A game of their own: Hockey pioneers into CSHOF

MARIO BARTEL

mbartel@tricitynews.com

Barb Nuttall wanted to play hockey so badly, she filed the picks off the blades of her figure skates and taped her ankles for added support.

Now, Nuttall and 13 of her teammates on the 1964–65 Coquitlam Satellites female hockey team are being inducted into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame June 15 at the Centennial Secondary School theatre

There was no female hockey in the city when the coach of Nuttall’s softball team, Joe Krebs, suggested the group of girls aged 14 and 15 carry its association into the off-season and onto the ice.

Equipment was sparse.

Backcatcher Linda Taylor repurposed her heavy catcher’s mitt into a goalie glove and she still has the scars from the hockey puck striking her unprotected wrist to show for her inventiveness. She wore her catcher’s chest protector under her hockey jersey and her father refashioned her catcher’s mask as a goalie mask to protect her face.

Support for their efforts was even dearer

The BC Amateur Hockey Association didn’t recognize female hockey at the time, so there was no organized league for the Satellites to play in. Manager Jim Hinds cobbled together a schedule of exhibition games against teams from New Westminster, North Vancouver and Esquimalt

At the old rink on Poirier Street, there was resistance from other players and their parents to their presence The ice time should be for boys, they said, because they could have a future in the game as NHLers

Away from the rink, winger and defensemen Ronnie Fonseca said she was so bullied at school about her hockey exploits, the principal suggested she stay away for a week.

“They’d laugh at us,” Fonseca recalled of the chirping and catcalls the Satellites’ players endured. “You just ignored it.”

Still, said Nuttall, there were glimmers of a brighter future for their pioneering efforts

The rink manager at Poirier ensured they got ice times at reasonable hours

Taylor’s mother conned a neighbour, Sal Hartley, into refereeing the girls’ games, even though he had no idea how to navigate their no-contact rules.

“He always had a smile on his face,” Taylor said.

When Hinds went into the community to raise sponsorship funds, local businesses and organizations like the Optimists stepped up so the players could get proper equipment, pay for ice time and even travel to tournaments in Seattle and on