History

The Oxford University Ice Hockey Club (OUIHC) constitution was amended to stipulate the OUIHC as a single club of Men’s Blues and Women’s Blues (rather than the OUIHC acronym being plural). Despite the change of the club constitution, the OUIHC had been a single club, of three teams, registered with the University Sports Federation since 2007.

Fittingly, in the year this occured both men’s and women’s Varsity Matches were played in the same season, the first time since 2012, which consisted of squads of only matriculated Oxford University students abiding by the Varsity Match rules set by both the Oxford and Cambridge Blues Committees.

After the players of the 2013 Men’s Blues left the OUIHC, there has been no Men’s Blues team in the OUIHC. This changed in the lead up to the 2014-15 season when the remaining male Oxford University students decided to reinstate a Men’s Blues team the purpose of playing the Varsity Match against Cambridge and to earn Blues as the alumni of the OUIHC have done.

In November 2012 fifteen players from the Men’s Blues team resigned from the University Sports Federation and the OUIHC, fully aware that they were leaving the history of the club behind. In October 2013, a new team independent of the University was formed – The Oxford Blues Varsity Ice Hockey Team, governed by a charity also established in that year – the Oxford Ice Hockey Trust. The OUIHC, a registered club with the Sports Federation and the University since 1921, remained after the split and consisted of a small number of Oxford University men’s players as well as two teams: the Women’s Blues and the Oxford Vikings (the men’s second team). The OUIHC remains the only University affiliated ice hockey club and the only club to allow students the opportunity to earn Blues in the Varsity Ice Hockey Match.

Oxford University Women’s Ice Hockey Club (OUWIHC), a team name underneath the banner Oxford University Ice Hockey Clubs (OUIHC), was disbanded in order to promote unity of all teams under the Oxford University Ice Hockey Clubs banner – a single club, with three teams, registered with the Oxford University Sports Federation. The Oxford Women’s Blues have not identified with OUWIHC since 2011 and the constitutional disbandment was passed in 2012. Today the Women’s Blues continue to be a team under the OUIHC banner as it has done since 2007. | OUIHC ©