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25 years ago today, Manon Rhéaume broke the gender divide in hockey |
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Today marks the 25th anniversary of the day the Manon Rhéaume broke gender barriers and suited up in net for the Trois-Rivières Draveurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Their starting goaltender had gotten injured earlier in the month and so the Draveurs had called her up to act as the backup to future NHLer Jocelyn Thibault. On November 26th, 1991 Rhéaume was called into game action against the Granby Bison as the score was tied 5-5. She would allow three goals on seventeen shots as the Draveurs would go on to lose 10-6 but history was forever made. Unfortunately, Rhéaume was forced to leave the game early though as she suffered a cut when her helmet was broken by a Patrick Tessier shot.
Meanwhile, the newly formed Tampa Bay Lightning were looking for ways to market their team in a non-traditional hockey city and decided to offer Rhéaume the opportunity to attend their 1992 training camp. Of course it was a marketing ploy. Phil Esposito knew it, Terry Crisp knew it and Manon Rhéaume knew it as well. However, how could she possibly turn down the opportunity of a lifetime? It was one that created an absurd amount of buzz for one exhibition game. While it may have seemed like a gongshow with countless interviews and appearances on the Today Show and Late Night with David Letterman not to mention an offer from Playboy to pose nude, in actual fact it was about letting the world know on the grandest of stages that women play hockey and they are actually pretty good at it. Without Rhéaume breaking that initial barrier on November 26th, 1991 and subsequently playing in the Lightning’s exhibition game (she allowed two goal on nine shots in one period of play) women’s hockey would not have received the same level of attention that it did in the nineties.
Back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, there were not any organized hockey leagues for girls growing up in Quebec. To play competitive hockey, Rhéaume had no choice but to continually tryout and play with the boys. The timing of Rhéaume playing with The Draveurs and then the Lightning combined with introduction of the Women’s World Hockey Championships was the perfect storm to inspire a new generation of girl’s hockey. One that created such a demand that it forced the creation of girl’s hockey teams and leagues.
Each generation of women’s hockey has its own pioneers. In the early 1990’s it was Rhéaume playing with the boys, the creation of the Women’s World Hockey Championships which led to the introduction of women’s hockey at the 1998 Nagano Olympic games which would eventually lead to professional women’s hockey leagues. The likes of Rhéaume, Angela Games, Danielle Goyette, France St. Louis, Vicky Sunohara paved the way for Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell, Jennifer Botterill, Kim St. Pierre who paved the way for Caroline Ouellette, Meghan Agosta, Charline Labonte, Gillian Apps who paved the way for today’s stars of women’s hockey such as Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Rebecca Johnston and Shannon Szabados. Szabados especially is another trailblazer for women’s hockey as she continued to play against men while Wickenheiser broke barriers as a skater, suiting up for Sweden’s Division Two hockey.
Today, Rhéaume lives in the suburbs of Detroit and coaches with the organization’s Little Caesar’s leagues. Hopefully, the Red Wings will honour Rhéaume this evening as they take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Joe Louis Arena.
Cheers & follow along!
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