Thirty years ago the widespread notion of women doing anything on the ice that was not figure skating or speed skating was virtually unheard of. However, quite contrary to popular belief, women across North America and the world have been playing the great game of hockey since the late 1800’s. And after years of skating under the radar, today are celebrating everything from the women’s frozen four to the Olympic championships and women’s professional hockey.

The first games were played in Ottawa and Ontario between teams dressed in long wool skirts and turtleneck sweaters. By the 1920’s and ‘30s there were women’s leagues all over Canada and even in select areas of the US. Canada even held tournaments each year to determine a national champion and the Ontario based Preston Rivulettes will be forever regarded as the first true dynasty of the women’s game, virtually owning their competition throughout the ‘30s.

The game’s popularity took a big hit following World War II and there was even a Supreme Court case in Ontario that prevented a 9-year-old girl from continuing to play on a boy’s minor team. Throughout the ‘60s there were continued incidents where girls were denied the opportunity to play with boys and soon there became sort of a revolution of girls’ teams starting to pop up everywhere. As the sport continued to gain steam it was only a matter of time before more people began to take notice.

Ellen Yeiser, Executive Director for The Women’s Association of Colorado Hockey for the past six years (wachockey.com), began to take notice in the early ‘70s when she first started playing at the age of 21.

“I began skating at DU roughly 35 years ago,” Yeiser says. “Things were pretty disorganized at the time. There were about four or five teams spread across the state and everyone played each other maybe once a season. By ’78 we were laying about ten games a season with the same four or five teams.”

Yeiser is still skating with some of the same women, but there are now 32 teams in the league and everything is organized. Her current team sports women ranging in age from their teens to their 50s and even includes one mother-daughter duo.

According to Yeiser, the widespread popularity of the sport can be directly attributed to its inclusion in the Olympics.

“It was definitely a turning point for the growth of women’s hockey in this country and there has been an explosion in the last ten years,” she says.

Considering that the USA and Canada have both medalled in all three games, it is no wonder it is catching on so much in this part of the world.

After the U.S. became the first gold medal winner in 1998 in Japan, they followed it up with a silver medal performance in 2002, losing to Canada 3-2 in front of more than a million television viewers on each side of the border. In 2006, the U.S. women were on the podium for a third time in three tries, this time winning the bronze.

According to USAhockey.com, in 1990, the year international play made its introduction with eight countries competing in the inaugural Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship, there were slightly less than 10,000 girls and women registered with USA Hockey. There are currently over 45,000 and the fastest growing age group is the under ten. That is over a 450 percent growth rate in the last two decades.

Indeed, the ‘90s were definitely a happening time for women’s ice hockey. The NCAA recognized it as a Division one sport in 1993 and less than a decade after the first   puck was dropped, the initial NCAA Women’s Frozen Four was held in 2001. Since the day the first title was awarded, the championship trophy is yet to leave the side by side states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota-Duluth skated to the first three titles, The University of Minnesota took home the next two and the last two were won by Wisconsin.

There have also been a few attempts at organizing professional women’s hockey leagues. The NWHL, the world’s first professional league, was formed in Canada in 2000 and after going under after this past year, is setting to re-launch itself in 2008, while in the meantime attempting to figure ways to attract more fans to the scene. Another league, The Western Women’s Hockey League also began in 2004 and currently features half a dozen North American teams.

No one makes their start at these higher levels however and the number of organized women’s youth and adult leagues are at an all time high, including numerous leagues throughout Colorado. CHI stopped by the Apex in Arvada on a recent Thursday night and was able to catch some local novice women’s league action in a DWHL game pitting the Royals and the Northstars. Most of the women in the game had been playing for less than two years. Regardless of their level of experience however, they were all about a good, clean, fun competitive game. Sportsmanship was a key component and everyone seemed to have a good time. The teams skated to a 1-1 tie and everyone went home happy.

This is definitely an exciting time for women’s hockey and CHI for one, is taking notice. We will be featuring a women’s team each month from here on out.

For more information on women’s hockey, you can check out the following sites:

Coloradogirlshockey.com
Wachockey.com
Dwhl.org
Coloradohockeyinsider.com