Brown Trophy

The Brown Trophy is currently an annually awarded interstate ice hockey championship trophy in Australia for senior men aged 17 years and older with the condition that players of the Australian Ice Hockey League that are 24 years and older must have played less than 6 games to remain eligible. The current trophy is in the form of a shield and is the third trophy to bear the Brown family name. The trophy is named after Scottish born James Archibald Brown. The Brown Trophy is competed for in a series of games between state representative teams in what is called The Brown Tournament.

History

F.C. Brown Trophy

The F.C. Brown Trophy was first presented in 1928 as an inter-state championship trophy for relay speed skating and presented by Francis Cowan "Buster" Brown for a competition between the Goodall Cup teams from New South Wales and Victoria. The competition consisted of each competitor skating 2 laps of the rink.

In July 1935, the Victorian Ice Hockey Association held a meeting to discuss a suggestion by the New South Wales Ice Hockey Association to hold the competition during the national carnival in Sydney Australia, Sydney in a format that consisted of a series of match races instead of the usual relay style format. The VIHA declined the suggestion due to it being thought to be too much for the state representatives to participate in the National half mile, and quarter mile races as well as now competing in match races on the same evening.

The F.C. Brown Trophy was contested on 20 July 1937 as part of the interstate ice hockey tournament between New South Wales and Victoria for the Goodall Cup at the Sydney Glaciarium.

F.C. Brown Trophy Champions

• 1928 New South Wales
• 1929 New South Wales
• 1930 New South Wales
• 1931 New South Wales
• 1932 New South Wales
• 1933 New South Wales
• 1934 New South Wales

F.C. Brown Memorial Shield

Until 1938, the only annual interstate ice hockey championship in Australia was for the most elite ice hockey players in the country consisting of a state team for New South Wales and Victoria competing for the Goodall Cup. In 1938, by request from both New South Wales and Victoria, a second annual interstate tournament was created for the fringe players that did not make selection for the Goodall Cup interstate tournament. This tournament was referred to as the F.C. Brown series or Return Interstate Ice Hockey Series and would be played in the state where the Goodall Cup tournament was not played.

The trophy awarded to the winner of this tournament was named the F.C. Brown Memorial Shield which was in memory of Francis Cowan Brown who had died two years before in 1936. The trophy itself was originally donated by James 'Jimmy' Brown, the son of Francis Cowan Brown.

In 1951 the decision was made to discontinue the F.C. Brown series due to lack of ice time availability and financial issues. The current whereabouts of the F.C. Memorial Shield remains unknown.

Jim Brown Shield

In 1964 the president of the New South Wales Ice Hockey Association, Harry Curtis, donated the Jim Brown Shield for the interstate junior ice hockey tournament aged 18 years and under in the name of James Archibald "Jimmy" Brown who had passed away 5 years before.

Currently the trophy is referred to as the Brown Trophy and as of the 2015 season it is competed for by men aged 17 years and older with the exception that AIHL players aged 24 years and older must have played less than 6 AIHL games.

Jim Brown

1938 – Jim Brown (second from the left) in Sydney.
National Library of Australia

James 'Jim' Archibald Brown was born on March 31, 1908 in Falkirk Scotland. He arrived in Australia with his family when he was 8 years old.

Jim Brown was a one-mile amateur ice-skating champion of Great Britain. He held the Australian half mile record and on June 1, 1931, he beat that record at the Melbourne Glaciarium to set it at 1 minute 45 seconds.

On the evening of Wednesday 13 July 1938, Jim Brown was the captain of the Sydney Glaciarium ice hockey team that defeated the Sydney Ice Palais team by a score of 2-0 in the first series of inter-rink ice hockey games held in Sydney.

Winners of the Brown Trophy

1963 New South Wales (unconfirmed) 1964 Victoria 1965 Victoria 1966 Victoria 1967 Victoria 1968 Victoria 1969 Victoria 1970 New South Wales 1971 Victoria 1972 Victoria 1973 Victoria 1974 New South Wales 1975 Queensland 1976 Queensland 1977 Victoria 1978 Victoria 1979 New South Wales 1980 Western Australia 1981 Victoria 1982 Victoria 1983 Western Australia

1984 New South Wales 1985 New South Wales 1986 Victoria 1987 Western Australia 1988 Victoria 1989 Australian Capital Territory 1990 Australian Capital Territory 1991 New South Wales 1992 Australian Capital Territory 1993 South Australia 1994 South Australia 1995 South Australia 1996 South Australia 1997 South Australia 1998 Victoria 1999 South Australia 2000 South Australia 2001 New South Wales 2002 New South Wales 2003 New South Wales

2004 New South Wales 2005 South Australia 2006 South Australia 2007 New South Wales 2008 New South Wales 2009 South Australia 2010 Victoria 2011 Western Australia 2012 Victoria 2013 South Australia 2014 Western Australia 2015 Victoria 2016 Victoria 2017 Queensland 2018 Western Australia 2019 Queensland 2020-2021 Cancelled due COVID-19 pandemic 2022 Western Australia 2023 Victoria

External links

• Ice Hockey Australia
• Legends of Australian Ice

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