Women's Hockey Legends

Canada
Cassie Campbell
Elizabeth Graham
Abby Hoffman
Angela James
Albertine Lapensee
Hilda Ranscombe
Manon Rheaume
Bobbie Rosenfeld
France St. Louis

USA
Cammi Granato
Katie King

Sweden
Pia (Grengman) Sterner

Elizabeth Graham

The lady in the middle is Elizabeth Graham. She played as a goaltender in Kingston, Ontario for the Queen's University women's hockey team.

She may have been the first goalie to ever wear a mask in an organized hockey game. Not Jacques Plante, not Clint Benedict. Elizabeth Graham.

Graham appeared in a game in 1927 wearing a fencing mask. The Montreal Daily Star reported that Graham "gave the fans a surprise when she stepped into the nets and then donned a fencing mask."

It seems Ms. Graham donned the facial protection at the request of her father, who did not want to see her teeth get damaged. She had previously undergone extensive dental surgery, although it is not clear if it was hockey related or not.

Clint Benedict appeared in a NHL game wearing a mask in 1930. Jacques Plante did not popularize the use of the mask until 1959.

Jennifer Botterill

As a huge fan of the World Junior Hockey Championships, Jason Botterill of Team Canada quickly became a favorite of mine. After all, when you set a Team Canada record by winning three consecutive gold medals at the WJC, you must be a pretty special player.

He was, although of 481 games as a professional, only 88 came in the NHL. But his hockey resume is impressive nonetheless - the three gold medals, a scholarship at the University of Michigan, first round NHL draft pick by Dallas in 1994. Concussion problems cut his career short, but he is still in the game, having upgraded his schooling with the goal of one day becoming a NHL general manager.

Impressive, but his hockey resume is not even the most decorated in the family. That title is held by his sister, Jennifer.

Jennifer is a mainstay on the Canadian national women's team. She's won 2 Olympic gold medals and 1 Silver, and is likely to win another medal at the 2010 Olympics. She's been a part of 5 world championship teams, twice being named as the tournament MVP.

She also won a NCAA title with Harvard. She scored at least one point in 106 of her 107 career collegiate games, including in a record 80 consecutive games. Her career totals of 149 goals, 170 assists and 319 points all represent collegiate records. In 2003 she graduated (with honours) in Psychology. Her father Cal is a noted Canadian sports psychologist and has worked with NHL teams and Olympic athletes.

Jennifer will be going for gold in 2010, while her brother Jason will be cheering her on.

"She has always been a fairly good skater and an excellent playmaker," says Jason, who will readily admit she was the better skater. Although Jason was not the most agile skater, skating came naturally for the Botterill family. Their mother Doreen was a Canadian Olympic speed skater in 1964 and 1968.

Although the kids played many sports, hockey was their true love.

"We used to play ball hockey in our basement. I knew she was probably going to be a pretty good player when I'd go in net and, when she started out, she'd shoot little softballs at me and they'd be no problem at all.

"Then, as she got going, she'd wind up and take big slappers at me and I'd be darting to get out of the way rather than trying to stop them."

Women's Hockey Legends

Canada
Cassie Campbell
Abby Hoffman
Angela James
Albertine Lapensee
Hilda Ranscombe
Manon Rheaume
Bobbie Rosenfeld
France St. Louis

USA
Cammi Granato
Katie King

Sweden
Pia (Grengman) Sterner

Pia Grengman (Sterner)

The mustachioed man embracing this married couple is Tommy Topel. He is the Swedish Hockey League's sports director. As you can see, he is quite excited by the presence of his guests, with good reason.

The other man in this picture is Ulf Sterner, a legend of Swedish hockey. In 1965 he became the first Swedish player to play in the NHL. He was a national team legend with Tre Kroner in the 1960s.

Also in the picture is Sterner's wife, Pia, who as kid idolized the great Sterner. Thirteen years younger than he, Pia, too, is a legend of Swedish hockey, amongst other sports, while still known by her maiden name - Pia Grengman.

I first learned of Pia Grengman back in about 2003 while researching for my first book, The World Cup of Hockey. I was researching the 1976 Canada Cup, and found an obscure clip as to why Canada opted not to hire Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero as head coach - because he apparently was insisting one of his assistant coaches would be a female coach from Sweden.

The article, which I stumbled upon completely by accident, came from a Smithers, BC newspaper archive. I had scoured through several national and even international newspapers and never saw mention of that before. Fortunately for me, my co-author for the book was Patrick Houda, a Stockholm based researcher who is, if I may say so, the top European hockey researcher today.

Houda could not confirm the story's accuracy, but he suspected the lady in question was named Pia Grengman. She was a world champion weight lifter and tug-of-war competitor, and had a black belt in karate. She also participated with males in football (soccer), bandy and handball, pioneering women's inclusion in these sports along the way.

She also had a long career in hockey, although any hint of a playing career is quite sketchy. Here's what I was able to find via Google, thanks to translation services:

Girls playing hockey was almost unheard of in Sweden back in the 1960s, and girls playing with boys was strictly prohibited. But Pia pioneered the movement in Sweden, playing with men in what was then considered to be Division II and III clubs in the Gothenburg area, includings Chalmers and Göteborgs IK. What I am not certain is whether she was considered to be a professional player at this time.

Around the age of 20, Pia realized she was just to small to play hockey with men, and refocussed her love of the game to coaching, studying the philosophies of Shero and Anatoli Tarasov. She even moved to Moscow for six months to be tutored by Tarasov himself. He invited her after she wrote the Soviet coaching legend. His influence worked, as she coached various male and female teams of various ages in Sweden and Germany, as well as a men's team, Fredrikshavn, in Denmark, in the 1970s.

Pretty amazing stuff that very few people know about. Even in Sweden it is not well known. She is far better known as Mrs. Ulf Sterner.

Now in her 50s, hockey remains close to her heart, although she has a new sporting love - equestrian sports, notably trot. Her and Ulf live on a farm near Deje, Sweden, where they raise horses named after hockey players. One horse, which somehow broke Ulf's nose, was named Alexander Ragulin.

France St. Louis

France St. Louis took seriously to the game of hockey late in her storied athletic career. That did not prevent him from becoming one of the all time greats.

St. Louis was a legendary lacrosse player in Quebec in the 1980s. She was Quebec's athlete of the decade, male or female, because of the greatness she achieved in that sport.

She doubled as a teacher, serving 12 years as an educator in both elementary and high schools. She earned a bachelor degree in physical education and a teaching certificate from the University of Sherbrooke in 1980.

By the close of the 80s St. Louis decided to give hockey a serious try. She was 31 years old in 1990 when she was named to Team Canada. In the gold medal game against USA, Canada won the first official women's world championship 5-2, thanks to St. Louis' 2 goal, 2 assist performance.

St. Louis would play in the next four world championships, serving as team captain in the next two. In all St. Louis would earn five consecutive world championship gold medals.

At the age of 39 she achieved the highlight of her hockey career by playing in the first ever Olympic games for female hockey players. Canada would be mildly upset in the final game, however, losing the game and the gold medal to the Americans.

While she was a scoring star in Quebec, she was more of a defensive and face off specialist with the national team.

She retired after the Nagano Olympics at the age of 40. She opened up her own hockey school.

Hilda Ranscombe

When discussing early women's hockey history it is impossible not to mention the Preston Rivulettes of the 1930s.

The Rivulettes were a baseball team that formed a hockey team during the winter months. Competing in a women's league with teams from Toronto, Kitchener, Stratford, London, Hamilton, Guelph and Port Dover, the team lost just two of 350 games in the 1930s, the most successful Canadian team in hockey history. The onset of World War II and subsequent gasoline rationing ended the team's dynasty. The Rivulettes won six championships in that time.

The star of the Rivulettes was Hilda Ranscombe. Described by some as the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey, she was to dazzle with speed. Some say she was every bit as good as the boys from the area that went on to play in the NHL. She was the heart and soul of the Rivulettes, and, thought records were never kept, the scoring star.

Ranscombe devoted her life to hockey, becoming a coach after retiring as a player. Before her death she donated all of her equipment to the Hockey Hall of Fame.