A Cool Tradition. A Dream of Champions. Legends of Australian Ice.

Organised ice hockey has been played in Australia for over a CENTURY.

In fact, the ice hockey tradition here is so richly steeped in EMINENCE,

The booming years of MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE,

And the earliest EMERGENCE of the sport internationally,

One wonders how on earth its STORY

Was ever able to be LOST for one whole century,

Like DUST between the cracks of history.

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2000

Birth of the AIHL

Ice Hockey Australia national league collapses
Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) born with 3 teams - Adelaide Avalanche, Canberra Knights, Sydney Bears
Round-robin weekends, two top teams play a single final
Adelaide Avalanche finish first in standings

'01

Second Season

Adelaide Avalanche finish first in regular season and defeat Sydney Bears 10-7 in single-game final at Thebarton Snowdome (now Adelaide Ice ArenA)
2001 AIHL season

'02

Goodall Cup is the Prize

6 teams with addition of Melbourne Ice, Newcastle North Stars, West Sydney Ice Dogs
Goodall Cup (1909) incorporated, world's third oldest national ice hockey trophy.
Sydney Bears minor premiers, defeat Avalanche at Sydney's Blacktown Ice Arena to become first AIHL team to win Goodall Cup
2002 AIHL season

'03

Top-4 Playoffs

Finals expand to include top-4 teams
Newcastle North Stars win first regular season, defeat Ice Dogs 4-1 at Sydney's Glaciarium (now Sydney Ice Arena) to win first Goodall Cup
2003 AIHL season

'04

Dogs' First Cup

West Sydney Ice Dogs defeat Newcastle North Stars 3-1 at Erina Ice World to win first Goodall Cup
2004 AIHL season

'05

Rhinos and Tongues

8 teams with addition of Central Coast Rhinos and Brisbane Blue Tongues
Avalanche sign Steve McKenna who played over 350 NHL games
North Stars defeat Avalanche 3-1 at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Warners Bay, to win second Goodall Cup
2005 AIHL season

'06

North Stars Go Back-to-back

Brisbane Blue Tongues sign Canadian Rob Zamuner who had played almost 800 NHL games
Melbourne Ice win their first VIP Cup (minor premiers)
North Stars defeat Adelaide for the second year in a row at Adelaide Ice Arena, Thebarton, to win back-to-back Cups
2006 AIHL season

'07

More NHLers

Avalanche and Blue Tongues sign former NHL players, Mel Angelstad and Tyrone Garner respectively (5 games combined)
Bears, Western Sydney Ice Dogs and Brisbane Blue Tongues each penalised 3 competition points icing players without clearance
Avalanche set record on July 1 against West Sydney, scoring four even strength goals in 34 seconds
Avalanche win their first VIP Cup (minor premiers)
Bears defeat North Stars in overtime at Penrith Ice Palace to win Goodall Cup
2007 AIHL season

'08

Tongues Move to Gold Coast, Adelaide Reborn

Blue Tongues relocate to Gold Coast, sign former Tampa Bay Lightning player, Gaetan Royer (3 games)
Adelaide Avalanche fold on June 17 due to financial problems
Adelaide As granted license, inherit Avalanche results
Bears win VIP Cup (minor premiers)
Adelaide Adrenaline forms
Newcastle North Stars defeat West Sydney Ice Dogs 4-1 at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Warners Bay, to win Goodall Cup
2008 AIHL season

'09

Goodbye Goodall Cup

Central Coast Rhinos reject new AIHL license model, join new Australian International Ice Hockey Cup
Goodall Cup withdrawn by Ice Hockey Australia, awarded to winner of traditional interstate tournament for centenary of ice hockey in Australia
Design and manufacture of AIHL Champions Trophy
North Stars win VIP Cup (minor premiers)
Adrenaline defeat Newcastle North Stars 3-2 in overtime at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Warners Bay, to win AIHL Champions Trophy
2009 AIHL season

'10

The Cup Returns

Goodall Cup accepted back by a vote of members and board
Melbourne Mustangs granted Provisional License
Melbourne Ice relocate to new Melbourne Icehouse
AIHL Champions Trophy relaunched as H Newman Reid Trophy for minor premiers (winner of regular season)
Reid Trophy backdated to 2007 including minor premiers Adelaide Avalanche (2007), Sydney Bears (2008), Newcastle North Stars (2009)
North Stars win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Melbourne Ice defeat Adelaide Adrenaline 6-4 at Medibank Icehouse to win first Cup
2010 AIHL season

'11

Second Melbourne Team

League back to 8 teams with Melbourne Mustangs
Perth Thunder granted provisional license
Melbourne Ice win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Melbourne Ice defeat Newcastle North Stars 3-2 at Medibank Icehouse to win back-to-back Cups
2011 AIHL season

'12

Record Nine Teams

League expands to 9 teams with Perth Thunder
3-year sponsorship with Skaters Network, distributor of Bauer and Easton hockey gear
1-year partnership with Virgin Australia as preferred supplier
New conference system, Bauer (NSW and Canberra) and Easton (all other states)
Ice Dogs restricted to 3 imports due to breaches of code of conduct
Inaugural Trans-Tasman Champions League hosted in Melbourne
North Stars win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Melbourne Ice defeat North Stars 4-3 at Medibank Icehouse to win third Goodall Cup in a row
2012 AIHL season

'13

Tongue's Suspended, Trans-Tasman Cancelled

Conference divisions abandoned after first year
Gold Coast Blue Tongues unable to secure home venue, license suspended
Trans-Tasman Champions League suspended
Ice Dogs suspension lifted
Fox Sports broadcast Game of the Week
Community Partners Soldier On and Special Olympics NSW
Air Canada sponsor finals
Perth Thunder make playoffs in second season
Sydney Ice Dogs win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Sydney Ice Dogs defeat Newcastle 6-3 at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium Warners Bay to win Goodall Cup
2013 AIHL season

'14

CBR Brave

Canberra Knights fold citing costs, lack of local players and poor performance. Bears now last of original 3 teams.
Player-led CBR Brave granted provisional license
Air Canada full season sponsor with APA Group and Borealis
Newcastle miss finals for the first time
Melbourne Mustangs win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers),
Melbourne Mustangs defeat Melbourne Ice 6-1 at Medibank Icehouse to win first Goodall Cup
2014 AIHL season

'15

Newcastle Win First Cup in 7 Seasons






Newcastle North Stars win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Newcastle defeat Melbourne Ice 3-2 in overtime at O'Brien Group Arena in Melbourne to win fifth Goodall Cup
2015 AIHL season

'16

Newcastle Go Back-to-back






Melbourne Ice win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
Newcastle defeat CBR Brave 2-1 at O'Brien Group Arena in Melbourne to win sixth Goodall Cup
2016 AIHL season

'17

New League Records



Greg Oddy's 600th career point
Melbourne Ice win H Newman Reid Trophy (minor premiers)
After back-to-back Cups, Newcastle miss finals for the second time
Melbourne Ice break multiple season records, eg: premiership points, wins by goaltender, lowest shots on goal (below league av)
Perth makes AIHL finals third time in a row
Melbourne Ice defeat CBR Brave 4-1 at O'Brien Group Arena in Melbourne to win fourth Goodall Cup
2017 AIHL season

Who Are We?

The Legends web site tells part of the story of Australian ice you just won't find in official records. Scholarly research is applied to the historical record to produce biographical studies of many of the sport's greats, along with previously unpublished images.

This first authenticated story of the Australian game will change forever the idea that Australian hockey was a forgotten backwater for a century.

Read More

Latest Work

Check It Out


Biographies
Imagery
Old News
Articles
Hockey
Figures
Racing
Builders
Other

Jimmy Brown (1908-1951)
British Speed Skating Champion

"...The ice-skating one-mile championship of Great Britain was won recently by James Brown of Sydney, who covered the distance in 3min 26 1-5sec. Subsequently, in a speed test, he broke the British record, skating a mile in 3min 6sec. "
Flying Jim Brown the Meteor

 1930

H Newman Reid (1862-1947)
pioneer of national ice sports, and founder of ice hockey in Australia

Engineering and pioneering enterprise laying the foundations of National ice sports and particularly hockey.
His work started years earlier, and endured for much longer, but it culminated in his home town over a century ago.

 1906-8

Reg Park
1st Australian Figure Skating Medalist of Britain

The first Australian to win a medal at British Figure Skating Nationals, placed second in the 1949 championships at Empress Hall.
1953 World Professional Champion; national and international coach and ISU judge; a skater in British and European ice shows.

1949

Peter + Elizabeth Cain
1st Australian Junior Pairs Champions of Britain

Elizabeth Cain was just 12 and Peter 16 when they won this title. 1976 World Junior Bronze Medalists and 1980 olympians.
Biographies now at page 2 of FIGURES.

 1975

Geoff Henke AO (1929- )
Winter Sports Administrator

Vice-president of the Australian Olympic Committee and later chairman of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. Co-creator of Dinner Plain. The driving force behind Medibank Icehouse.
Biography coming soon.

1978

Colin Coates (1946- )
Olympic Speed Skater

Represented Australia in a record 6 consecutive Winter Olympics from 1968.
Competed 13 times in World Allround Speed Skating Championships and 7 times in the World Sprint Championships.

 1968

Ben Acton (1927- )
Olympic Ice Hockey Player

Captain of Australia in the 1st Australian Olympic Ice Hockey Team, Squaw Valley USA, and the 1st and 2nd World Championship teams.
Selected to represent Australia in field hockey in 1950. Played in the Australian Senior Men's field hockey championship teams, 1948-51 and 1953-56.

 1960

Glaciers + Whalers Uniforms
Australian Junior Ice Hockey League

Rebranding of two Victorian teams
Ice Hockey Victoria

 2013

Barney Allen (1875-1949)

President of the National Ice Skating Association of Australia (NISAA) in the 1920s, possibly since its inception in 1911.

Teacher and vice-master of Ormond College, University of Melbourne. Vice-president of Melbourne University Sports Association.

1911

Sydney Glaciarium
Sydney's First Ice Arena

The success of Melbourne Glaciarium led to the formation of the Sydney Ice Skating Rink Company Limited.

Home to Sydney's first clubs: Sydney Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club and Sydney Ice Skating Club.

1907

Ted Molony (1900-1975)
Ice Rink Developer and Supplier

His West End Bootshop established 1854 supplied ski boots and skates around the world. Captain of one of the most successful Victorian ice hockey clubs of all time; captain of Victoria 9 times; veteran of 14 Goodall Cups; State speed skating champion; National skating champion; operator of 6 ice rinks; an ice sports builder for over half a century in four States.

1854

Pat Argue (1931- )
international ice show pro and rink developer

She did not start at age 5, nor compete for international titles, but she succeeded as an international ice show pro without the medals.
The comedy mockumentary, The Argues: The Movie (2010), tells Pat Argue's story - her romance with America and Europe, where she and her husband ice skated in many famed shows.

 1950

Melbourne Glaciarium
Australia's first ice arena

It stood for over half a century in Melbourne near the present State Theatre, where Southgate now stands.
The cradle of national ice sports.

 1906

Nancy Burley (1930-2013)
Figure skating Olympian

British Championship competitior (1951); World Championship competitor (1952 Paris); and Olympic representative (1952 Oslo).

1951

Ken Kennedy (1913-1985)
Australia's First Winter Olympian

Speed skater and ice hockey player. Inducted to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for speed skating in 1986.

2011

Tom Dunderdale (1887-1960)
First Australian to compete for Stanley Cup.

Six-time PCHA First Team All-Star, league leader for goals in three seasons, and for points in two.
His pro career spanned 1906 until 1924 when he retired as the PCHA's leading goal scorer. First Australian inductee to Hockey Hall of Fame.

 1905

Pat Gregory (~1930- )
First Australian girl to achieve the International Gold medal for figure and free skating; the world's highest ice skating award.

Pro skater with a very high profile career as a show skater in Europe, paricularly the UK, North America and in Australia where she toured the theatre circuit.

 1947

Dunbar Poole (1877-1954)
Rink Manager at Sydney Glaciarium.

Significant contribution to ice hockey and rink management in New South Wales during the European summers of the 1920s. Competed in the 1911 world figure skating championships representing Sweden.

1907

Women's Ice Hockey
It has been organised in Australia since 1914, about the same time as in America.

It peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, also in parallel with North America. The ladies' interstate competition was known as the Gower Cup. The trophy was donated by John Goodall's wife, Kathleen, in 1922.

1914

John Goodall (1893-1960)
Patron and prime mover of the federation of Australian ice sports.

Donor of the Goodall Cup for amateur men's interstate competition. First president of the first National association in 1923.

1909

Bobby Jackson (1892-1955)
First captain of Victoria in 1909 and first captain of the first Ice Hockey Team in Australia.

Founded in 1907 it was named "Glaciarium" and defeated Melburnian IHC in 1909, to win the first ever Ice Hockey season under a unified controlling authority in Australia.

 1907

Jim Kendall (1899-1942)
Offered a cadetship with the "Montreal Professional Club" in his homeland, but moved to Australia instead.

Played his first game for New South Wales in 1911 at the age of 22 and made a very big difference to the sport there as both a player and coach.

 1911

Claude Langley (1884-1949)
One of Australia's first professional instructors who trained many of the first generation of skaters.

Working in Adelaide in 1905 with the World's professional champion James Brewer changed Langley's life; he wanted to be that good too.
He achieved Bronze Medal standard at Prince's Skating Club at Knightsbridge in London in 1910, then Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals at Davos in Switzerland in 1911.

 1910

Don McKnight
International show skater, judge and skating administrator.

Former president of Australian Professional Skaters Association and Ice Skating Australia, helped establish and control rink co-operatives in Brisbane until retirement. Active campaigner for judging system reform.
Biography coming soon.

 1954

Leslie Reid (1894-1932)
Australia's first home-grown speed skater of note and one of its first outstanding hockey players. Goodall Cup champion 7 times from the very beginning.

One of a handful of the earliest and best, native-born male ice dancers in Australia, after Albert Enders and Robert Jackson.
Symbolised the very foundations of Australian ice sport in all its disciplines.

1909

Pam Prior (1918-2008)
World's professional ice skating champion and ice show star

Competed for Britain in the 1936 World and European Championships.
Prior earned the NISA skating medals in record time in 1937, also winning the world's professional ice skating championship in London, still only 19 years-old.

 1936

Nan Irving (~1911-1932)
Gower Cup champion Ice hockey player and field hockey international.
A wonderful swimmer, a daring and graceful diver, and one of the best field hockey players in Victoria. Played national and international hockey in 1924, at age 11 or 12.

 1922

Jim Lynch (1948- )
Olympic Speed Skater

His skating career peaked with victory in the 1978 world short-track speed skating championship, but perhaps his greatest sporting achievement was advancing Australian speed skating to the world stage.

1978

Jimmy Bendrodt (1891-1973)

professional roller skater and entertainment entrepreneur with venues such as Sydney's Ice Palais.

1938

Colin Hickey (1931-1999)
Olympic Speed Skater

First Australian speed skating medallist at a world championship; Bronze in the 500m

 1960

Mervyn Bower (1934-2013)
Olympic Pairs Skater with Jackie Mason

Twelve times Australian Pair Skating Champions between 1950-59, 1961 and 1963; twice World Championship competitors, 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games representatives.

1950

Bud McEachern (1921-1997)
Goodall Cup Ice Hockey Champion and Olympic Coach

Coach of the 1st Australian World Championship and Olympic Ice Hockey Team in 1960 at the age of 39, and again in the 1962 B-Pool World Championship contested at Colorado USA.

1960

Frank Parsons oam (~1932- )
International figure skater, judge and administrator

British Championship competitor who taught and skated in TV productions in UK. Later distinguished himself as a judge and an administrator in both the Victorian and Australian Ice Skating Associations, becoming an ISU World Championship Referee and Olympic Judge.

 1954
Champions League
Database of national and international ice hockey champions of Australia

rona thaell (1912- )
English show skater with brother Cliff who performed in Sonia Henie's Ice revue and many others.

Head of professional instructional staff at Sydney Glaciarium from 1948 when her husband was manager.

1954

First Australian Olympic Ice Hockey Team
Squaw Valley, Colorada, USA

 1960
IIHF Division I Ice Hockey
Newcastle Australia

 2009
A Brief History of Ice Time
Historical Timeline

Ron Sullivan, Olympia 80, Australia vs West Germany, Iceland Ringwood

1980

Albert Enders (1898-1976) + Sadie Cambridge (1899-1968)

NSA Gold Medalists and seven times World Professional British Pair Skating Champions, 1932-8.
Show skaters and coaches of olympic and world champions in Britain, North America and South Africa.

1932

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