Ian Muttoo / Flickr
The Hockey Hall of Fame has added a female players category this year, in recognition of the rising number of female hockey players and in light of the women who won the gold medal for Canada in 1990 and for the US in 1998. With only five players inducted into the Hall of Fame annually, one has to wonder if the officials are making up for the lack of female recognition as they are inducting two women in their first year of doing so.
The first two women to be inducted will be Angela James, a center with the Canadian national team in 1990, and Cammi Granato, forward with the US team from 1998.
James told press that they “didn’t care” if they would have been “wearing polka dots” when they were in the world championships in Ottawa back then. This was her response when asked about the hot pink uniforms worn by the 1990 team. She says, “we just wanted to play”.
Granato, when asked of the rise in female hockey and how hard it is to be involved with a traditionally male sport, said that women must “realize there are those barriers you have to fight through”.
James, who is now 45, helped Canada to win four women’s hockey championships between 1990 and 1998. The former center led the league in scoring. The Central Ontario Women’s League named her most valuable player a half a dozen time.
Of the Hall of Fame adding a women’s category, she said ,”I look at this as a great day for women’s hockey.”
Granato was a member of the US national women’s hockey team for 15 years and won the silver medal at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. She expresses awe at being chosen to be inducted saying, “it’s almost unfathomable as a woman”.
