Newbound, Steve "Babe"

BORN ABOUT 1959 IN ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA, the son of Clarrie Newbound. Solid weight, heart and speed, that's how the NIHL's Payneham Flyers described their own homegrown Babe Newbound in his second season with the club in 1981. He played local hockey for the Redwings, where he was the A-grade MVP in 1980 and the Most Consistent Player in the Association the same year, and again in 1983 and 84. He played defense alongside Canadian Rick Adams and was considered a natural skater who, much like a quarterback, often carried the puck into the opposition zone to set up his team.

Getting ice time at the elite level in Adelaide in those years was not easy. Players imported from overseas flooded Local and national leagues, and the local NIHL coaches were demonstrably more interested in winning than player development. It was not a development league, and the Adelaide Flyers went from the bottom to the top in two seasons. In 1982, Newbound played for the Thebarton Penguins at the new Mt Thebarton rink and, although that club did not play in the NIHL, they did play against the Flyers. The Flyers beat the hapless Penguins, 15-5. Frank Kutsche preserved the legacy for all those local Adelaide players still to come! [1]

Described by the Flyers as one of the brighter Australian prospects involved in the sport, Steve Newbound considered the rapid advance of the game in those years was due to the increase in import players in the NIHL. It had, after all, provided him with the opportunity to play with overseas players as skilled as Adams and Malste. Yet Newbound was very definitely a product of the Adelaide ice hockey system. He won the televised SLAPSHOT 83 series with the Adelaide Flyers in Sydney in 1983, which was a coming of age for the South Australian game, and returned with the Flyers for the 1984 series.

In 1987, when captain of the local Redwings, he won a Goodall Cup representing South Australia. Years later, in 1999, he was the state association's B-grade MVP, a feat he repeated in 2000. He played with the Adelaide Vintage Reds 35+ Division 2 team in the Bendigo Cup in 2007 and was still competing in the 2020s. He has also represented South Australia in Inline Hockey.

Described as "the quintessential club man who has given everything to the Redwings since the mid-1970s", he stepped up and accepted the reins as President when Ice Hockey South Australia needed a calm leader and ensured the growth and stability of the state association until standing down in 2016. A valued member of the national controlling authority, Newbound made sure it addressed state needs. [2] He is a former president and a Life Member of the Adelaide Redwings.

Steve Newbound celebrated fifty years in the sport in 2021.