Since a few people on the list have asked about women's hockey teams, I
thought I would post the following article which appeared in the Thursday,
December 13, 1990 edition of _The Ithaca Journal_. I think it gives a
pretty good account of the history of women's hockey, as well as mentioning
the current state of affairs and the problems the sport has had and is still
having.
Women's hockey -- a game waiting to be discovered
By Brad Herzog, Journal Staff
(reproduced with permission of _The Ithaca Journal_)
It is college hockey's postseason.
Cornell and Harvard, two of the sport's most successful programs
are battling for a title at Lynah Rink. There is playoff
intensity in the air.
A Big Red skater streaks through center ice, takes a perfect lead
pass from the defenseman and breaks in on the Crimson goalie. The
skater dekes right and flips a backhander over Harvard's helpless
netminder.
The red light goes on, the fans go wild.
All 100 of them.
Welcome to women's hockey.
* * *
In 1956, a Toronto hockey league was looking for players aged
eight to 12.
It was a boys' league, but Abigail Hoffman persuaded her father to
let her play and signed her registration card as "Ab" Hoffman.
The card didn't ask for gender.
Abby played left defense the whole season, gaining a reputation as
a hard-checking competitor. With her close-cropped hair and
preference for dressing at home, no one suspected "Ab" was a girl.
But Abby was selected to the all-star team and had to submit her
birth certificate to participate.
This time, someone noticed the name "Abigail".
Though her teammates had trouble believing their star defender was
a girl, they supported her and even gave Abby her own dressing
room. But league officials were not as understanding.
The story made headlines all over North America, as Abby and her
family took their case all the way to the Ontario Supreme Court,
which eventually ruled against the young skater.
Abby remained banished from the league, but later went on to
bigger and better things in track and field.
She competed in four Olympic Games for Canada, and in 1976 she
became the country's first woman flag bearer in the opening
ceremonies.
Six years later, the Ontario Women's Hockey Association instituted
the first annual Canadian championship, otherwise known as the
Abby Hoffman Cup.
Women are known to have played ice hockey as far back as the
nineteenth century -- the first organized female game on record
was a contest in Ontario in 1892.
The sport was relatively popular in Canada and isolated areas of
the United States through the '20s and '30s, but participation
declined during and after World War II.
While Abby Hoffman made her stand, women's hockey was suffering
through the era's prevailing chauvinistic attitude, which often
influenced females' attitude toward the sport.
A reporter for the Toronto Daily Star described a typical women's
hockey game of the period.
He explained, "It was a gentlemanly -- oops -- ladylike game of
hockey with the girls, some wearing no more protective equipment
than flimsy blouses, doing everything they could to keep from
bumping into each other."
Women's hockey began its comeback in the mid-'60s, and during the
'70s it began to organize provincially, soon moving to a national
level, particularly in Canada.
Today, it is becoming an international sport.
The first sanctioned Women's World Championship occurred this year
from March 18-25 in Ottawa, Ontario.
Over 8,000 fans saw Canada defeat the U.S. in the finals, with
teams from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, West Germany and
Japan also competing.
Supporters are now lobbying for inclusion of the sport into the
1994 Olympic Games being held in Lillehammer, Norway.
In the U.S., women's hockey is slowly growing and maturing.
According to Lynn Olson, director of the women's section of the
Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS), there are
over 200 registered teams in the nation.
This includes nine Division I college programs -- six Ivy League
schools, New Hampshire, Northeastern, and Providence. The latter
three offer full scholarships, and are perennial powerhouses.
There are also six Division III varsity programs and over two
dozen club teams at colleges across the country. Title games are
played at all three levels.
In addition, approximately 30 prep schools support women's teams,
and there are over 150 other squads registered, from the 12-or-
under to the senior level.
It is estimated more than 3,000 girls and women participate in
these programs, along with many younger players who play on boys'
teams.
"We've made great strides in the past few years," said Olson. "I
think it will continue to grow as it becomes more visible."
* * *
The women's hockey team at Cornell was started by a couple of Big
Red men's players, Bill Duthie and John Hughes, in 1970.
Though Hughes moved away from Ithaca after graduating from law
school, Duthie coached the team for 13 years, producing a 130-66-5
mark.
The Big Red played a four-game schedule in 1970-71, captured the
first Ivy League tournament in 1975-76 and finished second in the
first year of Ivy League round-robin play (1982-83).
Dave Harackiewicz followed Duthie at the helm in 1984 and led the
team for five seasons. His assistant, Keith Howie, took over in
1989.
After a perfect 10-0 league record, it took Howie's decision to
pursue an architecture career for Dorothy Diggs to be hired as
Cornell's first female coach.
A former assistant at Bowdoin College, Diggs is one of a new breed
of coaches -- those who play high level women's hockey, then come
back to replenish the source of their athletic prowess.
* * *
Jennifer Cook is one of that breed.
In 1989, she captained Colgate University's women's ice hockey
team. Now she coaches a squad at Princeton (N.J.) Day School.
But in 1990, Cook sued Colgate.
Unlike Abby Hoffman, she wasn't asking to skate with the boys.
She simply wanted her women's team to skate on the same level as
the men.
In the fall of 1989, Cook represented Colgate's 15-year-old hockey
club and submitted to the university an updated 29-page proposal
requesting the elevation of the club to varsity status.
For the third time since 1983, the request was denied.
The university cited, among other reasons for the denial, a lack
of interest in the sport and a lack of available competition.
Yet six Ivy League schools and three other colleges in the
Northeast boast varsity women's teams, and of all the schools with
Division I ECAC men's teams, only Colgate and Vermont have women's
teams that lack varsity status.
In addition, hockey fever is running rampant at Colgate, according
to Cook. Last season, the Red Raider men's team skated all the
way to the NCAA finals.
"Everyone on the men's team is behind us 100 percent," said Cook.
"They think hockey is a fun game, and we should be allowed the
thrill of playing in a championship."
"We had to submit a proposal," she added, "and it basically went
unread."
So in April, Cook and five other plaintiffs filed suit against the
University.
Faith Seidenberg, a private attorney, has taken the case, which is
being financed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cook is the great grand niece of the organization's founder, Roger
Baldwin, but the skaters' argument stands on its own.
"The funding is extremely unequal," said Seidenberg. "You don't
give a men's team approximately $200,000 in the same sport where
you give the women's team about $3,000."
She added, "They claim it is a club sport instead of a varsity
one, but if you give something a title that doesn't change the
circumstances."
The plaintiffs are suing for varsity status and for equal
treatment.
"That doesn't mean equal funding exactly to the penny," Seidenberg
explained, "but more funding."
Cook claims the team's non-varsity status generally means other
varsity teams won't travel to Colgate, and the lack of adequate
funding makes it difficult for the Red Raiders to travel.
"Basically," said Cook, "the women's team just gets brushed into
the corner."
* * *
In women's hockey, it doesn't necessarily matter where you play or
whom you play against -- as long as you get to play.
When Dorothy Diggs skated for the club team at Colorado College,
for example, the squad played several games in Jackson Hole,
Wyoming.
The playing area was a rodeo arena in the summer and, at best, a
makeshift hockey rink in the winter.
There was a cattle shoot [sic] behind one net, and a large brush
attached to a tractor served as the Zamboni.
The net consisted of a collection of plumber's pipes, and snow
banks surrounded the playing surface where most rinks have
plexiglass.
"I always wondered whether they found some pucks in there when the
snow melted," said Diggs.
* * *
The men's and women's versions of hockey differ a great deal due
to both rule discrepancies and differences in ability.
Although body checking was allowed in the World Championships,
North American women's teams play with no intentional body
checking.
It makes for a slower game, but one that relies a bit more on
finesse. The fundamentals -- passing, skating and stick
handling -- become more important to a team's success.
"The difference between the men's and the women's game is the
speed of the shots," said Cornell goaltender Chantal Toth, last
season's Ivy League Rookie of the Year who honed her talents on a
club team comprised mostly of males.
"I have to watch the puck all the time now instead of just
reacting to it."
Keith Howie, a skater for the Big Red men's team before coaching
the women, believes the absence of severe contact translates to a
demand for skill.
"That lets the game be played as it should," he said.
"The talented players are allowed to shine without the ones who
are just dominant size-wise controlling the game."
Though avoiding body contact may slow down the game, some
observers feel the rule will change when officials begin to
believe in female players' strength and stamina.
After all, women were limited to half-court basketball for many
years, and marathon time differentials between men and women
recently have been reduced considerably.
Cindy Curley, who finished her career at Providence in 1985 as the
school's all-time leading scorer, put it best in a recent
interview with the Boston Herald.
She wondered, "Do you ask why people started playing softball or
basketball?"
All this suggests one day women's hockey will be less of a
phenomenon and more of a natural athletic outlet.
And perhaps someday the Cornell-Harvard game will draw the kind of
crowd that the players and the sport so richly deserve.
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"This is our son 'Primo', so named because he was the first of two carefully
planned children.
This is 'Finalio', the second of our carefully planned two."
"Uh, then who is THIS?"
"Oh... this is 'Oops!'"
-- "Broom Hilda"
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