The Blackhawks Ice Hockey Club were born in Southbank, Victoria in 1947 inside the famed Melbourne Glaciarium. This was the 2nd year since league competition hockey resumed after the devastating effects of the second World War. The Blackhawks are the 3rd oldest ice hockey club in Victoria, currently operating.

The second great war had taken it's toll on everybody, including members of the Australian ice hockey community where many lost their lives. The Victorian Ice Hockey Association hockey competition had ceased and the Association only a shadow of its former self and remained so for years during the war time activity. Membership was low, at times no higher than 100 players in the state with only limited practice sessions being available at the Glaciarium on 16 City Road and at the St. Moritz Ice Palais, playing inter-club hockey matches as they were able to. It was in these sessions in the mid-1940's where youth were being trained and seasoned state level veterans making their way to the ice rink.

One such state representative player was John “Jack” “Chook” Tuckerman, said to be a driving force behind the formation of the Blackhawks in 1947. Jack Tuckerman would take young players under his wing in the 1944-45 practice sessions and they were described as:

“Tuckerman and his proteges practically lived ice hockey in those days. General sessions were used for training in a way that would amaze the present day youngsters. Weaving, turning, twisting on crowded rinks, using first this edge then that edge, hours of skating backwards all played their part. With this went the theories of the game.

This was the grounding of the young Dave Cunningham which assures today's star of the automatic reflexes which make the difference between a player and a champion.”

Cunningham had played with the Northern Suburbs ice hockey club in the 1946 season, the first season since the wartime activity. Cunningham would join the Blackhawks in their inaugural season with Tuckerman and together with Egon “Frosty” Winter became known as the best scoring line the state had ever seen.

Egon “Frosty” Winter was another seasoned player responsible for the development of players such as Noel Derrick , Ron Amess and Dave Cunnigham. Winter would go on to coach the Blackhawks in the 1940’s and Stan Grey the Blackhwaks Manager who coached the team into the 1960’s.

There were 2 teams from the Melbourne Glaciarium who joined the existing 4 Suburbs teams from the St. Moritz Ice Skating Palais in a major 1947 re-brand of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association competition and saw the return of inter-rink competition in Victoria. The Blackhawks and the Wildcats. In a recent conversation with Victorian hockey legend Charlie Grandy, it was said the Blackhawk logo was inspired by a WW2 plane but the details of which plane have been forgotten.

*There was a B-17 Bomber named “Black Hawk” with a strikingly similar logo that was part of the mission “Aphrodite”, the nose cone artwork was painted by Sgt Johnnie White of the 96th Bomb Group in Snetterton, England. Currently no evidence supports a link between the club logo and this aircraft.

Described in their first year:

“the glamour boys of the set-up are the Blackhawks run by a manager in the truest American tradition, they are the best disciplined and organised club in the business.” The club began their season providing their players with all of their equipment except for skates – something that had never been done at the time and was unheard of. The Blackhawks would go on to win the H.H. Kleiner Memorial Trophy in their inaugural season, this trophy was donated the previous year by the St. Moritz Ice Palais proprietor Harry Hans Kleiner.

Amid an unresolved despute, 1950 would see the Blackhawks exit the Victorian Association hockey and instead become a founding team for a new Melbourne Glaciarium league, the Victorian Ice Hockey League (VIHL). The Blackhawks would compete against the Wildcats and a new team put together by goaltender Clarrie King, the Golden Bears, who was the organiser, founder and manager of the new Bears club. The league lasted 3 seasons before an agreement was reached and the Glaciarium and St. Moritz clubs would again engage in inter-rink competition. The Blackhawks would rejoin the Victorian Ice Hockey Association competition in 1951.

The Blackhawks home, the Melbourne Glaciarium, closed in 1957 and the Blackhawks would win their 4th H.H. Kleiner Memorial Trophy this year. The club has remained the most unchanged Victorian ice hockey club, having never changed their uniform base colour of white or their colour scheme of white, red and black. The club have also never been part of a merger, they have always remained Blackhawks.

Images

Newspaper Images

1. "Shoots A Puck" The Herald. 12 January 1950
2. "Vigour In Tennis" The Argus. 1 March 1950
3. "Ice Hockey Match At The Glaciarium" The Age. 14 July 1954
4. "Hockey Thrills" The Age. 23 May 1953

References

1. "Rink Rivals In Hockey Test" The Herald. 23 May 1947
2. "Food For English Ice Hockey team" The Herald. 29 July 1947
3. "World's Fastest Sport" The Argus. 23 August 1947
4. "Blackhawks" The Herald. 12 September 1947