Frederick Meredith has had a lifelong involvement in ice hockey, and for the most part British Ice hockey. However despite being a fine exponent of the playing skill, it is for his role as an administrator – a role in which he remains active with the International Ice Hockey Federation - that he has been inducted to the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.
Born in 1937 in Montreal of a British father and a Canadian mother, Meredith learnt to skate at an early age. His position as netminder, to which he converted whilst at Bishops College, resulted from having played both ice hockey, and cricket as a wicket keeper, during his early school days.
A move to England at the age of 18 and entry to Trinity College, Cambridge, saw him immediately welcomed into the Light Blues team, then perennial losers to their Oxford rivals. However the “perennial losers” were about to encounter a change of fortunes. Meredith’s playing debut was a 1-11 defeat but progress the following year reduced the gap to a 2-5 margin and by his third year, the efforts of the Cambridge team were rewarded with a 6-1 victory. Meredith duly graduated with degrees in law and economics, but also enjoyed success behind the hockey bench. Taking up the coaching reign in 1958 (the year of the 6-1 victory), he coached the Varsity to more success as between ‘58 and ’62 they lost just once.
British Ice Hockey Association (BIHA) rules at the time determined that both the Oxbridge captains had an automatic place on the council of the national governing body, and Frederick became Cambridge's representative. His ability must have impressed the long established members as, in 1960 he was elected as a 'personal' member - effectively a directorship – and two years later he travelled to the USA with the British World championship squad as the BIHA rep.
Having served the BIHA as secretary 1971-73, his career as a management consultant with IBM curtailed his activities at precisely the time of grass roots revival of ice hockey in Britain. However he retained his place on the BIHA and upon the retirement of the controversial J.F.'Bunny' Ahearne in 1982, Meredith took over as president.
It was whilst in this position that Meredith had his greatest impact domestically. His major achievement in a 17 year reign as president of the now defunct BIHA, was the gaining of three major blue-chip sponsors and a BBC TV contract, placing Meredith as an influential, overseeing President of a time that the benefit of hindsight can identify as a “golden era” within the domestic game. Indeed it was a time of growth and of growing profile, raising both credibility as well as public and media awareness of the sport, to levels not seen before or since. The British senior team also returned to the world stage and raced from it’s Pool D return in 1988 to the heady heights of Pool A in 1993 before stabilizing in Pool B, a position it retains to this day.
In April 1983, Heineken experimentally sponsored the first, and successful, end of season British Championship weekend at the Streatham rink in south London; through their parent company's promotional agency The Wight Company, Heineken dramatically expanded their involvement, from the next autumn. Sponsoring the entire British League, culminating in the first British Championship at the 8,000 seat Wembley Arena, with average attendance's over the previous winter increased by 37.5%.
This brought nation wide BBC TV coverage of several matches per season during the following years, which augmented by live transmission of the finals on Grandstand, greatly increased the profile of the sport, as did the PR input, the 'dressing' of the rinks for TV and modest annual financial contributions to the clubs.
This arrangement continued until the spring of 1993, with Meredith saying "...the dramatic growth of the sport in this country would not have been possible without Heineken's backing".
Norwich Union took up sponsorship of the traditional season opening Autumn Cup from 1985 for six years, to be followed after a 12 month gap by Benson & Hedges. The input of B&H; being considered by some to be the most beneficial that the sport has experienced, their hands-on presence being evident in every game, and continuing beyond the 1999 collapse of the BIHA.
In 1987 Meredith became a member of the British Olympic Committee, with election to the executive board in 1991 and membership of several working parties. The year after first joining the BOC he moved into the upper echelons of the IIHF, being elected to the Rules Committee. In 1994 he became a Council member of the world governing body for ice hockey, with a seat on several committees.
With his 1999 resignation from, and the demise of the BIHA, Frederick has spent his energies at international level as chairman of the IIHF Legal and Statutes & Bylaws committees. As part of this remit he regularly travels the world to head various levels of the World Championships and European tournaments.
Researched and compiled by Martin C. Harris - January 2003
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