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History of women's ice hockey in the United States

Aspect of women's history

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Early History

The Era of "First Starts" (Pre-1915)

Dr. Andrew Holman, professor of history at Bridgewater State University, has described the period of women's hockey in the United States prior to 1916 as "the era of 'first starts'". Given the dates many hockey teams were established in the United States (see "Structured Hockey Begins" below), in this article, the time has been amended to pre-1915. There is evidence of women playing hockey as early as the 1890s, for instance:

  • 1896 - Students at Mount Holyoke College, an all women's school, are photographed skating with ice hockey sticks in the newly erected John D. Rockefeller Skating Rink.
  • 1899 - A women's ice hockey match between Ottawa and Philadelphia is reported on in the Ottawa Citizen.
  • 1907 - A photograph displays the Hens, a women's ice hockey team formed in Hannah, North Dakota,who played against men's teams.
  • 1909 - The Star Tribune reports that the Minnesota Amazons, a team made up of women from Macalester College in St. Paul and elsewhere, planned to play women and men's teams.

Structured Hockey Begins (1915 - 1922)

Women's hockey became more structured and organized during and in the years after World War I. Cities with confirmed women's teams included Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. There is also evidence that Cleveland, Syracuse, and Maine may have had women's teams. The table below shows a list of women's hockey teams between 1915 and 1922. This list is likely non-exhaustive, as many teams did not have formal names or were not written about in newspapers.

Consistent with other early 20th century hockey, teams generally had seven players on the ice: a goaltender, two on defense, three forwards, and one rover.

Overview of Select Early Teams by City

Boston

Tryouts for the Boston Girls' Hockey Team were held in late 1916, with try-out advertisements reaching as far as Cleveland. According to the Boston Globe, the first practice and first round of tryouts, were held at the Boston Arena on Friday, December 30, 1916, with fourteen women in attendance: Ruth Denesha, Gertrude Hawkes, Agnes Seamans, Lina Bowen, Agnes Seamans, Mary Campbell, Katherine McDougall, Mildred Copley, Helen Sheehan, Betty Hawkes, Marjorie Olsen, Esther Carr, Elsie Butler, Lena Doucette, and Frances Goldberg. The same article noted that Ruth Denesha and Gertrude Hawkes were responsible for forming the team. Denesha's brother, Harry, served as a volunteer coach, and a Miss. Mary Hawkes—a relative of Gertrude Hawkes—agreed to chaperone the women for out of town games and serve as manager. While the game schedule was not set at the time of tryouts, women's hockey clubs in New York, Syracuse, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Maine, and Canada were noted as potential competitors. Ruth Denesha captained the team, with her brother, Harry—a hockey player for the New York Athletic Club—coaching.

The Boston Girls' Hockey Team dissolved by the end of 1918, likely due to a fire that destroyed the original Boston Arena in December 1918. When the arena re-opened in early 2021, the team reformed, now branded as the "Back Bay Hockey Club." In a December 1920 article, the Boston Daily Globe stated the team was to be led by Dorothea M. O'Donoghue, a goaltender who "weighs only 115 pounds and is only 5 feel 2 inches tall. She has grit, however, and the muscle, for she says she is as strong as many men who weighs twice as much as she." The article additionally stated that many of the original Boston Girls' Hockey Team players would return, including Gertrude Hawkes (now as player and manager), Agnes Seamens, Mary Campbell, Helen Sheehan, and Dorothea O'Donoghue. The new coach was to be a "Coach Myers, now with Boston University." Concurrently, an attempt was also being made in Boston to form women hockey teams at Boston University, the Posse Normal School of Gymnastics in Boston, and the Sargent Gymnasium in Cambridge. Later in 1921, a second women's team in Boston, Girls A. A., was formed.

Notable players of this era in Boston included:

  • Ruth Denesha - Co-founder and captain of the Boston Girls' Hockey Team.
  • Gertrude Hawkes - Co-founder of the Boston Girls' Hockey Team. Later manager of the Back Bay Hockey Club.
  • Agnes Seamans - From Somerville, MA. Also accomplished runner and holder of the mil women's championship of New England. Player on Boston Girl's Hockey Team and Back Bay Hockey Club.
  • Helen Sheehan - From Natick, MA. Also played basketball at Boston University. Player on Boston Girl's Hockey Team and Back Bay Hockey Club.
  • Mildred Conley - Wife of Farrell "Pop" Conley, a male hockey player on the Arena Hockey Club of Boston.
  • Lina Bowen - From Belmont, MA.
  • Dorothea O'Donoghue - Goaltender. Captain of the Back Bay Hockey Club.
  • Mary Campbell - Player on Boston Girl's Hockey Team and Back Bay Hockey Club.
  • Frances Goldburg
  • Lena Doucette
  • Katherine McDougal

New York City

The St. Nicholas Blues were initially organized by Kathleen Howard in 1916. Howard initially moved to New York City from Winnipeg with her husband, Tom Howard, after he accepted a job coaching Yale and Columbia's hockey teams and playing for the New York Athletic Club. Tom Howard had previously won a Stanley Cub wit the Winnipeg Victorias.

The earliest record of a structured game in New York City was in 1916, when the New York Times reported that the St. Nicholas Blues played the Manhattan Reds at St. Nicholas Rink on November 16. The game tied 1:1, with Hallie Twombly scoring for the Blues, and Elsie Muller scoring for the Reds.

Notable players of this era in New York City included:

  • Elsie Muller - Played for the Manhattan Reds in the inaugural St. Nicholas Blues - Manhattan Reds game. Later, captain for the St. Nicholas Blues. Represented the United States in speedskating at the 1932 Winter Olympics. She was inducted into the National Speedskating Hall of Fame on May 18, 1968.
  • Hallie Twombly - Described as "a miss who was able to out-skate and outskirmish most of the girls on the ice" in the inaugural St. Nicholas Blues - Manhattan Reds game.

Seattle

The Seattle Vamps, also occasionally referred to as the Seattle Sweeties, were a women's ice hockey team based in Seattle that competed in the 1921 International Ladies' Hockey League season, the world's first women's tournament of the sport to include entrants from multiple nations.

In February 1921, Frank Patrick announced a women's international championship series that would be played in conjunction with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The three teams that competed were the Vancouver Amazons, Victoria Kewpies, and Seattle Vamps. On February 21, 1921, the Seattle Vamps competed against the Vancouver Amazons in Vancouver, and were vanquished by a 5–0 score. Two days later, the Vamps played against a team from the University of British Columbia and won the game. Jerry Reed scored three goals (a hat trick) in the game for the Vamps. In both games, the Vancouver media referred to the Seattle team as the Seattle Sweeties. The Amazons traveled to Seattle and defeated them again. On March 2, 1921, the Vamps were defeated by the Kewpies 1–0 in Seattle. In the rematch on March 12, the Vamps travelled to Victoria. The result was a 1–1 tie, and Jerry Reed scored the goal for Seattle. The goaltender for the Vamps was Mildren Terran. After the 1921 season, the Vamps and the Kewpies ceased operations.

The Quiet Decades (1922 - 1963)

Hockey and other women's sports declined in the 1920s and for the next several decades for a multitude of reasons, including the belief that sports made women "competitive, masculine, and unbecoming" and the belief that women's sports would never be profitable. These reasons may have been further compounded by the Great Depression and World War II, which led to rink closures and reduced programming.

In 1923, the National Amateur Athletic Federation (NAAF) was created to coordinate and regulate amateur sports in the United States. While the federation's Women's Division did promote women playing sports, it urged that they must "play for play's sake," meaning women should not play competitively. Consequently, there was a decrease in women's collegiate and club sports, including hockey.

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