A former hockey player in Munich by the name of Erwin Dietenhofer emigrated to Brazil in the 1950's. His successful business ventures enabled him to finance the building of the first hockey rink in the country at Petropolis. The first official games in Brazil were played in 1967 in the ice hall of the Hotel Quitandinha in this city, 40 miles from Rio De Janeiro. Games took place there for eight years until the hotel was closed. During that time, the CCEG Rio de Janeiro team was the best in Brazil.
Hockey resumed in Brazil in 1978 with teams playing on a rink used for performances of the show "Holiday on Ice". Once again it was Dietenhofer whose efforts made possible the creation of the Confederacao Brasileira de Desportos Terrestres (Brazil Ice Sport Union) and the organization Brazil Hockey as part of the sports union. He served as the first president of both Brazil Hockey and the Brazil Ice Sport Union.
Brazil joined the International Ice Hockey Federation in November, 1984. In 1985, the country had five senior teams and five junior clubs, 180 senior and 130 junior players, and five arenas with artificial ice. Rio De Janeiro had the only regulation-sized ice surface at that time.