Blackhawks Ice Hockey Club

The Blackhawks Ice Hockey Club was formed in 1947 and played at the famed St Moritz rink in St. Kilda. The club has a storied history as one of Victoria’s oldest club and has featured many household names of the game who have represented Victoria and Australia over the years, including at the Squaw Valley Olympics in 1960.

The club wears the colours of the NHL club Chicago Blackhawks and in 2017, in recognition of its 70th season, are introduced a new playing jersey and mascot.

The club remained at St. Moritz until 1977 when it moved to the newly opened Coliseum Rink in Dandenong. In 1987, the club was forced to re-locate to the Olympic Ice Skating Centre in Oakleigh when Dandenong closed.

The Hawks operated out of the Oakleigh rink until a remodeled Iceland was opened at Ringwood in 1994 and housed the club through a growth surge that saw a great crop of juniors dominate the competition through to the clubs first “A” Grade championship win for 18 years in 2002. This rink also went the way of others and closed in 2003.

In 2004 the club was housed at the short-lived Eastern Ice Skating Centre in Bayswater. Its closure the following year saw the club return to Oakleigh which was the only rink in Melbourne and housed all the IHV clubs other than Bendigo. While this period saw stunted development of the league due to lack of available ice time, the club experienced sustained success through different grades.
2009 saw the opening of the long awaited Docklands rink (formerly known as the Medibank Icehouse and now known as O’Brien Group Arena) which is the playing location for the majority of IHV competition.

The opening of the Icehouse saw a major re-structure of the junior competitions. IHV took over control of the juniors and it became more of a house league style development program. The increase in available ice time however allowed for the growth of a non-checking and recreational level.

In 2017, IHV has re-structured the senior levels, reducing to one the number of full checking divisions. This season, the Blackhawks will field four teams in the IHV competition – Premier Division (full checking), Senior A, Senior B & Senior C.

All Senior levels (excluding Premier Division) are open to men & women.


Summer League
In the IHV Summer Season, the Blackhawks host 5 affiliated teams competing across several different divisions. These divisions are decided through grading games held at the start of the season.
Blackhawks affiliated clubs are:
 “The Chiefs”
 “47’s”
 “Wolverines”
 “Young Guns”&
 “Bombs”