[5] He is the grandfather of former Port Adelaide coach and captain Matthew Primus, and AFL Women's (AFLW) player Melissa Hickey is the granddaughter of his cousin.

He was in the same class as the inaugural Brownlow Medal winner, Edward "Carji" Greeves at the Struan Dam State School (3730), near to Cressy and Lismore in Western Victoria.

[8] Hickey was named captain-coach in 1932, but relinquished the coaching position to Arthur Coghlan the following season, although he remained captain of the team.

In an effort to break the deadlock, and in a coaching move almost unheard of in those days, Hickey made wholesale positional changes:[10] His strategy worked, and Geelong comfortably won the match, kicking 6.6 (42) to Collingwood's 1.4 (10) in the last quarter.

Hickey had a policy of fast, direct play, relentlessly drilling his players to ensure they made every possession count.

[12] Geelong lost the Grand Final, and saw little success for the rest of Hickey's tenure — he retired from coaching at the end of the 1959 season.