Ahead Of PWHL Expansion, Here's A Look At Detroit's Women's Hockey History

Ahead Of PWHL Expansion, Here's A Look At Detroit's Women's Hockey History

Women have been playing hockey in Michigan for more than 100 years. The state will soon add a PWHL franchise, adding a future for the sport to go with a storied past.

Perhaps the earliest recorded women's hockey game in Detroit was in 1907 at the McDougall Avenue skating rink between the McDougall Broilers and a team of high school girls. Gertrude Bleser was the standout in the game scoring the lone goal as the Broilers took a 1-0 win.

Across the state in Grand Rapids, games between the Ramona Girls and Ferguson Girl were being played in 1914 and beyond at Grand Rapids' Ramona Park.

While the game existed in pockets in Michigan in the first half of the twentieth century, it wasn't until the 1960s that women's hockey took lasting root in Detroit. During that era, teams like the Detroit Debs, Detroit Koepplingers, and Detroit Cougars, along with the Port Huron Hockeyettes and St. Clair Shores Mini-Wings outside of Detroit.

In 1968, the Detroit Koepplingers, paced by a 15-year-old Joanne Sawchuk, who scored twice in a 2-0 win over Essex, captured the first ever Tilbury Kinette Club "Powder Puff" Tournament across the border in Ontario. Sawchuk, the daughter of Detroit Red Wings netminder Terry Sawchuk, won the Steve Nagy Trophy as the tournament's top scorer recording five goals and an assist in four games. At the tournament, they also beat the Detroit Debs, which was a name short for the Detroit Debutantes.

Perhaps the most famous member of the Detroit Debs was goaltender Karen Koch. In 1969, then a student at Northern Michigan University, Koch made national news when she made the Marquette Iron Rangers in the USHL. It was a team captained by future NHLer Barry Cook. Koch was paid $40 per game to play with the Iron Rangers that season.

By the 1970s, more formal league's, including the Michigan Ontario Women's International Hockey League operated. From that league, the Port Huron Hockeyettes beat the St. Clair Shores Mini-Wings, two of the loops top teams, in 1973 for the Michigan championship. The Hockeyettes were one of the most organized and well supported teams of the era with much support from Dorothy and Donald McCormick.

Detroit's ties to Ontario's early tournaments and leagues is clear. In 1967 at the Lipstick Tournament in Wallaceburg, Ontario, which was Ontario's first women's hockey tournament, a tantamount event in launching the sport in the province, Detroit Red Wings members Jack Adams and Johnny Mowers were present to take in the event. Teams would also come across the border by 1970 for the Sun Parlor Girls Hockey Tournament in Essex, Ontario.

In 1978, the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, now known as USA Hockey, launched the first ever girls national championships with the Girls Teen (13-15U) championship going to Livonia, Michigan. The following season in 1979, the Michigan Mini-Wings won the Girls Open 'A' division, and Taylor, Michigan's entry won the Girls Teen division. In 1980, Taylor, Michigan became the first location in Michigan to host a national championship girls and women's tournament, with a pair of Michigan teams, the Dearborn Arrows and Taylor Jets winning titles.

Michigan teams would not win another title until 1987 when a team from Wayne, Michigan grabbed the Women's Senior 'B' championship in Buffalo, NY. Wayne would win three consecutive championships adding 1988 and 1989 to their trophy case as well.

By the 2000s, a new era of women's hockey in Michigan was beginning to pick up steam. The branded teams present in men's hockey formed strong women's programs including Little Caesars, Honeybaked, and Belle Tire, which began sending a consistent stream of players to the NCAA, and eventually professional ranks.

Uksila One Of The Earliest Michigan Pioneers

Among the many women who helped build hockey globally and in the United States was Lena Uksila. Uksila was born in Michigan in 1895. A noted figure skater to start, Uksila was first hired by the New York Hippodrome to perform a skating exhibition, and alongside Robert Jackson, the first captain of Australia's Victoria ice hockey team, at the Ice Palace in Manhattan in 1917. It was a link between North American hockey and Australia that wouldn't be broken, as Uksila would soon make her way to Australia, including in 1923 when Lena and her brother Charles were contracted for 14 weeks to perform skating in Australia, which also saw Charles begin coaching ice hockey in the country. It was a time when skating, and ice hockey, were beginning to grow in Australia.

Prior to her time in Australia however, Uksila brought the game to another location not typically considered a hockey hotbed playing in Oakland and San Francisco. In 1916, the San Francisco’s Techau Tavern Ice Palace opened, and on May 26, 1916, the rink saw the first recorded women’s hockey game in California history. “An ice-hockey match between two teams composed of of women proved a sensation,” the San Francisco Bulletin wrote. “All the players exhibited marked facility in handling the difficult plays of the game, and shot the puck around the rink with the skill of veterans.”

On June 3, 1916, newly formed teams, the Minerva Hockey Club of Oakland and San Francisco’s Diana Club women’s team, faced off. They played in front of a reported 1,200 fans. Oakland earned a 4-1 victory, in “a game that never lost its tense interest for a moment.” Sisters Helen Uksila and Lena Uksila were stars for Oakland, with Lena Uksila scoring a hat trick in the win.

Marguerite Norris' place in hockey history

When her father, James E. Norris passed away in 1952, Marguerite Norris became the first woman to serve as an executive in the NHL taking over as president of the Detroit Red Wings. She advocated for arenas to be more woman-friendly, and despite being excluded from the NHL's Board of Governors, it's said she worked out a system of hand signals with Jack Adams to have her say. Norris led the Detroit Red Wings to one of their greatest stretches in history winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1954 and 1955, becoming the first woman to have her name inscribed on the Stanley Cup. Sadly in 1955, her family pushed her out of the role, a decision which legends like Gordie Howe believe doomed the future of the franchise.

"She was good for the club, but unfortunately she didn't stick around for as long as anyone would have liked," Howe said. in his autobiography. I don't think it's a coincidence that Marguerite's time in charge coincided with some of the greatest years in franchise history... It's hard to say how many Stanley Cups we might have won if she had stuck around longer."

Following Norris' 1954 an 1955 Stanley Cups, the Detroit Red Wings would not win another title until 1997.

Lisa Brown-Miller Was The First, Looney Nets Gold

While Karen Koch and others would have certainly earned an opportunity to represent Team USA, the official honor of the first Michigan product to play for Team USA goes to Lisa Brown-Miller. Miller, a Union Lake, Michigan product, played high school hockey at West Bloomfield before going to Providence College. As a senior, she was named the ECAC Player of the Year and American Women's Hockey Coaches' Association Player of the Year.

Where Brown-Miller earned her greatest accolade was with Team USA. She made USA's first ever World Championship roster in 1990. As a member of Team USA, Brown-Miller looked destined to find only silver linings winning four straight silver medals at Worlds at a time the tournament was held only every other year. Brown-Miller however, proved that she was an athlete who stood the test of time playing with USA until women's hockey was added to the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano. That year, she was part of the historic win for Team USA taking the first ever gold medal.

Brown-Miller passed away less than one year ago in May 2025.

The gold medal winning goal at the 1998 Olympics was scored by another Michigan product, and women's hockey legend Shelley Looney. Born in Brownstown and raised in Trenton, Michigan.

NCAA Hockey In Michigan

Perhaps the most obvious omission in the United States when it comes to women's hockey is the fact the state of Michigan has seven men's hockey programs at the NCAA level, and many more in NCAA DIII and ACHA in Michigan, but zero NCAA DI women's programs.

It wasn't always that way, however, as Wayne State University ran an NCAA Division I women's program from 1990-2000 until the 2010-2011 season. Initially they played in the Great Lakes Women's Hockey Association before moving to College Hockey America.

The program experienced two spectacular seasons between 2007 and 2009 combining for a 43-18-5 record. In 2007 and 2008 they lost in the CHA Tournament finals, both times falling to Mercyhurst. At the end of the 2007-2008 season, Wayne State climbed to their highest ever national ranking topping out at 10th.

Perhaps the best player in Wayne State history was Melissa Boal, who was a top 10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award. Along with Sam Poyton and Lindsay DiPietro, the trio powered Wayne State through their winning years. Boal and Poynton would both go on to play briefly in the CWHL with the Toronto Aeros.