MCLOUGHLIN, Noel Peter

BORN SEPTEMBER 15TH 1929 in Melbourne Australia, "Bluey" or "Bedda" started hockey at the Sunday practice sessions at St Moritz during the last years of the Second World War. He played 7 games with Northern Suburbs when the sport resumed in 1946. The following season, Northern became the Red Arrows and he played a further 73 games between 1947 and 1952. Led by Johnny Whyte, the Arrows were considered the greatest team of battlers the VIHA had known. He allowed 86 goals from 558 shots in 1951 and 1952 seasons, a save percentage of 84.5.

He moved to the Demons in 1953 where he remained for the rest of his career. In his 150 games there (1954–64) he faced 3,918 shots allowing 471 goals for a save percentage of 88. He missed only one VIHA game in the decade of hockey after the war, 1946 to 1956. A boomer from Nigel Graham broke his finger and put him out in 1951. He was the first ever player awarded two President's Medals — the Best and Fairest of the Victorian league — 1959 and 1961.

He was selected to take over the position of Victorian goalie in 1948, succeeding Russ Carson who continued as back-up goalie during the transition years. It was his third season of competitive hockey and although Victoria lost the Cup that year, he went on to win six others (1949, '51, '52, '54, '55, '61). Ironically, his best season was one of the years he was not selected as state goaltender. He faced 368 shots for 35 goals at an average of 10.5 a game; a save percentage of 90.5%.

He was a netminder at 30 with Rob Reid in the Australian Olympic Ice Hockey Team at Squaw Valley USA in 1960. He played 120 minutes for a national team with a 10.5 Goals Against Average and saved 78.3 percent of shots from 3 games: Finland (77.8%), Japan (71.7%) and the USA (89.3%). He had never seen a face mask, but he got one one after facing the US. "It was a miracle," he said 50 years later "that I didn't wear a puck in the face. I just couldn't believe the speed at which the Americans were playing". [2]

"It was awesome," he said of the 1960 Olympic campaign. "When you reflect on what we did and where we came from, at the age we were and of course our equipment wasn't anywhere near as good as theirs, I think what we achieved was pretty special. It put me up a notch in my attitude and my game." [2]

Awarded Demons Life Membership in 1964, he officially became a Club Legend in 2009, and he also holds Life Membership of both state and national associations. A trophy in his name was first awarded in 1995 to the Most Outstanding Club Goaltender in the Victorian league. The Reid - McLoughlin Trophy was awarded to the Best Goalie in the IHV Premier A League between 2008 and 2014.