Logan, Sandi

BORN ABOUT 1956 IN TORONTO, ON, CANADA, he was a 33 year-old diplomat and former journalist with the Toronto Sun, when he retired from the Australian ice hockey association in 1989, the year the C-Pool Worlds were staged in Sydney. "That event along with the development of national teams at the youth, junior and senior level," he said, "are some of the great achievements of a management committee with which I've been proud to be associated over the years."

Born and raised in hockey, it had been ten years since he first took over the reins as national secretary based in Sydney. He joined Glebe Lions at left defense in the Sydney league in the late-1970s and later played for the Sydney Allstars in the National Ice Hockey League of the early-1980s. With professional contacts in the Australian media, he hounded television and radio stations with promotional ideas and blitzed the press with news releases. He organised the Trail Blazers and the Terrace Bulldogs — two commercial league clubs from British Columbia — to tour Australia for pre-season exhibition games. In March 1979, within twelve months of Logan touching down in Sydney, he was appointed national secretary and the first official national development officer.

He introduced a new junior structure based on the Canadian amateur system which is still in use today and cajoled the now defunct Vancouver-based CP Air (Canadian Pacific Airlines) into supporting a hockey development program. Coaches and players were shuttled here and even billeted in his own home. His lobbying paid off when the ABC televised a hockey game nationally in June 1980, followed by Ice Hockey Showdown '80 with teams from Melbourne and Sydney competing in "lightning mini matches" with special rules for television coverage. He moved to Canberra in 1984 and developed a close relationship with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which had been responsible for pouring more than $1 million into the national association since 1980 when he had attended the first international congress.

In addition to funding support for coaching, national teams, development and administration, the IIHF had also extended its own human resources during Logan's tenure to include Australia in a variety of coaching and refereeing clinics, often co-funded with the support of the Australian Olympic Federation and the International Olympic Committee's solidarity fund. Great strides were also made in funding from government and private sector sources, especially the Australian Sports Commission, NSW Government, Australian Olympic Federation and major sponsors, Canadian Airlines International, Ansett and Citizen. Logan's approach expressly excluded tobacco advertising at a time when on-ground advertising and naming rights to competitions and events was strategically used by cigarette manufacturers to provide product exposure through sport.

He transitioned his working life to crisis-issues management and public affairs in the Australian foreign service and related agencies. Between 2005 and 2013 he was national communications manager for Australia's immigration department at a time of great cultural and policy change. He moved to London in England on sabbatical for a year in 2014, and returned to Canberra in 2015. Logan also coached junior hockey and was Team Manager for the National Youth Team touring China in 1987 with Coach John Botterill. However, it is his work in restructuring and promoting the sport at the national level that has really endured.

The closer ties he forged with the sports centres of excellence, combined with new playing and coaching pathways, provided a viable new development model. It raised awareness and focused the potential of players, coaches and officials on new standards of local, national and international competitiveness. The man who has been rated in the starting line-up of Australia’s top spinners and advisers still plays hockey in the old-timers league and coaches senior executives on their communication needs.