Jim Brown Shield Essay

In 1964, the Jim Brown Shield for Interstate junior ice hockey was presented by the president of the NSW association, Harry Curtis. The inaugural tournament was held in Brisbane during Warrana Festival week and won by Victoria. The trophy was intended to perpetuate the memory of Australian ice hockey and speed skating legend, Jim Brown. Curtis had competed against him on many occasions with Glebe IHC. Today, the Jim Brown Shield is presented as the Brown Trophy to winners of the Australian 20 and under ice hockey championship and, in earlier years, it had been presented to the Senior B Australian Championship winner.

Five years later in 1969, the national association introduced a junior national series for the Under-18 age band, following the formation and success of the NSW Homebush Juniors IHC among the various prior endeavours to organize interstate matches. The first series was played in 1969 at Canterbury ice rink, and the second at Prince Alfred Park. Victoria won both games and John Horsnell of Victoria was named 'Best and Fairest'. The trophy was presented by three former NSW players and administrators Ken Kennedy, Jim Mortimor and Mark Murphy. It was their desire to name it after Sydney Tange whose interest in junior development had spanned twenty years.

Tange’s involvement in the sport had stretched back to 1937 when he joined the

St George IHC. He played the sport for a decade until 1947, then made his mark as an administrator, first as secretary-treasurer of the Club, president of the Glebe IHC, president of the East Monarch IHC, assistant treasurer of the New South Wales association, and eventually secretary-treasurer for many years. He was awarded life membership of the state association in 1960, elected president from 1964 to 1966, and awarded the Hudson Trophy in 1967. He was also awarded life membership of the national association in 1962, where he later served as president from 1970 to 1973.

Although the rinks in Western Australia and Tasmania were almost as short-lived as Victoria's second association, the Goodall, Brown and Tange interstate competitions were no longer limited to the nation's two main cities. The boutique rink in Hindley Street, Adelaide, had opened in 1959 and Mowbray Park in Brisbane in 1961. Queensland had commenced participation in the Brown trophy in 1964. In 1965, the VIHA Demons played to capacity audiences in Adelaide while ABC Television screened two matches in Victoria that year and telecast the VIHA Grand Final. [14] South Australia began competing nationally some time after the international-size rink at Payneham opened in Adelaide's north-east in 1979. The Australian Capital Territory had a rink at the Canberra Showgrounds between 1968 and 1975 and the rink at Phillip opened in 1976. By the early-1980s, the ACT was competing nationally.

At the international level, the first official IIHF tournament for juniors (U20) was not held until 1977, and it was dominated by the world's hockey powers, just like the seniors. The IIHF compensated with three lower divisions of separate tournaments where the winner is promoted to a higher division, and the team placed last is relegated to a lower division. In 198O, the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) formed for three seasons with teams from Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide and four from Victoria. It was another ill-fated attempt at commercialization of the sport, based once again on a huge influx of imported players, mostly from Canada. None were professionals and, according to organisers, most were more interested in a holiday in the sun than hockey. [17] By 1982, the NIHL was shut-down by a national association led by Phil Ginsberg on the grounds that it was violent. In retrospect, there is little evidence in Australia's performance on the world stage to suggest the NIHL did anything for junior development. They were diametrically opposed.

In 1983, Australia competed for the first time in the IIHF Junior (U20) World Championships, and again in 1987, losing all their games. Australia did not return to the Junior Worlds until 2000. The international tournament for youth (U18) on Australia's side of the world, began as the IIHF Asian Oceanic U18 Championship in 1984, and was played annually until 2002 when the competition merged with the IIHF World U18 Championships. Australia won Bronze in 1985 and 2001, both in South Korea, then Silver in 2002. The team did not qualify for the U18 Worlds until 2003.

In 1983, the board of the national association introduced a new classification called the President's Cup for players 13 years and under.

The inaugural series was hosted in Adelaide and the original trophy was presented by the president of the national association, Philip Raleigh Ginsberg AM (1923-98). The President's Cup was renamed in his memory after his death in 1998 at Balmoral Beach, NSW. He was a life member of the association who had held office since 1981. Born at Wellington in New Zealand, his Medal of the Order of Australia was conferred on June 10th, 1985 at Mosman, NSW 'for service to the sport of ice

hockey'.

The Kurt Defris Trophy (15 and under)

Two years later in 1985, the national association created an Under-15 interstate series dedicated to the late Kurt De Fris AM (1910 - 1983), who had long presided over the Victorian Ice Hockey Association. His interest in ice hockey had begun in 1955 as manager of the newly formed Arkana IHC based at Melbourne Glaciarium, and vice-president of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association (VIHA), later succeeding Bud McEachern as president for seventeen years. His Club became known as the Hakoah-Arkana IHC sponsored by the Hakoah Sports Club, then eventually Hakoah IHC. He was elected to the Club's committee of management and vice-president of the VIHA the same year, becoming honorary life president on his retirement. De Fris held diverse sporting interests all his life, and is considered the founder of the Hakoah sports movement in Australia, a club dedicated to the philosophy of Muscular Judaism. He was inducted to the Maccabi Victoria Hall of Fame in 2000, and made a Legend in 2011.

Today's national junior tournaments were formed in the 1960s and 1980s, [16] but they had evolved over decades, from the first inter-club competitions in Victoria during the early-1930s, through inter-rink competitions and interstate contests between Victoria and New South Wales initially. When Australia returned to the World Juniors after an absence of 13 years, they won their first ever international match, but overall they have won only twenty-eight percent of all their matches from seventeen appearances. Ranked 20th in the world when they started, they were ranked 31st by 2015. The National Youth Team (U18) were ranked 34th in the world from thirteen appearances by 2015, which is about where they started.

The international competitiveness of Australia's junior and youth squads is reflected in its senior squads, unless the senior team is fully populated by naturalized players from overseas development leagues. Australia can do it with homegrown players, if it learns from history and overcomes its competitive disadvantages. There is clear evidence that a good deal more is involved in a world class junior development program than participation in national and international tournaments. The formation of a national junior league in 2012, as a prerequisite to Australia's continued participation in World Juniors, is a good example.