Nixon, Peter

BORN ABOUT 1958, his father John and his uncle Eric had played on Queensland's first interstate ice hockey team in 1962. Eric is the father of former Olympian, Erica Hooker, who is the mother of Steven Hooker OAM, the former pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist. His father first took his sister Suzanne and he skating at Mowbray Park , Brisbane's first rink, in 1962. In 1966, at the age of eight, he played his first hockey season against sixteen year-olds and scored one goal for the season.

Brisbane's first rink closed the next year and it was some years before a replacement was opened by Keith Messenger and Dick and Mavis Webb at Toombul in 1971. He returned to Junior hockey there in 1972, then Seniors in 1973. He represented Queensland in the Brown Trophy that year, after just one season as a Junior. Suspended in 1974 and reinstated in 1977, he again represented Queensland, this time under expat Canadian coach, Russ Trudeau, who took the State to its one and only Goodall Cup that season.

He represented his state each year for eight seasons until 1985, except 1980. He was selected for the Victorian team that year which was disqualified for illegal import use, "We could have won without them," he has said "but management decided to pull out completely." He was selected for the 1979 Australian national team but was later dropped in favour of Victorian, John Horsnell. GM Stan Gray gave no explanation. He represented Australia in the next squad at the 1986 World Championships in Puigcerda, Spain. He played against the visiting New Westminister Vancouver and also the touring Burnaby Beavers and Teen Ranch Ontario, both of which defeated state teams and the Australian national team on their way to Spain.

In 1987, he played for the Macquarie Bears in Sydney losing to Canberra in the best of two series, and returned home to play his last Goodall Cup for Queensland. Between 1988 and 1992 he represented South Australia, winning two more Goodall Cups in 1990 and 1991. His playing career by then had spanned twenty-five years. He was President of the South Australian association for a period after Ray VonEinem. Ten years later in 2011 and 2012, he was the last head coach of the Gold Coast Blue Tongues, Queensland's only representative team in the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). In later years, he was reunited with former coach Russ Trudeau in the Newcastle North Stars of the Oldtimers league (OiHAN).

Nixon's father coached the State's first Tange victory in 1974, and Peter repeated the success with Bruce Rolin in 1984. In 1986, Peter Nixon was one of the first few Queensland players ever to represent Australia in ice hockey.