Kilgariff, Stephen

BORN AUGUST, 1949, son of Tom and Noreen. He was 6 when he first skated at Homebush in Sydney in 1955, then at St Moritz Adelaide from 1964. His uncle Robin Tomkins played hockey for the Hotspurs at Fivedock in Sydney and Tomkin's best mate, John Bradbury, was a family friend. Bradbury was the Australian Speed Skating Champion and father of Stephen Bradbury, the first Australian to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. Their exhibition of barrel jumping re-lit his skating enthusiasm. Three years later he was playing hockey with the Adelaide Redwings B-grade until promoted to A-grade by Bill Young, the coach and rink owner. He scored 3 goals in the 1967 Grand Final and won the premiership. While consolidating a spot in the Redwings under player-coach, Dave Cunningham, one of Melbourne's top ice hockey Olympians, he was the state speed skating champion, and again in 1968.

In 1969, he represented South Australia in the Brown Trophy in Sydney and was one of the first two South Australians ever selected for an All-Australian team with Rusty Smith. He played a 3-game series in Adelaide against a team from the Canadian navy ship, HMCS Yukon, winning convincingly over three games. He won premierships with the Redwings in 1969, 1971 and 1973, then twice again with the Redwings and the Blackhawks in the early 1980s. In 1970, he was again selected for the Brown tournament state team and won the Prince of Wales Trophy in Melbourne. He played 7 Brown Trophy nationals from 1969 – 1975 and he was a founding member of the Adelaide Flyers in the inaugural NIHL in 1980, playing 3 seasons until he retired after the 1982 season. He had been a construction consultant on the Payneham Ice Centre for the Grove Group in 1979, and he and Canadian Rick Adams had arranged many Canadians to play here with the Flyers .

From 1983 he was a referee with Level II International Olympic Council Certification and officiated over 40 NIHL games and over 90 in local leagues. For 25 years between 1983 and 2008, he was chairman of the state association disciplinary tribunal and president of the State association in 1990 for three 2-year terms. From 2004 he directed disciplinary and tribunal matters in the national association and was responsible for member protection and grievances from 2006 until 2015 when he moved to New Zealand. He helped re-write the IHA, IHSA, IHACT and National Oldtimers OiHAN constitutions, and he wrote the constitution for the Adelaide Vintage Reds oldtimers club.

A Life Member of the Redwings in 1986, he received the same honour from the state association in 1996, and the national association in 2011. In 2015, he was appointed to the New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation (NZIHF) tribunal panel. Kilgariff has worked as an Architectural Draftsman and Builder for others and in his own company. In 2016 he worked as a Construction Manager in New Zealand. In 2017 his association with Australian ice hockey will span 50 years.