Paul Loicq

Paul Loicq was a Belgian lawyer, businessman and ice hockey player, coach, referee and administrator. He played ice hockey for Belgium men's national ice hockey team and won four bronze medals from in 1910 to 1914. He was a leading supporter of the efforts to introduce ice hockey at the Olympic Games, and served on the organizing committee for ice hockey at the 1920 Summer Olympics. After playing in the 1920 Olympics he served as president of the Royal Belgian Ice Hockey Federation from 1920 to 1935, and as president of the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG) from 1922 to 1947, which was later known as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). During his time as president the LIHG more than doubled its membership and welcomed the first national associations from Asia and Africa, and the LIHG began hosting its annual Ice Hockey World Championships in 1930. He was also an international ice hockey referee from 1924 to 1937 at the Olympic Games, the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Ice Hockey European Championships. He served in the Belgian Army during World War I and World War II, achieved the rank of colonel, and represented Belgium as legal counsel at the Nuremberg trials.