Biography of Influential Women in Canadian Sports History

Hilda Ranscombe

Hilda Ranscombe was born on September 11, 1913 in Doon, Ontario. She was known as the greatest female hockey player in the world in her time, being described as the Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey. Some had even said she was every bit as good as the boys from the area that went on to play in the NHL. Hilda was an all-round athlete who also played softball and tennis and captured several titles in each of those sports (Pelletier, 2009). 

Hilda was part of the Preston Rivulettes, which was known as the most successful Canadian team in hockey history (Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame). They started playing outdoors on the frozen Grand River, and eventually moving indoors. Hilda was the captain of the Preston Rivulettes (Forster, 2007). She was regarded as the heart and soul of the Preston Rivulettes. She played right wing and held the title for top scorer (Hockey Blog in Canada). When Hilda was out on the ice she skated with dazzling speed and looked invincible when the puck was on her stick (Forster, 2007).

Hilda was inducted into the Cambridge Sport Hall of Fame in 1997. In 1998, she was inducted into the World Women’s Hockey Hall of Fame in the Pioneer Player category and in 1999, she was named female athlete of the 20^th century by the Cambridge Sport Hall of Fame (Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame).

Hilda being inducted into the Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame.

When Hilda retired, she became a coach so she could continue to be apart of the sport even when she was done playing. She donated all her hockey equipment to the Hockey Hall of Fame just before she passed away in August of 1999 (Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame).

Nancy Garapick

Nancy Ellen Garapick was born on September 24, 1961 in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Sports Reference).

Nancy was a swimmer. She was extremely proficient in backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and individual medley, but she had her greatest success with the backstroke. She set a world record of 2:16.33 for the 200m in 1975 at the Eastern Canadian Swimming Championships in Brantford, Ontario (Ferguson). This record was set while she was on the Trojan Aquatic Club of Halifax, and at the young age of 13. She then advanced onto the 1975 World Aquatic Championships in Cali, Colombia where she won a silver medal in the 200m backstroke (Ferguson). She was awarded the Bobbie Resenfeld Award (Canada’s Female Athlete of the Year) in 1975 due to her great successes at the Worlds (Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame).

She also set a Canadian and Olympic record of 1:03.28 in the 100m in 1976 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal (Ferguson). She came out of the 1976 Summer Olympics with 2 bronze medals, one in the 200m and one in the 100m (Sports Reference).

Stacy Wilson

            Stacy Eleanor Wilson was born on May 12, 1965 in Moncton, New Brunswick to Trueman Townsend Wilson (father) and Elizabeth Ann Wilson (mother).  Stacy has one brother, Shane Allison Wilson, and one sister, Shelley Anne Wilson. She grew up in the nearby village of Salisbury, New Brunswick and attended JMA Armstrong High School. She graduated from Acadia University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education (Morrissey, 2007).

            Stacy began her hockey career by playing minor hockey with boys until she reached the bantam level. After her last year of bantam, she stopped playing hockey until her second year at Acadia University. Stacy and her fellow female hockey players created a women’s hockey team at Acadia, this team was a club team as there was no varsity team at the University (Morrissey, 2007). The team needed to wear the men’s used Acadia jerseys, and in order to go to tournaments they needed to raise the funds themselves. Wilson and her teammates were part of two Nova Scotia provincial championships and also leaded the Acadia club team to represent Nova Scotia at the Women’s National Championship in 1986 and 1987 (Morrissey, 2007).

            When Stacy graduated from Acadia in 87’ she began to play senior women’s hockey with the Moncton Blades, which was later known as the Maritime Blades. From 1986-87 to 1992-93 she was on Team New Brunswick at the National Women’s Championships and was the leading scorer at the tournament in 1986. In 1988 she was named to the All-Star team and was named the most sportsmanlike player in 1990 and 1996. She earned MVP and leading scorer in 1990 in the New Brunswick Senior Women’s Hockey League (Morrissey, 2007).

            Stacy joined the Canadian Women’s National Hockey team in 1990 and was able to compete in the first ever World Women’s Hockey Championship. She led the team with three goals in five games to help Canada take home the gold medal. They repeated their gold medal reigns in 1992, 1994, and 1997 with Stacy as a key part of that success. In 1995 Stacy was named captain of Team Canada (Sports Reference). She held that title into the 1998 Winter Olympics. This is the first year that Women’s hockey was a competing sport. She suited up for six matches, scored one goal and help lead Team Canada to a silver medal. In 1998 after the Olympics, Stacy was named New Brunswick Female Athlete of the Year. During her hockey career she founded the “Stacy Wilson Female Hockey School” (Sports Reference).

 Stacy Wilson, Therese Brisson and Danielle Goyette

            In 2000, Stacy took time to write a book called “The Hockey Book for Girls”, this book was an introductory text for young women seeking to get involved in the sport (Sports Reference).

Stacy retired from playing hockey shortly after the first Olympics, and at that time she was hired by the University of Minnesota at Duluth as an assistant coach for their hockey team. While at Duluth, she took time to obtain a master’s degree in education in 2004 (Sports Reference). In 2007 she became the head coach of the Bowdoin College women’s hockey team located in Brunswick, Maine. Stacy was such an essential component of the success this program had gained over the 3 years that she was head coach. After her third year of being head coach, she decided to call it quits (Etue, 2010).

In 1998, Stacy was inducted into the Acadia Hockey Hall of Fame, being the first woman to be honored this way. Along with that achievement, she is also a member of the Salisbury Hall of Fame, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame and the Esso Champions Wall of Fame at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto (Sports Reference).

By: Kayla DeMont

       200901977

References:

Pelletier, Joe (2009). Hilda Ranscombe. http://womenshockeylegends.blogspot.ca/2009/03/hilda-ranscombe.html (Retrieved April 8, 2013).

Cambridge Sports Hall of Fame. Hilda Ranscombe. http://www.cambridgesportshalloffame.ca/images/ranscombe.pdf (Retrieved April 2, 2013)

Hockey Blog in Canada (2008). Linking to Genius. http://hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.ca/2008/11/linking-to-genius.html (Retrieved April 6, 2013).

Forster, M. (2007). 100 More Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Toronto, Ontario: The Dundurn Group.

Ferguson, Bob. Nancy Garapick. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/nancy-garapick (Retrieved April 5, 2013).

Sports Reference. Nancy Garapick. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ga/nancy-garapick-1.html (Retrieved April 1, 2013).

Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Winners: Nancy Garapick, Swimming. http://www.conacher-resenfeld.ca/les_gagnants-winners/resenfeld/nancy_garapick-eng.html (Retrieved April 1, 2013).

Sport Reference (2008). Stacy Wilson. http://sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/wi/stacy-wilson-1.html (Retrieved April 8, 2013)

Etue, Elizabeth. (2010) Stacy Wilson Resigns Head Coach Position. http://www.winih.com/news/stacy-wilson-resigns-head-coach-position (Retrieved April 8. 2013)

Morrissey, Krista. (2007). New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame to induct six. http://www.gnb.ca/cnb/news/misc/2007e0325mi.htm (Retrieved April 8, 2013)