Hockey, women's
- New woman
- Rapid rise
- Obstacles
- For fun only
New Woman
The school year 1901-1902 marked the beginning of competitive team sports for women at Mount Allison. Two sports were played by women 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. Seven years later, both the town of Sackville and the Ladies’ College formed 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 classics professor 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."
Mount Allison [Ladies' College and University?] hockey team, 1902-03
Mount Allison [Ladies' College and University?] hockey team, 1902-03
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