Professional Womens Hockey League has a TV contract, and laying out my women’s hockey cred is always affirming. Congrats to the First Six – Boston, Toronto, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa. https://www.thepwhl.com/en/ A Landing Page that gets you everywhere, gotta like it.
Buoyed by that TV money, its a twenty-four game season, nothing extra fancy like team names, ticket prices are very do-able – 4 game package (Montreal), center ice sections $135 +tax. Simple playoffs go into May, everybody’s in with six clubs. Many clubs have two arenas to play at; there isn’t enough clout to put women’s hockey ahead of the circus, y’know?
BIG 19,285 crowd for inaugural in Toronto, New York (playing in Bridgeport, CT) had 2,201 the next day. There’s an interesting story of a player who became first person traded, and a league-wide awareness that uprooting players with families isn’t going to be order of the day. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/trade-considerations-5-things-pwhl-teams-need-to-think-about-before-making-deals/ar-BB1iFhID
My Smallish Piece – Head Coach, Women’s Ice Hockey Club
I still have the jacket, obviously, but who would have foreseen professional women’s hockey in 1979? I first touched the women’s side because my roommate knew I had a big ol’ Monaco and could take lots of girls and gear the year before, when we played his girlfriend’s former team – the Ithaca Shooting Stars had a twenty year old organization even then. Roommate breaks up with best player end of year, she and one of our goalies wouldn’t be playing. I mostly recruited over foosball tables, where I found Barb Hain, an ath-o-lete who went from field hockey to hockey to lacrosse, and at late night boyfriends intramurals.
Half our girls used intramural helmets without face cages, only a few had jerseys. Our practice times were M 8:00 am and TH 2:00 pm, just before they resurfaced the ice for the Men’s team. All of the freshman took every opportunity to improve their skating during free skate sessions, and we lost a fierce competitor who would’ve been our captain, Kitty Olejarski, because she fell against the boards and seperated two discs, which constitutes a broken back.
Did I say ‘fierce’? A year earlier she’d cross-checked me (using stick held between two hands to hit/push) in scrimmage with men’s B team, asking why I was never on the ice when she was. When I did the same to her, unfortunately/stupidly across her chest instead of an arm, she took a full swipe at my face with her stick. Catching it (fortunately!) with a glove, I *immediately* apologized for the unwise retaliation. Whew!
Talking about dumb college kid – Knowing how much she’d counted on playing, when she came to a practice, I actually let her ‘just skate around slow’ while wearing her back brace! At one point, I let her flip some pucks into the net. Nowadays, another accident that might’ve paralyzed her would probably result in a couple million dollars being taken out of the SUNY Brockport budget.
When they started squealing at the nasty, cold, wet jerseys I tossed to several, I said, “Put ’em on, we need to tape numbers on them.”
— Coach Shorkey, 2024 – Admitting I’d forgotten about disgusting state of jerseys on a Friday night, the memory of the smell when opening that carry bag still makes me laugh out loud. I expect it always will.
Our team only played together once before Christmas break (@RIT), then against a mens B league team where our defense couldn’t move guys out, a definite question of strength. Guys kept chopping away in close, to tune of 72 shots on goal, and 11-5 final score. I couldn’t have been happier when Judy Dufresne came off and said, “Guess I kept my stick on the ice,” the one piece of goalie knowledge I could offer to make a coaching difference.
Adding a little color to things, ‘Space Cadet Jeanette’ (Crozier, freshman) had cross-checked guys several times, but they weren’t allowed to check the girls. When the referee told me guys were getting pissed it wasn’t called, I motioned her to stop cross-checking, and mere seconds later, she said ‘What?’ to me when she went off for a hard slash. Then, after the game, instead of getting signed up for classes, she walked to the hospital at end of Brockport (only a mile), and had her *appendix out* about two hours later!
There *might* have been a trainer available if she’d fallen or been checked and ruptured on the ice, but I don’t know for sure there was.
Could you help us out with some jerseys?
My coaching career mostly focuses on a pair of home-away games, against a beautifully well-equipped, from skates to helmets, sticks, and uniforms, varsity team from Ithaca College. I was a student-coach with a rag-tag group called the Brockport St. Women’s Ice Hockey Club.
Best buddy Ivan Marquez (who okayed gas money from student government) was tight with Men’s Coach EJ McGuire, who eventually rose to VP NHL Scouting after years as an NHL assistant coach. Back then he was the coolest guy you could know, trying to get young men to come to a D-III state school. I didn’t have enough green jerseys to put on our girls for game at Ithaca, could he help us out?
“Sure. Couple of you guys, give Glenn your jerseys.” Bam! Five sweaty ones, right after practice, in the bag, thanks a lot guys.
First game at our ice we’d lost 3-1, with an empty net, length of ice tally with :02. We’d pulled our goalie and gotten a half-dozen shots on them, textbook stuff. Best player on the ice was Linda Wilcox, a dorm director at Brockport who was able to play for us after four years of varsity at Ithaca, because we weren’t an ECAC team. Former teammates certainly knew who they were up against, a studette protecting goal, a great puck mover and coach on the ice.
Every athlete is extra proud when their parents or significant family and friends see them doing well. The kicker for me was brother Steve, who worked in Sports Information at Cornell, knew I was coming, because Ithaca scheduled game at Cornell’s Lynah Areana. While my parents and Aunt Jo, Uncle Howard, cousin Mike were there to see his basketball game, their coming to my game was a bonus, one I have never forgotten.
Barb Hain, who started the day with ‘freshman flu’ (hangover) benefited greatly from a two hour delay when Cornell’s men’s team needed a short practice because they were still in ECAC playoffs. Four girls scored two goals apiece in an 8-2 win, and my feet didn’t touch the ice going over to shake the IC coach’s hand afterwards. I was in glory, three piece suit and print shirt, two-tone shoes, opening and closing the door with, “Next line up!” a little crazy when we had nine girls and a goalie, defense people were always double shifting.
Great stories have unusual twists, so when Judy became full time after 2nd goalie who split time quit, we found out she was a MUCH better goalie. Judy was very competent, waved her glove stylishly when making stops, and I mentioned the attitude . In fact, my ONLY rule as a coach was for defense: “Nobody gets close enough to put shavings on Judy’s back,” because low-scoring games were our best hope.
Head Coach is still one of my favorite athletic achievements, right up there with winning an Upstate Rugby Championship. There’s also NO chance I’ll ever forget Mom saying, “All those girls have such enormous rear ends.”
Could it have been their girls didn’t want to get near our fragrant ones? Don’t know, but 45 years later, its smile-worthy. Good thoughts for the Professional Women’s Hockey League for sure.
Thanks for sharing a moment in female sports history with me, the ladies mentioned most prominently above, and Caroline Beam, Rose Bronchetti, Heidi Clement, Jeanne Martin, Terry McGrath, Aileen Renner, Debbie Napoli, and Nancy Turner, who made it memorable.
Such a damn fine piece of women’s hockey news, thought maybe you’d want to know more. Yay!
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