Martyr, Tony

BORN JULY 4TH 1934 IN MELBOURNE, he joined the Tigers at St Moritz St Kilda in 1948. He was 14 and playing Senior-B the next season with regular games in the A-Grade. By 1952, he was a permanent A-Grade team member and then captain from 1956 to '59. He earned many individual honors, including Club MVP in 1956 and 1958. He was awarded Life Membership of the Tigers after 10 years of service and over 120 senior games (1959). He was just 25 and that same year he was selected to the training squad for the Australian team for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, USA, but an ankle broken at training ruled him out. In March 1961, he joined the Melbourne Blackhawks where he played 207 games. He was selected to represent Victoria for the first time at senior level in 1961 when the Goodall Cup returned after a 6 years. Victoria won that year and again in 1962.

A player at the 1962 World Championships in Colorado Springs, USA, he was a starting defenseman in the first ever game Australia won at international level, a 6-2 victory over Denmark. In November 1963, he was a forward in the qualification team for the 1964 Winter Olympics. He played in the 1963, '64 and '65 Goodall Cup teams and the state Brown team winning the 1966 title. Appointed captain of the Blackhawks that year, he led them to the H H Kleiner Trophy, Victoria's A-Grade Championship. He was also a member of the 1962, '63 and '65 state champion teams and the '65 Australian Club Champions.

Back in the state Goodall team in 1967, he was appointed captain when Noel Derrick was injured. He led them to their third consecutive Goodall Cup and played the 1968 and '69 tournaments. He represented Victoria a total of nine times at both Goodall and Brown level, winning the Goodall Cup four times. He was also selected three times for the All-Australian team. Elected president of the Blackhawks in 1970, he was awarded Life Membership before retiring as a player in December 1972. In 1974, he joined the newly-formed Melbourne Nite Owls old-timers and became part of the group that worked towards the creation of OIHAN. Elected to the VIHA Tribunal in 1972, he became its chairman in 1973 until leaving Victoria for Queensland in 1981.

Up north he became a Level-1 coach of the new junior ice hockey program, a member of the Gold Coast Vikings old-timers, and a foundation member of the Rusty Blades. He was state coach of the 1988 Goodall Cup, Tournament Director of the 1995 Brown Trophy; the 1999 Tange Trophy; the combined Tange and Ginsberg in 2003; and the combined DeFris and MaCrae-Williamson in 2004. In 1994, he was appointed Tournament Director of the first interstate women’s tournament between Queensland and New South Wales. He declined to lend his name to the trophy that became the prize for elite women’s ice hockey in Australia, suggesting instead it be named after the late Joan McKowen who had passed away less than two years prior.

He was president of the Queensland association for two years and chairman of its tribunal (1991 to '98, 2001 to '12). He was a member of the first Australian Nite Owls team to compete at the Snoopy Old-timers Tournament in Santa Rosa, California. In 2001, he was appointed chef-de-mission for the Australian team at the IIHF Asian Oceanic U18 Championship in Seoul with wife, Annette, who was Assistant Team Manager. In 2005, at the age of 71, he retired from the SE Queensland inter-rink competition, having played over 150 games and winning six Senior C Championships as foundation playing-Coach for the Gold Coast Grizzlys. He continued to play old-timers hockey with the Gold Coast Phantoms.

He returned with the Beer Bears in the Gold Coast recreational league (2011) and the Pucks Senior C team (2014) in the Brisbane United Ice Hockey League (BUIHL) with his son, Tony. In 2016, he joined the Zodiacs as part of the newly formed BUIHL Senior-D competition, the oldest registered player in the country. Finally, he retired at 82 but still skates each week and helps coach beginner and first-year players. He is a Life Member of both the Queensland and Victorian associations (2015) and a recipient of the Australian Sport's Medal (2000).