For the first time in 14 years, the Hockey Hall of Fame will induct two women, but it in no way, as Ian Kennedy writes, does it serve to reduce the erasure and omission of women's hockey history from the Hall.
For the first time in 14 years, the Hockey Hall of Fame will induct two women, but it in no way, as Ian Kennedy writes, does it serve to reduce the erasure and omission of women's hockey history from the Hall.
When Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl step onto the stage for the 2024 Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony on November 11 in Toronto, it will be the first time in 14 years two women have been inducted in the same Hall of Fame class.
In 2010, the first year women were permitted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Cammi Granato and Angela James became the inaugural inductees.
Since then the Hockey Hall of Fame has failed to use both positions, and in some years either position, to induct women.
This year however, is the exception. Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl are two Minnesota and American hockey legends, and deserving of the honor.
Both players are members of the US Hockey Hall of Fame. Darwitz only weeks ago became an inductee to the IIHF Hall of Fame.
But it isn't enough. As hockey scholar Carly Adams once stated, “exclusion from halls of fame is just one way women’s accomplishments are overlooked..."
And many worthy women, remain excluded from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Had the PWHL existed 100 years ago, women would certainly find themselves included more equitably in the Hall of Fame. Instead, the absence of a league has become reason for voting members to erase the accomplishments that talented athletes achieved in spite of not having a league to play in.
But the exclusion runs deep. The Hockey Hall of Fame should already include the likes of Hilda Ranscombe, Fran Rider, Cindy Curley, Cathy Phillips, Dawn McGuire, Jennifer Botterill and many, many more.
Ranscombe was the superstar of a decade, leading the Preston Rivulettes to title after title in the 1930s. Without Fran Rider, who should have already been in the builders category decades ago, women would not be playing at the Olympics, would not have a World Championship, and there would not be the opportunities for girls in the game that their are today. Cathy Phillips is likely the best goaltender to ever play the game, period. She won a national championship in 1982, gold at the unofficial World Hockey Tournament in 1987, and gold with Canada at the first ever World Championship. She was the COWHL's goaltender of the year 14 times. The COWHL was the best league on the planet at the time. It was a league filled with stars like Jayna Hefford, Geraldine Heaney, Angela James, Vicky Sunohara, Cassie Campbell, Karen Nystrom, and pretty much every other elite player at the time.
And it goes far beyond that. Many deserving women aren't even eligible for voting.
If you want another builder, look no farther than Marguerite Norris, the first woman ever to serve as an executive in the NHL, where she won Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings in 1954 and 1955. Norris herself was a founding member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Many of the men who also helped found the Hall, are also honored members, including her brother James D. Norris.
The Hockey Hall of Fame's omission of any women who played prior to the 1980s, is criminal. Women have been playing hockey since the 1890s, and by as early as 1916, in leagues as organized, skilled, and popular as many men's leagues. It's an erasure of women's hockey history, by an organization whose purpose is to preserve hockey history.
In the same era as Hall of Famers Hobey Baker, Howie Morenz, Dubbie Bowie, Frank McGee, and many other men's hockey players, women thrived in the game.
Whether it was Eva Ault and Edith Anderson of the Ottawa Alerts, or Vancouver Amazons forward Kathleen Carson. Cornwall Victorias star Albertine Lapensée, or St. Nicholas Blues players Kathleen Howard and Elsie Muller. Perhaps it's Ruth Denesha of the Boston Girls' Hockey Club, or Preston Rivulettes sisters Helen and Marm Scmuck. Or maybe it's Edmonton Rustlers star Hazel Case. The list is endless from teams spanning across North America from the early 1900s onward. Across the ocean in the 1930s, stars like Jacqueline Mautin and Connie Willan were dazzling for their nations.
Back home the contributions and play of athletes like Bobbie Rosenfeld.
Or later the unheralded play of Bev Beaver or Marian Coveny.
The European impact of not only Mautin and Willan, but women like Maria Rooth, Kim Martin, Erika Holst, Sari Krooks, Florence Schelling and many others.
The Hockey Hall of Fame got it right in 2024 inducting two worthy players, but they have to rectify the historic erasure of women prior to the 1990s.
Women have played hockey at a high level for 130 years. Limiting inductions to the past 30 does not reflect the storied history and contributions of women to the sport.
Like other hall's of fame have done before, the Hockey Hall of Fame should recognize the injustice they've continued to protect, and conduct a mass induction of women who were omitted.
The history of hockey deserves completeness, as does the Hockey Hall of Fame.