Draft:Ruth Denesha
Pioneer in women's hockey; founder of women's hockey in Boston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Evelyn Denesha (March 19, 1894 - January 15, 1973)[1][2] was a pioneer in women's ice hockey in the United States. She was a co-founder and the captain of the Boston Girls' Hockey Team, one of the first documented intercity women's hockey teams in the United States and the first in Boston, Massachusetts.[3] She is considered a pioneer in women's ice hockey in the United States.[4]
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Early Life
Denesha was born in 1894 in Ontario, Canada to American-born parents, Captain William A. Denesha and Hattie M. Denesha (née Starke).[5][6] She had two older brothers: Harry Russell Denesha and Douglas A. Denesha.[7] Denesha's father passed away in November 1899 following an accident on his tugboat, the Ruth.[5] Denesha spent her childhood in Morrisburg, Ontario.[5][6]
Denesha immigrated from Canada to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1912 at age 18 to attend the Sargent School of Physical Training,[1][8] now part of Boston University.[9] She graduated from the Sargent School in 1915, and continued working at the school as an assistant in general gymnastics, athletics and swimming, and heavy apparatus work.[8]
Ice Hockey
Boston Girls' Hockey Team
In 1916, Denesha co-founded the Boston Girls' Hockey Team at the Boston Arena with her future teammate, Gertrude Hawkes.[3] This team was the first intercity women's hockey team in Boston and among the first in the country.[4] Denesha captained the team, with her older brother, Harry Denesha, volunteering as coach.[3] Harry had previously been a hockey player for the New York Athletic Club and would go on to coach men's hockey at Dartmouth College.[4][10]
Denesha ran tryouts for the team on December 30, 1916,[3][11] with advertisements for tryouts reaching as far as Cleveland.[4] The team played both men's teams and other city's women's teams, and was described as "the best of its kind in New England" by the Cincinnati Enquirer.[12]
Denesha played rover[13][14] and scored 3 of Boston's 2 goals in the team's first intercity game against New York's St. Nicholas Bluesin Boston.[13] The Montreal Star also reported that Denesha lost two teeth in this game.[15][16] While the team lost the next two away games in New York, Denesha remained a strong player.[14]
Hockey Legacy
Denesha is known as the founder and first captain of Boston's first women's intercity hockey team.[3] As the star player in one of the first women's hockey games in the United States,[16] she is considered one of the first elite hockey players in this country.
Personal Life
Denesha continued to work in physical education and as a health education teacher after her hockey career.[1] She became a citizen of the United States on June 18, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan.[1] She married William Forsythe on August 17, 1933 in Waddington, NY at age 39. The couple had one daughter, Ruth S. Forsythe, born in 1936.[17][18] Denesha was 42 years old at the time of her daughter's birth. She died at A. Barton Hepburn Hospital, in Ogdensburg, NY. She was buried in Brookside Cemetery, Waddington. [19]