1st Period - Amateur Hockey -- Everyone's Game -- Women's Hockey

Women's Hockey

Women in hockey: over a hundred years of history

For the women who played in the first World Ice Hockey Championships in Ottawa (officially recognized by the International Ice Hockey Federation), 1990 will be an indelible memory. On March 20, the members of the Canadian team donned their pink sweaters and skated out onto the ice in front of 9,000 spectators at Ottawa's Civic Center; Team Canada beat the Americans 5-2.

This marked a victory in sport, a victory of athletes, and one that broke down some perceptions that the famous national sport was exclusively in the male domain. Team Canada added two more gold medals to its list at the World Championships in 1992 and 1994. At the Nagano Olympic Games in 1998, where women's hockey was an official event for the first time, Canada placed second, bringing home the silver.

The players on the Canadian team were certainly not short on courage or ambition, not to mention talent. For a long time, women remained in the shadow of male athletes. Now they are appreciated for their agility, competitive spirit and the beauty of their unique style that is so much admired by the public.

Paul Fichetenbaum wrote in Sports Illustrated in March 1990:

Women's hockey is not the pyjama party you might imagine. In the mid-1970s, when many U.S. college programs started, some women arrived for tryouts in figure skates with pom-poms on them or even carried their equipment in pillow cases embroidered with ballerinas. Now they know how to play the game. Their break-out plays are the same ones used in the NHL their passes are short and crisp, their skating strong and their puck-handling skills extraordinary.
(Source: Paul Fichetenbaum, Sports Illustrated, March 1990.)

Le Devoir, 1917:

The club of Miss Lapensée, from Cornwall, will play its second and last game of the season in Montreal tonight [...]. Owing to the phenomenal reputation of Miss Lapensée, this game has drawn remarkable interest from ardent hockey fans. Her dexterity, skill, speed, composure and quick thinking have earned Miss Lapensée unequalled popularity in the world of hockey [...].
She makes sensational rushes, travelling with the puck from one end of the ice to the other, cutting through the opponent's lines and then, with the greatest skill and dexterity, hits the puck into the net. When she bursts forward, it seems like nothing could stop her. She slips and slides between the other team's players, who just stand there like posts.
(Source: " Mlle Lapensée figurera au programme", Le Devoir (Montréal), Friday February 16, 1917.)

The Casket, 1920 :

A ladies hockey league talked of in Antigonish for several seasons without result seems to be about to materialize. Several of the strong skaters among the fair sex got together recently and issued a challenge to any other female septette in town. They were promptly taken up and as soon as the necessary amount of training has been received the series will likely commence. At present, both organizations are engrossed in thinking up names that will properly describe their skill and grace, while recuperating from effects of the first practice held last Saturday afternoon at the College Rink. The local expert who went up to scoff on this occasion remained to praise for superior brand of hockey was produced.
(Source: "Hockey (Ladies)", The Casket (Nouvelle Écosse), Thursday January 1, 1920.)

Hockey is without doubt the winter sport that quickly became popular and generated unparalleled fervour as compared to all other Canadian activities. Gathered around a rink, the many fans, men and women alike, fixed their gaze on their heros who greeted them with a stroke of their skate.

Saturday Jany [January] 20th

[...] Went this evening with all our party to witness one of the championship hockey matches between Ottawa & Montreal. The latter [sic] expected to win, but were beatten [sic] by 5 to 1. This game appears to be a most fascinating one & the men get wildly excited about it. But there can be no doubt as to is roughness, & if the players get over keen & loose their tempers as they are too apt to do, the possession of the stick & the close proximity to one another gives the occasion for many a nasty hit. [...] There are many men & boys here in Ottawa who practically live for hockey. It must be said that it is beautiful to see the perfection of skating involved in the playing of the games - the men simply run on the ice as if they were on the ground.
(Source: The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898, Toronto, Champlain Society, 1960, pp. 60-61)

Women's hockey dates back over one hundred years. Some sources suggest that Isabel Stanley, the daughter of Baron Stanley of Preston, Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893, who gave his name to the Stanley Cup in 1893, was one of the first women to have played in a hockey game in 1889 on the staking rink at Government House.

Ottawa, March 8. -

At the Rideau skating rink this morning two hockey matches were played. The first, a ladies' match, between Government House and the Rideau Skating club, resulted in a win for Government House. The sides were composed as follows: Government House - Miss Listen (captain), Mrs. Bagot, Hon. Isabel Stanley and Miss Kingsford; Rideau Skating club - Mrs. Jenes (captain), Mrs. Crombie and the two Miss Scotts. All the ladies are particularly fine skaters and played excellently.
(Source: "Vice-Regal Players", Montreal Gazette,March 9, 1889.)

Isabel Stanley also appears in a photograph taken in 1890 on the Rideau Canal where young ladies were playing hockey.

Throughout the country, wives and young girls took time out from their domestic chores to lace up and meet on the ice. Between 1889 and 1896, several prominent Anglophone ladies from Ottawa, London, Kingston and Régina played hockey.

A number of London young ladies have formed a hockey club. The fair mem- [sic] practice regularly upon the Princess rink, and they are said to be rapidly becoming adepts in the game. London's gentler sex have in this respect set the example to their sisters in the other cities. They can claim to the honor of being Canada's premier ladies' hockey organisation.
(Source: "A Young Ladies Club", The Gazette, Montréal, January 1, 1894 p.8.)

The first women's hockey league was formed in Quebec in the early twentieth century. It consisted of Anglophone clubs from Montréal, Westmont, Trois-Rivières and Lachute. Their games raised money to support the soldiers fighting the Boer War in South Africa.

Young women in Quebec have always been known for their beauty, but that has not stopped them from showing a remarkable fighting spirit.
When we learned in town that the Soldiers' Wives Association would be pleased to receive financial assistance, fourteen young girls of the best families prepared for a hockey game; the funds generated were to be added to the monies used for the soldiers.
They bravely set to work, and Monday afternoon the two teams faced off at the Quebec Skating Rink, before a most fashionable crowd of spectators.
It was a splendid game, and such a beautiful sight to see these young girls fight on the icy mirror for the benefit of our Canadian soldiers. [...].
(Source: "Une belle joute de hockey entre deux clubs de demoiselles", Le Soleil, January 24, 1900.)

Playing hockey was therefore a form of recreation for the women of the day. It helped combat the long, solitary days during the 1914-1918 war. Dressed in skirts that covered their skates and wool sweaters, they braved the winter cold to practice their favourite sport. Since it was not customary for women to wear trousers at that time, the players did not don bloomers, baggy trousers with elastic at the knee, until the end of World War I. Over the following decades, women's hockey became increasingly competitive and the leagues better organized. Although they did not attract journalists' attention, some teams did enjoy unprecedented success. The Rivulettes of Preston, Ontario, held the title of national champions from 1930 to 1939.

The long climb upwards for women's teams was not without compromise. For many years, they had limited access to arenas. They were only given a few hours of ice time per week, as the men's clubs saw fit. Without uniforms or protective gear, they were driven by their pride and determination against the opposing team. The recognition of women's hockey was a long, slow process. The sport became more popular among women and fans starting in the 1960s.

The founding of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association in 1975 and the active role played by well-known women such as Susan Dalziel (player from Prince Edward Island and hockey coach) and Hazel McCallion (the mayor of Mississauga) gave women's hockey a real boost in the 1980s. These efforts were finally crowned with the Team Canada victory at the Women's World Championship in 1990. Then in 1992, Manon Rhéaume, at the age of 20, became the first and only woman to play in a National Hockey League exhibition game.

Manon Rheaume, a gold medal winning goaltender for Canada, made international headlines when she became the first female to break into the "Big Four" of North American professional sports, consisting of the NBA, MLB, NFL and, of course, the NHL. Rheaume broke the barrier when she suited up for the Tampa Bay Lightning in an exhibition game versus the St. Louis Blues in 1992. Rheaume started the game and faced nine shots, allowing two goals. She left the game after the first period, with the game tied. Manon earned a professional contract at the minor league level for her efforts, becoming the first woman to sign a pro deal. She would later play in the IHL, ECHL and the WCHL as well as professional roller hockey

A reproduction of the earliest photograph of women playing hockey at Rideau Hall in Ottawa circa 1890. Isabel Stanley is in white.
© National Archives of Canada.

Women's hockey game, Dawsons versus Victorias, Yukon Territories, April 13, 1904.
© Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Canada. NA-2883-31.

Women's team of the Calgary Collegiate Institute, playing a hockey game in Banff, Alberta, in 1915.
© Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Canada. NA-5456-10.

Members of the 1919-1920 Ice Sickles team, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
© Antigonish Heritage Museum, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.