Trailblazing Pittsburgh Pennies Proud To See Growth Of Women's Hockey

Kathleen Berg started skating and playing hockey when she was a freshman in high school back in the 1970s, not knowing where the interest and love would take her.
This past January, during a women's hockey game at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, Berg found out that she'd become a role model for the next generation of women's hockey players when a little girl asked for her autograph.

During the game between the Montreal Force and Connecticut Whale - members of the Premier Hockey Federation - the Whale paid homage to Berg and her Pittsburgh Pennies teammates by donning Pennies-inspired jerseys to honor the city's first women's hockey team.
"We don't consider ourselves trailblazers, but when you think about it, I'm sure Lewis and Clark didn't either," Berg said.
The Pennies, founded in 1972, were celebrated again during Sunday's game at PPG Paints Arena between the Penguins and New York Rangers, as part of the team's Her Hockey Day celebration.
"Really all we wanted to do then is play hockey … We were a club team. Just a bunch of women who wanted to play hockey, so we did," Berg said.
"We had no idea that girl's hockey was going to evolve into what it is today, with college scholarships and pro women's ice hockey," Shelley Starkey said. "I just couldn't have imagined that, when I was a kid, that it would evolve into that. If I had anything to do with that, if we had anything to do with that, I am overjoyed."
The Pennies' eight-year run had a simple beginning. It all started during stick time at the Alpine Ice Arena in Swissvale, where a flyer was posted. People took interest, and the wheels eventually started turning.
"We had girls that were 9 to people that were 50, and it just came together because we all loved the game, the sport," Patti Gaab said. "And we wanted to play, rather than sitting on a bench … We lasted a long time, considering we had nothing when we started.
"Nothing at all, except a vision or an idea for four or five people, that got together at a stick time."

Starkey said that the Pennies were "a game-changer" for her.
"There was tennis, all these other sports, but hockey was my love," Starkey said. "And there wasn't anything for me, when all my friends who were boys in the neighborhood were able to play ice hockey. And I supported them, but I never understood why I was just as good as them, and was not able to also be on a team. So the day that I saw the sign for girls ice hockey - Pittsburgh Pennies - I went right home and called, and then started saving up to get all my equipment.
"The boys in the neighborhood would give me all their old equipment that they grew out of. I grew in my athletic abilities and [gained] confidence in other sports. I just felt invincible, being able to play ice hockey when there weren't very many girls at the time that were able to do that."
Barbara DeShong Greil, one of the original founding players, said that the team faced lots of adversity in its early years. The team had to take part in events such as bake sales, skate-a-thons and marathon races to raise money for funding.
"We did face challenges of acquiring ice time, and the times that were available were difficult," DeShong Greil said. "I think that was everybody at that time, because the rinks in Pittsburgh were limited in number. We were all young, pretty much, so financing hockey equipment was difficult. I know I got all hockey equipment for Christmas."
Finding ice time and equipment wasn't the team's only struggle. Since they were the city's first women's hockey team, it became a challenge to find opponents, so they often scrimmaged or played against local men's junior varsity teams.
Eventually, as the team continued to grow, the Pennies began traveling to play games in places like Philadelphia, Buffalo and even Canada. Their first trip to Canada - Kingston, Ontario to be specific - was met with an unforeseen challenge.
"We were thrilled that we found another women's team to play," DeShong Griel said. "Had no idea it was the All-Star team from that area. They were wonderful to us. We stayed in their homes. Somebody was saying they fed us turkey dinner before the game, with the tryptophan. That's probably why the score was 22-0 and 23-1 (laughs)."
However, there was a silver lining. Joe Stierheim, one of the team's original founders, gathered information on the Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey League during this trip, and the team joined the league shortly thereafter.
"We were able to get in that, and compete with girls on our own level," DeShong Greil said. "They had divisions as they do now, so that's what that led us to."

When thinking about what the Pennies became, Starkey said that they were just looking to have fun and enjoy the sport they loved, never knowing how much of an impact they'd have - both then and now.
Gaab said that it makes her feel really good to know that "maybe [she] had a part in somebody's future."
DeShong Greil added that she loves how women's hockey has grown, but knows that there's still more growth to come.
"It's phenomenal," DeShong Greil said. "I don't know what else to say, other than phenomenal. At the same time, why not? It's come to where it should be, almost."