The school year 1901-1902 marked the beginning of competitive team sports for women at Mount Allison. Two sports were played that year: basketball and hockey. Although enthusiastically received at first, women's hockey at Mount Allison failed to reach its early potential.
The first university women's hockey team in Canada is believed to have been the Donaldas of McGill University in 1894. [1] Seven years later both the town of Sackville and the Ladies' College organized their own women's hockey teams. Hockey had been played only by men in Sackville and at Mount Allison since 1896, and the inclusion of women in the male-dominated sport exemplified the rise of the "new woman" in Sackville and across Canada. Mount Allison professor of classics Dr. Alfred D. Smith, a regular contributor to Saint John's Globe newspaper, wrote about this phenomenon (23 December 1901):
"We have often heard in Sackville of the way in which the "new woman" encroaches on the domains supposed to be sacred to the male sex, and we now see this propensity exemplified before our eyes in the hockey teams organized by our young ladies -- the village team having at its head Miss Lilian Sprague, and the college team commanded by Miss May Hart." [2]
People, left-right: Hathaway, Anne; Templeman, Beatrice; Mosher, Florence; Palmer, Hazel; Wright, Eva; Camber, Faye; Estabrooks, Frances.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/1. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
People, left-right, standing: Hathaway, Anne; Mosher, Florence; Palmer, Hazel; Wright, Eva; Estabrooks, Frances. Sitting: Templeman, Beatrice; Hart, May; Camber, Faye.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/3. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
In 1901 Mount Allison women formed their first hockey team. On 7 February 1902 [3] that team played its first match against the town team, winning 1-0. [4] Only women were allowed to watch the game. [5] The Sackville team went on to play against the Alexandrias in Springhill, Nova Scotia, in March 1903. That game was drew a crowd of over 600 people. [6]
In January 1904 the Ladies' College formed first and second hockey teams. Both teams secured University men's hockey goaltender and future men's rugby football coach Herbert F.S. Paisley as their coach. [7] On 17 March 1905 the Ladies' College held their first public match against Saint John's women's hockey team, losing 5-1 in front of 250 people. [8] The game was refereed by Herbert Mariner Wood [9], son of prominent Allisonian and Sackville mayor Josiah Wood. The game was announced for weeks in advance by posters in shop windows and on bulletin boards, which "caused great excitement" according to The Allisonia (May 1905). [10]
People, left-right: Baird, Hazel; North, Eva; Patson, Beatrice; Schurmann, Winnifred; Fleming, Margaret; Alexander, Edna; Hughes, Hazel. The seven University players on the right side of the photograph are unidentified.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/5. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
The development of women's hockey at Mount Allison was hampered by limited access to practice time and the lack of an institutional rink. In January 1904 [11] and January 1906 [12] editions of The Allisonia, and the February 1912 [13] edition of The Argosy, it was mentioned that students of the Ladies' College were allowed only one hour of practice time on Saturday mornings at the town rink. University men's hockey which was organized by the Mount Allison Amateur Athletic Association, had secured four hours of practice time at the town rink by January 1897. [14] The Academy hockey team was permitted three hours of ice time per week in January 1913. [15] All students playing hockey were united in their dissatisfaction of sharing rink time with the town, and calls for an institutional rink continued by all institutions until one was constructed in December 1919.
Opportunities for Mount Allison's women students to play games with outside teams decreased as well. A challenge was issued to Saint John in 1906 but was turned down because the city did not have a team. [16] Mount Allison Ladies' College faculty deemed it inadvisable to accept a challenge from the Wolfville Ladies Hockey Team in 1907. [17] Lacking outside opponents and support from the school, incentive to play was lost following the excitement generated by the 1905 game against Saint John.
People, top-bottom: Corning, Mildred; Chase, Jean; Deinstadt, Hazel; Clark, Nan L.; Nicholson, Annie; Kirk, Geraldine; Wakeford, Helen.
Mount Allison University Archives, Pickard, Dixon, Godfrey family fonds, accession 2000.1/24/59/1. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
From 1906 until the First World War all women's hockey games were played amongst Mount Allison teams. University women put together their first team in 1907 [18] and competed against the Ladies' College team in 1908 and 1909. [19, 20] By November 1911 women's hockey was increasingly played for fun only [21] and female hockey players were discouraged from playing "star hockey." [22]
Men from the university competed against the Ladies' College team on two occasions, in 1906 and 1912. The engineering students, who issued a challenge to the Ladies' College in 1906, offered to play with the butt end of their stick, rather than the blade. They were willing to play for "money, love and honour, or stews and cigars," but left the choice up to the women. The Ladies' College accepted the challenge, agreed to play for "money, love and stews," and defeated the men 2-0. [23] A similar contest was held against the University men's senior class in 1912, which saw the men playing with one hand and much shorter sticks. [24]
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/8. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives, Pickard, Dixon, Godfrey family fonds, accession 2000.01/24/59/2. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
[1] The Girl and the Game, by M. Ann Hall, 2002, p. 32
[2] [St. John] Globe, Dec. 23, 1901, "Sackville News," [by A.D. Smith,] Dec. 21, 1901
[3] [St. John] Globe, Feb. 10, 1902, "Sackville News," [by A.D. Smith,] Feb. 7, 1902
[4] [St. John] Globe, Feb. 10, 1902, "Sackville News," [by A.D. Smith,] Feb. 7, 1902
[5] [St. John] Globe, Feb. 3, 1902, "Sackville News," [by A.D. Smith,] Feb. 1, 1902; Argosy, vol. XXVIII, no. 5, Feb. 1902, "Ladies' College Notes," p. 168
[6] [Sackville] Tribune, Mar. 5, 1903, "Sporting Matters," p. 1
[7] Allisonia, vol. I, no. 2, Jan. 1904, "College Sports," pp. 55-6
[8] Argosy, vol. XXXI, no. 6, Mar. 1905, "LC Notes," pp. 211-3
[9] [Sackville] Tribune, Mar. 20, 1905, "Ladies' Hockey," p. 1 (says “H.M. Wood” in article)
[10] Allisonia, vol. II, no. 4, May 1905, "Sports," p. 206
[11] Allisonia, vol. I, no. 2, Jan. 1904, "College Sports," pp. 55-6
[12] Allisonia, vol. III, no. 2, Jan. 1906, "Sports," pp. 61-2
[13] Argosy, vol. XXXVIII, no. 5, Feb. 1912, "LC notes," p. 244
[14] Argosy, vol. XXVI, no. 4, Jan. 1897 [may say Jan. 1896], "Athletics,” p. 21
[15] Argosy, vol. XXXIX, no. 4, Jan. 1913, "Academy Notes," p. 242
[16] Allisonia, vol. III, no. 3, Mar. 1906, "Sports," p. 90
[17] Allisonia, vol. IV, no. 3, Mar. 1907, p. 103
[18] Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, 2007.07/5 (picture of varsity and Ladies’ College teams posing together)
[19] Allisonia, vol. VI, no. 1, Nov. 1908, "Pure Sport," p. 16
[20] Argosy, vol. XXXV (may say vol. XXXVI), no. 7, Apr. 1909, "L.C. Notes," pp. 276-8
[21] Allisonia, vol. IX, no. Nov. 1911, "Sports," p. 34
[22] Allisonia, vol. IX, no. 2, Mar. 1912, "Sports," pp. 66-7
[23] Allisonia, vol. III, no. 3, Mar. 1906, "Sports," pp. 90-1
[24] Allisonia, vol. IX, no. 3, May 1912, "Sports," p. 96