For decades, hockey has been a premier sport for residents of the South Cariboo, and while the game was male-dominated in the early years, there was a group of girls in the 1960s who dared to buck the trend.
Paulette McAloney was a teenager at the time, when word started to circulate that 100 Mile House was looking for female hockey players who would form a team and play at a March of Dimes benefit tournament in Prince George.
Girls didn’t normally play hockey, but she was always up for a new challenge and didn’t hesitate to sign up.
Sticks, helmets and all of the other essential pieces of hockey equipment had to begged or borrowed from the boys, says McAloney. She filed off the picks on her white figure skates, hoping they would suffice, but after a few too many falls, she searched out and found a pair of boys’ hockey skates.
Hockey practices were held on outdoor rinks in 100 Mile House and Lac la Hache where one could be found at the north end of the lake near the Northern Stud Ltd. sawmill and the other one, near the Lac la Hache Community Hall. When possible, they also skated on indoor ice at the newly constructed Stan Halcro Arena in 100 Mile House.
As there were no other female teams to play against, they had to take whoever was available.
“We played against guy teams, kids, in Clinton – whoever would teach us. We had to learn quickly and the guys supported us unbelievably.
“We had just a couple of months to get ready,” she says, adding the best team around at the time was the Wild Horses from Lac la Hache.
Jim Moore and Stan McArthy coached the girls’ team, never doubting that their ragtag squad, with just a couple of skaters to spare, could pull it together.
“There was lots of falling down and there was utter disbelief among us. We didn’t think we could do it.”
McAloney recalls her lack of skating skills resulted in lots of trips to the penalty box.
“I couldn’t help it. I had to be sure that I had someone between me and the boards so I wouldn’t get hurt.”
After some time, she earned the nickname of Boom-boom for the fast and fierce shot that she gradually developed. McAloney was also named captain of the squad.
Stan Halcro generously supplied the Stan Halcro Sawmills South Cariboo All-stars girls’ team with uniforms and money for travel expenses.
“He was a real ambassador for this town,” says McAloney. “He was good to us.”
When game day in Prince George finally came, nerves were bad enough, but on top of it, a player on the host team locked her radar on McAloney.
“She kept picking on me and shoving me around. Finally, I felt like I’d had enough.
“I dropped my gloves and grabbed her and said ‘what the heck are you doing? It’s a friendly game’. Then this guy pulled the wig off his head. They’d set him up to bug me because they thought I’d be a good sport.”
Ann Pinkney, who still lives in 100 Mile House, was also a member of the team.
“I was never a good skater, so that team must have been desperate for players. The only thing I remember was being totally out of breath after each shift on the ice,” she says.
The event raised a lot of money for the charity and it also brought together a team of female hockey players who stayed involved with the game for some time and even went on to play hockey in other communities.
McAloney later played with a women’s team in Whitehorse and continued on with trying non-traditional things, including ownership of the local Maritime Trucking and five logging trucks over the years.
