Ice Hockey History

Gordon Wade and Stewart Roberts, two of the most knowledgeable authorities on the history of ice hockey in Great Britain, offer some interesting facts about the way the game has developed.

For further details of the Great Britain squads in the Olympic, World and European Championships, please refer to the GB Rosters pages under the heading Roll of Honour on the site navigation bar.

Beginnings.

The first mention of ice hockey being played in Britain is of 'an ice hockey match played at Buckingham Palace in 1895'. Two future kings iced for the Palace side against a team led by Lord Stanley - not the donor of the NHL’s Stanley Cup but the eldest of his seven sons.

Contemporary books about the early days of the sport refer to Niagara being the first English Club Champions in 1898.  This team played out of the Niagara ice rink which was situated close to St James Park Station in London.

Ice hockey was first played in Scotland in about 1908 in Glasgow on a rink that had a bandstand erected on pillars in the middle of the ice surface.

January 1910; England won the first ever European Championship.

England defeat Scotland 11-1 at Princes Ice Rink, London in the first ever home international.

The British Ice Hockey Association was founded, although they effectively controlled only England; the Scots had the final say on matters north of the border.

Britain won the bronze medal at the 1924 Olympics staged in Chamonix.  From the end of World War One until the mid-Twenties ice hockey was a sport for the wealthy few.  There were few rinks in Britain so the players (often Canadians from British universities) were forced to travel to the Continent where Switzerland was their favourite haunt.

However, after 1926 when the first Canadian team visited this country (Montreal Victorias beat England 14-1), several ice rinks were opened in this country.

Five new ice rinks opened.

London Lions beat Glasgow Mohawks to win the first British Championship play-off, an event not repeated until 1960.

The first Scottish League was formed.

Britain played in the first World Championship finishing 10th.

This season marked the start of a remarkable period which continued up to the outbreak of World War Two and for several seasons thereafter.  It is considered the game's Golden Era.

Large arenas opened at Earls Court (1935) and Harringay (1936), joining Wembley in icing two teams in the new English National League.  All the teams played to capacity crowds.

There was a similar explosion in Scotland where a thriving Scottish National League was created.  Both leagues were stocked almost entirely by imported Canadians.

In February 1936 came our national team's amazing Triple Crown triumph when they won the Olympic, World & European titles in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.  They went on to retain the European Championship in 1937 and 1938.  

Harringay Racers vs Streatham on October 26, was the first game to be shown on television anywhere.

Services hockey was played at various arenas, although at one time the Empire Pool was used as a dispersal centre for refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

The sport returned with leagues in England and Scotland similar to those operating before the war. Nottingham Panthers were added to the English National League. The Autumn Cup was introduced in both countries. 

Underneath these senior leagues were many ‘intermediate’ teams, some attached to the big clubs at such places as Durham and Southampton, icing mostly home-grown talent.

The sport went British with the amalgamation of the English and Scottish Leagues. Twelve teams (only four English) opened the season, however Dunfermline withdrew mid-way.       

The ‘semi-pro’ British League, now icing a sprinkling of British talent, folded.

Earls Court had withdrawn in 1953 and Harringay in 1958.

Non-league hockey continued in Scotland and in England at Altrincham,  Blackpool, Brighton, Durham, Southampton and Whitley Bay. This took the form of home tournaments where the visiting team with the best result against the hosts played in a final. Some of these visiting teams were homeless sides (Streatham, Richmond, Harringay, etc). The game itself was on thin ice (pardon the pun), especially in the south, while it tried to re-establish itself.

Southampton Vikings folded in 1963 and the team moved to Wembley where they played as the Lions until the end of 1968.

Brighton Sports Stadium, home of the Brighton Tigers, closed in 1965 after 30 years.

Teams in northern England competed for the Icy Smith Cup, a knockout tournament named in honour of the founder of Durham ice rink.     

The Northern League was established with nine teams.  Durham, always a hotbed of the sport, and Whitley Bay, were the only English entrants. The majority of the players were British, several with experience in the former British League.

Wembley, who staged home tournaments against visiting Northern League sides, had only 3 imports (Canadian). Seven of their 11 players (4 British) had played in the old British League. Up to 7500 (capacity) were still turning out to watch these games.

The Southern League was established with five teams but only three had home ice. When Bristol joined in 1971-72 the majority of the team were former Southampton juniors who travelled from the south coast. Throughout the 1970s, the Southern League was weaker than the Northern League.

Detroit Red Wings put a farm team, London Lions, into Wembley Arena playing challenge games three times a week - except during the three-month panto season - against top European sides including Moscow Dynamo and Helsinki IFK.   John Zeigler, later president of the NHL, was a director.   Bruce Norris, owner of the Red Wings, hoped that these games would be the forerunner of a European League but this failed to materialise and the Lions did not return.

The Icy Smith Cup was expanded to include teams from southern England.  The BIHA agreed that the cup winners - decided in a two-leg final between the top teams from the north and the south - should be recognised as the British Champions.

The Southern League expanded from ten to 14 teams, Oxford and Cambridge Universities being among the new entrants.  All over the country the game was growing with several clubs adding reserve and junior teams.  Though there were few overseas players, the entertainment level was high enough to attract sizeable crowds at many rinks.   

 The Southern League split. The stronger sides, certainly at the top, formed the Inter-City League. The remainder entered a Midland League.

The British League was revived with 15 teams playing an interlocking format of three sections, one Scottish and two English.

The end-of-season championships at Streatham were sponsored by brewers Whitbread under their brand name of Heineken.  Thus began what became a ten-year sponsorship of the British League, the largest deal of its kind that the sport had ever enjoyed.  

Frederick Meredith became BIHA President in 1982.

This season is generally considered to mark the start of the game's Modern Era.

The British League was re-titled the Heineken League with a Premier Division and Division One and continued until the advent of the Superleague in 1996-97.

Dundee Rockets became the first British team to enter the European Cup.

The British Autumn Cup was revived, sponsored by Bluecol. (See a list of modern era ‘autumn’ cup winners below).

The end-of-season playoffs went to Wembley Arena in April 1984, where they were known as the Heineken Championships.  Though the sponsorship ended in 1994, the finals remained there until 1996.

Tony Hand, 18, of Murrayfield Racers was the first British trained player to be drafted by an NHL club, the Edmonton Oilers.

Ice rinks were opening all over Britain. Eleven, including Cardiff, Basingstoke, Bracknell and Slough, were completed between 1986 and 1988.

Britain returned to the World Championship for the first time in 8 years but could not get out of Pool D (New Zealand, Australia level).

Sheffield Steelers were formed. The first team included a number of the Solihull Barons side who folded after competing in the (Norwich Union) Autumn Cup.

The Heineken sponsorship ended after ten great years and £5 million.        

Benson & Hedges agreed sponsorship of the Autumn Cup.

Cardiff Devils won their third grand slam.

Britain won promotion to Pool A of the World Championships.

The structure of the sport was turned upside down with the introduction of the Superleague (ISL). The British League format of Premier Division and Division One that had existed since 1983-84, was swept away.

Eight teams formed the ISL which saw a big increase in playing standard due to the improved quality and the use of unlimited numbers of imported players.

Below the Superleague the sport went through the pain of finding its level.  Swindon IceLords, for example, the champions of the league below Superleague, melted away into history during the summer.

The British record crowd was set on 23 February when the ISL's Manchester Storm hosted  Sheffield Steelers in Manchester's 17,500-seat MEN Arena.  The game, which was shown live on Sky TV, attracted a record crowd of 17,245 with over 1,500 fans unable to obtain tickets.

Ayr Scottish Eagles won all four competitions run by the ISL.

A nine-team British National League (BNL) was formed from all the leading clubs below the Superleague.

Basingstoke Bison withdrew from the ISL.

Sekonda announced a sponsorship deal with the Superleague.

London Knights entered the Superleague playing out of the 10,000-capacity London Arena. Knights were owned by American billionaire, Phillip Anschutz, who also owned the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL.  Knights opened the season in the Benson & Hedges Autumn Cup playing home games at Milton Keynes before transferring to London for their opening home ISL fixture against Nottingham Panthers on 29 October.  Attendance was 8,273.

Ice Hockey UK, the sport's new governing body, was formed in July 1999, replacing the British Ice Hockey Association (formed 1913).  In March, Nottingham Panthers played their last game in the 60-year-old Ice Stadium.

Four new rinks opened in calendar year 2000: the Coventry Skydome, Nottingham's National Ice Centre , the Dundee Ice Arena and Belfast's Odyssey Arena.  In December, Benson and Hedges ended their sponsorship of the Autumn Cup after pouring over £2 million into the game in nine years and Sekonda did not renew their three-year contract with Superleague at the end of the season.  Sheffield Steeelers, the country's most successful team, collapsed with heavy debts, but were later revived under new ownership.

Superleague was put into liquidation and their three surviving clubs, Belfast Giants, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers, persuaded five others to join them in forming the new Elite League.  These were Basingstoke Bison, Cardiff Devils and Coventry Blaze of the British National League; Manchester Phoenix, created to replace the collapsed Storm; and a new team, London Racers, which started the season playing in Alexandra Palace. 

iceSheffield, a two-rink complex, opened next to the Sheffield Arena.

Coventry Blaze won the Grand Slam of all three Elite League titles.

Several players under contract to the NHL played in the UK when they were locked out of the world's biggest league due to a labour dispute. 

The deaths occurred of Bill Britton and Frank Dempster, two of the sport's longest serving and most respected administrators.

The British National League (BNL) folded in the summer of 2005 after eight years and Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers joined the Elite League.  The other England-based teams dropped into the English Premier League (EPL) and Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers into the amateur Scottish National League (SNL). 

The top two leagues were the nine-team Elite League, with 11 'imports' (players requiring an International Transfer Card) allowed per team, and the 13-team EPL which allowed only four 'imports' (three on the ice at one time).  The Elite introduced a ‘two minutes for fighting’ rule which was fortunately short-lived.

Former Stanley Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist, Theo Fleury, joined Belfast Giants who won the Elite League with the talented but feisty Fleury capturing the scoring title (while racking up 270 penalty minutes).

Cardiff Devils, in their last season in the Wales National Ice Rink, won the Challenge Cup.  The new Knockout Cup, introduced in mid-season, was captured by Sheffield Steelers.

The poorly supported London Racers, owned by Roger Black, pulled out of the Elite League in mid-season, citing problems with the Plexiglas at the Lee Valley ice rink.

The British senior men’s team slipped to 31st in the World Rankings, their lowest ever placing.

Phil Drackett, the doyen of British ice hockey journalists and an honorary life member of IHJUK, died in December 2005.

The Elite League increased their membership to ten with the addition of the English Premier League’s Hull Stingrays and the return of Manchester Phoenix after a two-season break.  Manchester ’s new rink in Altrincham was expected to be open by the start of the season as was Cardiff Devils’ in Cardiff Bay .  However, the latter didn’t open until December and the one in Altrincham was delayed until the end of February.

The league reduced their quota of ITC-holding players to ten but won approval for an increase in players requiring a work permit (for players without UK ancestry originating from outside the European Union) from five to nine, the highest ever.

The sport adopted the new IIHF rules interpretation, dubbed ‘zero tolerance’, which penalised players for clutching, grabbing, hooking or holding their opponents. 

The Elite League agreed a seven-year sponsorship deal with budget airline, bmibaby.  No figures were revealed. 

Coventry Blaze’s Paul Thompson took over as coach of the GB senior men’s team which moved up two places in the World Rankings.

Stuart Robertson, a former chairman of Ice Hockey UK , died in March 2007.