Joanne Collins Biography

Jo first watched ice hockey via the BBC Grandstand coverage in the early 70's and after a move to Philadelphia in 1976, become an NHL supporter with the Philadelphia Flyers. After her return to England she followed Richmond, before becoming a regular at Streatham in the old Heineken League.

Being the sort who likes to get involved, she began writing a gossipy column in the fortnightly Ice Hockey News Review under the pseudonym, The Filly Flyer, taken from her days watching the NHL’s Flyers in Philadelphia, which often brought her into close touch with the players and she heard about the problems they experienced with their clubs.

As the game boomed in the late 1980s with sponsorship, and many new rinks, teams became more professional and a players’ union was talked about in 1989 but there were insufficient player numbers for a viable association until in September 1994, with GB taking part in an Olympic qualifying tournament at Sheffield Arena, Jo in conjunction with Tim Cranston called a meeting of interested players and the Ice Hockey Players Association (GB) came into being.

During the next 13 years, Jo somehow managed to keep the association together through the biggest upheaval the sport had seen since the post-World War 2 era.  The clubs in the all-professional Superleague spent around £1 million a season on their wage-rolls in the league’s early stages, an amount previously unheard-of.
Originally helped by several players, led by GB captain Ian Cooper, Jo was eventually left to run the organisation virtually single-handed, and is involved to this day on a consultancy basis. When she had to give up her position as a Legel Executive to concentrate on the IHPA, she had the support of her equally hockey-mad husband, Andy.

The IHPA’s task was to inform the players about their rights regarding contracts, work permits, insurance, taxes, wages, health and safety and so on.  Jo travelled round the country at the start of each season to meet as many of the new imports as she could and explain all these - to the players - rather tedious matters.

With the sport rarely able to bring itself to recognise let alone co-operate with the players’ association, running the association was often stressful work.  Many were the times that Jo butted heads with the leagues and the governing body.