BROWN, Geoff

BORN IN TAMWORTH in New South Wales in 1943, Geoff Brown moved from Canberra to Adelaide when he was 19. A group of friends decided to try ice skating at the Hindley Street ice rink, and he took to it immediately. In 1964, when rink manager Bill Young finally convinced Molony and Gordon to allow ice hockey, Brown became a founding member of the first state ice hockey association.

That year he played the first game for the Falcons coached by Mac Edwards against the Red Wings and, next year, won the state premiership. At 22, he was a member of the first state ice hockey team coached by Young at the 1966 Brown Trophy in Melbourne, the first Carnival Series with teams from four states.

On Saturday, July 30th, at St Moritz Ice Palais in St Kilda, Brown played his first interstate game against a Queensland side, including John Nixon and Wayne Raison, who went on to the National Team. The next day he played against New South Wales, coached by Harry Cameron and then on the Monday against a Victorian team captained by Jim Brett and coached by Rus Jones. He returned to contest the next National at the Prince Alfred Park rink in Sydney.

Brown stopped playing to start a plumbing business but wanted to stay connected to the sport. He set out to learn how to officiate ice hockey also umpiring Australian Rules Football, which he hoped would make the transition easier. In 1982 and again in 1993, he completed the Ice Hockey Referee Instructor course under the auspices of the Australian Olympic Committee.

In July 1984, he completed Level IV of the Australian Referees Certification Programme under national Referee-In-Chief, Frank Gladwell, one of the country’s best. In 1986, he contributed to the 3rd Asian Oceania Junior Ice Hockey Championships hosted in Adelaide.

The national association named Brown Sportsman of the Year in 1994, a recipient of the HGGSM trophy. He officiated in the Bendigo Super Challenge in 2002, receiving the Jim Brett Award for the series. He also officiated in Canberra when two Canadian teams visited and in Western Australia and Queensland.

Geoff Brown considered himself privileged to officiate with Angela Williams, the first woman referee in ice hockey. For the boy from country Tamworth, officiating grew into a career of 32 successive seasons, 12 as state Referee-In-Chief.