History

 THE EARLY YEARS

OHA Hockey Club was formed in 1967 by past students of Haileybury College, six years after hockey became an established sport at the School.

However, this was 61 years after the first hockey club was formed by Haileyburians! Wayback in 1906, a hockey club called “The Haileyburians” was founded by those who used to play “shinty” during the winter school holidays – an “all-in” game with hefty sticks (and, no doubt, some sore shins, given its nickname!). The founders of the Club included Stan Edwards, Les Pullman, Jack Macansh and Frank Rochussen. Other members included Arthur and Harry Turner, J A “Ginger” Blainey, E G “Chook” Cuddon, Chester and Maurice Offcer, and Geoff Watson.

After they had left the School, the Offcers and the Watsons formed with others a team known as Iona, which later became the Elsternwick Hockey Club. Two more clubs were formed – Cumloden School and Melbourne University – and with The Haileyburians this was the beginnings of the Victorian Amateur Hockey Association (later called Victorian Hockey Association and now Hockey Victoria).

Details about those early years are scant! However, the limited records indicate that in 1909 the Haileyburians fielded one team, in A Grade. In 1910 there were two teams, one in A Grade and the second in B Grade. The uniform resembled that of the Richmond Football Club, a yellow diagonal stripe on a black guernsey. The club did not field any teams after 1910, and so for the next 57 years Old Haileyburians were without their own hockey club.

The founders of the present Old Haileyburians’ Association Hockey Club (OHAHC) were unaware of this history when they first met in 1967. The Inaugural Meeting of the modern OHAHC was held on 7 March, 1967, in Room 13, Haileybury College, Brighton. Twenty-three prospective members attended: Pat Aldons, Eric Allan, Richard Allan, Rod Andrew, Jim Brown, John Colquhoun, Andrew Cox, Lindsay Craven, Malcolm Esson, Peter Gerrard, Steve Healey, John Howard, Peter Isaac, Jamie Kirkpatrick, John Lambert, Ian McHaffie, John Moore, Chris Procter, Rob Van Riel, Rod Sheppard, Don Swonnell, Alex White and Russell Wippell.

In that first year, one team was entered in the Victorian Amateur Hockey Association (VAHA) competition, with 17 players participating during the season. In 1968, there were two teams, with the Club's first premiership, in the E South grade. Membership growth was significant, with five teams being fielded from 1973 to 1975. After that, the Club mainly has had four teams.

 1992

Another milestone arrived in 1992, when a Veterans team was put together, largely comprising former players who had put the stick away some years before. Starting in D East Grade, the team finished second in its first season, then premiers in 1993, and promotion to C East grade. The team then played in this grade through to its final season in 2001.

 2006

The next momentous event was the introduction of a women's team in 2006! This was indeed a coup for the Club, as the team was effectively acquired from Dandenong Hockey Club! This occurred during the season, with the team playing for Dandenong up to round 4, and then for OHAHC from round 5. This took quite a lot of effort, organising transfers through Hockey Victoria. Cindy Bibb, Steve McIntyre and others played key roles. Eighteen players joined us through this effort, making the Club to be the first of the Old Haileyburians' Association clubs to welcome female members. As coincidence would have it, later that year girls would commence in the Senior School and Haileybury Girls College is formally established.

 2020

The global pandemic of COVID-19 meant the entire 2020 Hockey Victoria winter season was cancelled. Despite numerous attempts to re-fixture and revise the competition, restrictions on travel around metropolitan Melbourne and the concern of transmission through close-contact sport meant logistically it was not feasible to hold the competition. The season was officially cancelled in July 2020.