Oddy, Steve

BORN IN ENGLAND, he worked with Jim Thilthorpe in crash repairs, then in the mid-70s formed a business which they named Autocraft Paint and Panel. In 1969, he began hockey at St Moritz Adelaide and played with the Redwings. He won the Walker Cup, the state league's Best and Fairest, during the years his club was a powerhouse in South Australian ice hockey (c 1973). A winger with Stephen Kilgariff at centre, he was deadly in front of goals, topping the goalscoring leader board for several years.

"He left hockey in the late-70s", says Kilgariff, "went golfing and bike riding. He was very successful at trail riding and he has a low golf handicap". He continued to coach and manage numerous state junior teams, including the South Australia under-13s in the President's Cup in Perth in 1984 and Canberra in 1985. His partnership with Thilthorpe also produced the SA Junior Council through which many young players passed on their way to representing Australia, and he managed a number of national teams at both junior and senior levels.

In 1999, thirty years after he had begun, he co-founded the Adelaide Avalanche with Thilthorpe. Their common desire to provide better competition for their four sons, led him to approach the East Coast Super League teams based in New South Wales and Canberra with an offer to pay their travel costs to Adelaide for exhibition games. Sydney, Canterbury and Canberra all travelled there and played to full houses. The Australian Ice Hockey League was founded the following year with the Avs as one of three foundation clubs, along with the Sydney Bears and Canberra Knights.

"Australian hockey would not be where it is today without them and their efforts to grow the game," says Kelly Poole. "First at junior level, then seniors, these two men pushed and prodded Australian hockey at national level to great success, and also for a number of Goodall Cup wins, and were the driving force behind the success of the AIHL".

In the early years, he co-financed the Adelaide Avalanche's travels four or five times a season, back and forth between Adelaide and the east coast, while his opponents traveled to Adelaide just once a season. He built the club into a powerhouse and recruited coach John Botterill, manager Ross Noga, and several notable imported players, including former NHLer, Steve McKenna, Trevor Walsh and Eric Lien. The Avs dominated the early years of the AIHL, making the Finals in the first 3 seasons, and winning back-to-back Goodall Cups in 2000 and 2001.

Steve Oddy married Bill Young's daughter Janet and had two sons, John and Greg and a daughter, Natalie. He played a key role in the administration of the AIHL for 9 years from inception until 2008 when he sold the Avs and withdrew from the sport. Although the club floundered soon after and was wound-up, it was later re-created by others as the Adelaide Adrenaline. His investment in the sport was made over the course of 39 years as a player, coach and administrator.