cup is a perpetual trophy that is, currently, annually awarded to the playoff champions of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). The trophy is named after Australian born player John Edwin Goodall who originally donated the cup.
The Australian Ice Hockey Federation, currently trading as Ice Hockey Australia (IHA), is the official national governing body of ice hockey in Australia and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was first established in 1908, making it one of the oldest national ice hockey associations in the world.
The New South Wales Ice Hockey Association, currently trading as Ice Hockey NSW is the governing body of ice hockey in New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales Ice Hockey Association is a branch of Ice Hockey Australia.
Ice hockey in Australia is a sport which had a relatively poor popularity, having low participation and spectator attendance figures when compared with many other sports played in the country.
The Melbourne Glaciers are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Melbourne, Victoria playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from Victoria currently playing in the AJIHL, which is the most elite level for ice hockey at a national level for ages between 16 and 20 years old.
The history of sport in Australia dates back to the pre-colonial period of the country.
Isidor George Beaver, often misspelled "Isidore" and frequently initialized as "J. G. Beaver", was an architect from England who had a substantial career in Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne, Victoria. He was significant in the early history of ice skating in Australia.
John Edwin Goodall was an Australian ice hockey player, president of the Australian Ice Hockey Association, and founder of the Goodall Cup which he donated to the annual inter-state ice hockey tournament.
The Jim Brown Shield is currently an annually awarded interstate ice hockey championship trophy in Australia for senior men aged 17 years and older with the condition that players of the Australian Ice Hockey League that are 24 years and older must have played less than 6 games to remain eligible. The current trophy is in the form of a shield and is the third trophy to bear the Brown family name. The trophy is named after Scottish born James Archibald Brown. The Jim Brown Shield is competed for in a series of games between state representative teams in what is called the Australian Men's National Ice Hockey Championship.
The St. Moritz Ice Rink was a popular ice rink housed in a grand venue on The Esplanade, St. Kilda, Victoria, which operated between 1939–1981. As one of only two ice rinks in Melbourne in the 40s and 50s, it played a central role to the sport of ice hockey in Australia. Closed in 1982, it soon suffered a major fire and was then demolished, an event later seen as a major blow to the heritage of St Kilda.
The 1909 Inter-State Series was the inaugural inter-state ice hockey championship in Australia.
In ice hockey, the Goodall Cup Final is the championship game to determine the winner of the Goodall Cup, the oldest ice hockey trophy outside of North America and the oldest inside Australia.
The 1910 Inter-State Series Final was the second Inter-State Series ice hockey championship in Australia and for the first time was held in the Sydney Glaciarium.
The 1913 Goodall Cup Final marks the fifth inter-state ice hockey championship in Australia and the last championship played before the series was suspended due to World War I.
The 1922 Goodall Cup Final is the return of the series to Melbourne after the Great War. A ladies ice hockey team was also formed to represent New South Wales and would travel to Melbourne to play a Victorian ladies Ice Hockey team for the first interstate ladies ice hockey competition. This would later be a ladies inter-state competition for the Gower Cup.
The Melbourne Glaciarium opened in 1906, the second indoor ice skating facility built in Australia after the Adelaide Glaciarium. The Glaci hosted the first game of ice hockey played in Australia and was the home of the first ice hockey association in Australia. At the time the Melbourne Glaciarium was opened, it was the 3rd largest indoor ice rink in the world. The rink closed in 1957 and was soon demolished.
The Sydney Glaciarium was the third indoor ice skating facility built in Australia and the first indoor ice skating rink built in New South Wales, located in Ultimo, New South Wales.
The 1925 Goodall Cup inter-state series is the first year that the tournament was changed from a 3-game series where Victoria and New South Wales would visit each other's state in alternate years, to a 6-game series consisting of 3 matches to be played in Victoria and another 3 matches to be played in Sydney.
The Old Melburnians Football Club, also known as Old Melburnians, is an Australian rules football club composed of Melbourne Grammar School alumni, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria.
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1909 – The first team
1913
1921
1922
1928
