GLEN REILLY

Scotsman Glen Reilly played 17 years at the top level of the sport in his home town of Edinburgh before becoming a leading referee for a further 19 seasons.

Normally a left-shooting defenceman, he was capped nine times for Great Britain, at the 1965 World Championships in Finland and the 1966 World Championships in Yugoslavia, alongside several fellow Hall of Famers, including Red Imrie, Billy Brennan and Hep Tindale.

Reilly lived five minutes’ walk from the Murrayfield ice rink, and at the age of ten he learned to skate there when it opened in 1952.  Four years later he was picked for the junior team and by season 1958-59 he was patrolling left wing for the senior Royals.  He was in the side that reached the final of the BIHA Cup in Southampton at the end of the campaign.

His early years were marred by the difficulty of finding ice-time in Scottish rinks and he often appeared for teams based in Ayr, Fife, Glasgow and Falkirk.  He also guested for Brighton Tigers on an Alpine tour of Austria, Germany and Italy in January 1963, and represented Scotland in a number of internationals.  

He credits GB, Murrayfield and Brighton coach Johnny Carlyle as being the major influence on his playing career.

At the age of 34 in 1976, he turned to refereeing, taking to it so well that he remained a stripey for 19 years until 1995. His biggest games were the Heineken British Championships finals weekends at Wembley Arena in the 1980s.  

Later, he became a referees’ supervisor and was an IIHF official at a tournament in Spain. From 1980 to 2006 he pursued his love of the sport further by taking on various duties for the ruling Scottish Ice Hockey Association and in 2008-09 he represented them on the board of the national governing body Ice Hockey UK.

Glen Henry Reilly was born on 29 January 1942 in Edinburgh, the older brother of fellow Hall member Derek Reilly.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.