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"