Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
Periodicals
Anderson, Dave. “The Lady Is a Champ.” New York
Times (May 11, 1981): C3.
Axthelm, Pete. “The Million-Dollar Lady.” Newsweek
(August 10, 1981): 62.
Cartwright, Gary. “The Old Man and the Tee.” Texas
Monthly (December 2000): S20.
Eskenazi, Gerald. “Harvey Penick, 90, Golf’s Top Author,
Dies.” New York Times (April 4, 1995): D25.
McDermott, Barry. “Wrong Image But the Right
Touch.” Sports Illustrated (July 25, 1983): 38.
Nichols, Bill. “Crenshaw and Penick: Inseperable Even
Now As They Head To Hall.” Knight Ridder/Tribune
News Service (November, 13, 2002).
Steptoe, Sonja. “Playing Out of Deep Rough” Sports Illustrated
(September 30, 1991): 6.
“Sun Country Will Have Its Own Hall of Fame.” Albuquerque
Journal (June 15, 2002): D1.
Other
“LPGA-Players.” http://www.lpga.com/players/index.
cfm?cont_type_id=1681&player_id=31544#Persona
(December 30, 2002).
Hayley Wickenheiser
1978-
Canadian hockey player
Sketch by Eve M. B. Hermann
Canadian hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser stands
likely to become the first female position player in
professional men’s hockey (three other women have
played in goal). In 2002, a few teams in the National
Hockey League (NHL) minors realm were expressing
tentative interest signing this Olympic gold medallist
and her formidable skills as a forward. Maclean’s called
her “arguably the best player in women’s hockey today.”
Backyard Rink
Wickenheiser was born in 1978 and grew up in Shaunavon,
in the province of Saskatchewan. The oldest of
three, she first learned to skate at the age of six when her
parents created a backyard ice rink with the help of a garden
hose and some two-by-fours. She played her first
hockey games on it, and was soon devoted to the sport;
her father once woke in the middle of night to find her out
in the backyard taking shots. As a youngster, she joined a
local team as its sole female participant, at a time when
organized hockey for female players was almost nonexis-
Chronology
1978 Born August 12 in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, Canada
1990 Joins Calgary, Alberta, junior girls’ team
1993 Wins spot on Canadian women’s national team
1994, 1997, Member of winning team at Women’s World Hockey
1999-2000 Championships
1998 Attends Philadelphia Flyers prospects camp
1998 Silver medal, women’s hockey, 1998 Winter Olympics
1999 Attends Philadelphia Flyers prospects camp
2002 Gold medal, women’s hockey, 2002 Winter Olympics
tent. Often there was no available dressing room for her to
use, and she was forced to don her gear in boiler rooms or
other areas of the rink. Her mother battled to have her enrolled
in a hockey school in Swift Current, Saskatchewan,
and again, she tested her mettle as the only player of her
gender there. When she was in middle school, the Wickenheiser
family relocated to Calgary, Alberta, so that she
could play on an all-girls’ team in the city.
At fifteen, Wickenheiser made the Canadian women’s
national team, and joined players who were, in some
cases, twenty years her senior; they nicknamed her
“High-Chair Hayley” because of her youth. With Team
Canada she went on to play in winning World Championship
contests in both 1994 and 1997. She had also become
an outstanding softball player, and made the
Canadian junior women’s team in 1995. Women’s ice
hockey became an Olympic medal sport for the first
time at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan, and
though Wickenheiser and her Canadian team were heavily
favored, they suffered an upset to the United States
and went home with the silver medal instead. Her on-ice
performance impressed Bobby Clarke, the Philadelphia
Flyers president who served as general manager of the
men’s Olympic hockey team, and he invited her to the
Flyers prospects’ camp that summer. Wickenheiser realized
that her chances for a contract were slim, but she
relished the chance to compete against other Olympiccaliber
players. “I’m basically just seeing it as a chance
to improve my game,” she told Maclean’s
Made Olympic History
Wickenheiser
Wickenheiser balanced her hockey career with studies
at the University of Calgary, where she enrolled in its
pre-med program. In 2000, she and Team Canada won
another World Championship—the fourth for her—and
later that year she qualified for a spot on the Canadian
women’s softball team and traveled to the 2000 Summer
Olympics in Sydney, Australia. After Sue Holloway, a
cross-country skier at the 1976 Winter Games and 1984
medalist in two kayak events, Wickenheiser was the second
Canadian woman ever to compete in both Winter
and Summer Olympics. She returned to hockey once
again at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, and
emerged as her team’s leading scorer. This time, they
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