It all began in 1980 with the founding of the "EK Zeller Oldies" team
A group of men in their prime who didn't want to hang up their ice skates after their active careers.
The former EKZ players just wanted to keep having fun on the ice, without pressure but with a lot of passion.
From the fall of 1980, the Oldies played practically as the second team of the EKZ in the Regionalliga Mitte, to which clubs from the federal states of Salzburg and Upper Austria belonged, and dominated this league for 5 years. They also won the Salzburg State Cup a few times. In the 1989/90 season, a truly all-Austrian senior championship was held once, which the oldies sensationally won in front of the KAC.
The oldies are also a little people who love to travel, and over the years they have developed into an important advertising medium for the Zell am See - Kaprun sports region. In 1991 we went to South Africa, where we played 3 times against the South African national team.
More than a dozen times they flew across the pond to the motherland of ice hockey.
The highlight of these trips was the three-time appearance in the world-famous Snoopy tournament in California. This tournament is notorious for having longer club waiting lists than participating teams. The number of participants is limited to 56 and the waiting list includes around 200 teams.
As the first European team, they were able to win twice in their age group and the third time an honorable second place came out.
Another travel highlight from the club's recent history was the trip to Down Under (Australia and New Zealand) in autumn 2001.
At the request of long-time Canadian friend Gary Millmann, a Canadian-Austrian team was set up. The Kiwis and Aussis were amazed at the excellent English skills of the "Zeller" oldies. When they found out the truth, they just said, "OH, THAT'S CRAZY!"
From all these trips great ice hockey friendships developed all over the world. The next step had now come for the Zeller Oldies: they decided to organize their own ice hockey tournament in Zell am See. This was the birth of the "Austrian Ice Hockey Classic". In 2021 the tournament, which is held every 2 years, will take place for the 16th time!
And the Zeller oldies still haven't had enough!
