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A Brief Historical Look at Women's Hockey

(Source: ....the 2001-02 Tech Girls' Hockey Game Program) 

Let's start with the story of Abby Hoffman; not the Abbie Hoffmann who was a member of the Chicago Seven; rather the nine year old girl who had been selected to play for a Timmy Tyke minor hockey team in 1956.  Abby had earned a position on a boys' team, wearing her hair cropped close and dressing at home as did most of the young players.  Unfortunately, her cover was blown when she was invited to a pre-tournament swimming party.  With the discovery of her true gender, she was removed from the team.  Her parents went to court to fight for her reinstatement without success.

All was not lost for Abby.  She went on to have a distinguished track career, representing Canada in four Olympics.  And in April of 1982, in remembrance of her struggle, the Ontario Women's Hockey Association played their first annual Abby Hoffman Cup, a women's national hockey tournament.

Abby's significance in this story is not her role as a ground breaker, but rather for having the misfortune of being born at a time when women's hockey had little history.  For had she been born in an earlier time or a later period, she would have realized her dream to play organized hockey.

Canadian newspapers contain accounts of women's teams competing in the 1980's.  One article even identifies Isobel Stanley, the daughter of Lord Stanley (for whom the Stanley Cup is named) as playing for the Government House Team in a victory over the Rideau Ladies team.  Photographs of early teams depict ladylike players dressed in ankle length skirts and turtleneck sweaters.  But clearly visible under the hem of the skirts were hockey skates, not figure skates.

Women's leagues prospered across Canada in the 1920's and 1930's.  Records tell us that tournament games would draw over 3000 spectators.  The Rivulettes won the Canadian Women's Championship for the entire decade of the 1930's.  But women's hockey was hitting its high water mark.  Although the coming of the Second World War would bring women to a new status in Western society as they went to work to maintain the home front, the end of the war began a reversal of civil rights for women that continued into the late 1960's.  As soldiers came home, a woman's place was back in the home and women were to be feminine.  Hockey skates and shin pads didn't fit this image, which makes Abby Hoffman's effort more astounding.  When given a chance, Abby played as an equal with and against the boys of her age.

Eventually, the discrimination practiced by hockey organizations and the image constraints that society placed on the young women of North America were overcome.  By 1982, the women's division of USA Hockey had 116 teams registered.  Canadian colleges began to operate women's programs.  American colleges followed suit and in the mid-1990's, 65 U.S. colleges sponsored teams.  In 1993, the NCAA recognized women's hockey as an emerging sport.

Minnesota became the first state to designate girls hockey as a high school sport.  In 1994, USA Hockey created a women's version of the Hobey Baker Award for the top U.S. college player of the year.  Erin Whitten was the first recipient... and later the goalie for Team USA.

In 1990, the first Women's World Championship took place in Ottawa.  The Canadian women nabbed the gold medal, the USA women finished second.  In 1998, women's hockey became an Olympic medal sport.  The USA women brought home the first gold medal.

Locally, girls' hockey had its beginning in 1994 when the St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association subsidized the formation of a girls' team.  By the end of the first season, 14 girls were playing.  The following year, SCYHA fielded three full girls' teams.  By 1996, St. Cloud boasted five girls' teams at the youth hockey level.  The time was right to field a high school team.

The St. Cloud Icebreakers took to the ice in November of 1997, a combined program representing Apollo, Tech, and Cathedral High Schools.  In 1999, St. Cloud Tech split from the Icebreakers and fielded a team which included four players from St. Cloud's original girls' hockey team.

So how have women hockey player come to look at themselves?  "Growing up playing mostly with boys in youth hockey programs," recalled Maria Dennis, a former Yale hockey player, "people would come up to me and say 'You skate so wonderfully,' and I would say 'Thank You.'  Then they'd say 'you skate like a guy,' to which I'd reply 'I don't skate like a guy; I skate like a hockey player.'"  Abby Hoffman would be proud.

 

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