Happy Hockey Friday! I’m LJ Bachenheimer from The Ice Garden with your weekly dose of women’s hockey. Since it’s the end of July, we’re into the slowest part of the offseason. The initial PWHL signing flurry has died down, league play is still a ways away, and your favorite players are on vacation or partying in Las Vegas with Flavor Flav. That means it’s a great time to take a look back at some women’s hockey history!
Last month, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced its 2026 class of inductees, which disappointingly included only one woman, but she is most certainly a worthy addition. Cindy Curley was a trailblazer for top-level women’s hockey in the United States. She set records that still stand today at a time when there was much less infrastructure for the sport. Today, we’ll take a look at her career and the challenges of playing women’s hockey in the 1980s and 90s.
Cindy Curley was born on November 12, 1963, in Stow, Mass., and grew up in a hockey family. She learned to skate on the pond behind her house alongside her two brothers, and her father, a former college hockey player, was one of her first coaches with the Assabet Valley girls’ hockey team.
In 1981, Curley left home to join the women’s hockey team at Providence College. The Friars’ program had only existed for a few years at that point, with its first games played in 1974. The NCAA wouldn’t sponsor women’s hockey until 2000. That didn’t stop Curley from leaving her mark on the team, though. Over four years at Providence from 1981 to 1985, Curley tallied 110 goals and 115 assists for 225 career points. She still sits third all-time in career points and assists for the Friars, behind only Cammi Granato and Stephanie O’Sullivan, and fourth overall in career goals.
Speaking to the Providence Journal in 2013, Curley’s former coach John Marchetti said, “Cindy could play on any college team today, without a doubt. She was that good. She skated well. She battled in the corners. She could shoot the puck. She was a goal scorer, no question about it. She also was a playmaker.”
The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), then a major college sports conference, started sponsoring women’s hockey for the 1983-84 season, Curley’s junior year. She helped lead the Friars to the first-ever ECAC championship and scored the game-winner in overtime to lift Providence over New Hampshire in the finals.
Then Curley and the Friars did it again the next year. She led the team in points (62), goals (33) and assists (29) in 21 games. For her efforts, Curley was named to the first-ever ECAC All-Star Team and became the first women’s hockey player awarded Providence’s Paul Connolly Memorial Award for athletic and academic achievement by a senior female athlete.
After graduating, Curley returned home to Massachusetts and played on the Assabet Valley women’s club team, coached by her father, which competed in club tournaments around the country. But she wasn’t done adding her name to the history or record books. In 1987, Curley tried out for one of the first US women’s national hockey teams and was selected to play in the first informal women’s hockey world championship in Toronto. Playing against and alongside early stars of the game, Curley and Team USA won bronze behind Team Canada and Team Ontario. Curley individually won an award for fair play and sportsmanship.
She returned to the national team for the first IIHF-sanctioned Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, held in 1990 in Ottawa, and blazed her way through the tournament. Curley led all players with 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in five games en route to a silver medal. Her single-tournament records for goals (tied with Angela James and Krissy Wendell) and assists still stand today, as do her records for most points (9) and goals (5) in a single game, and most points (6) and goals (4) in a single period. Curley came back for the 1992 and 1994 World Championships, where she served as team captain, and won two more silver medals with Team USA.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Curley’s last major tournament was the IIHF Women’s Pacific Rim Championship in 1995, where she helped the United States earn a silver medal. She retired from play that year after several knee injuries, but stayed in the sport long-term. She was a coach for Assabet Valley, where she grew up playing, as well as general manager for Orchard Hills Athletic Club. She served on the board of USA Hockey and later on the US Olympic Athlete Advisory Committee.
In 2002, Curley was inducted into the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame, followed by the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. That same year, she became the second woman inducted as an individual into the US Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2026, she gets to add Hockey Hall of Fame inductee to her list of accolades.
Describing her play to the Providence Journal in 2013, Curley said, “I was a scrappy player that always hustled. I didn’t have the best skills. My slap shot was horrible. I just really hustled and was always in perpetual motion. I absorbed every tip I could get from anybody and I was fortunate to play for so many years with such great players at Providence and phenomenal players on the U.S. team.”
Cindy Curley may not be the most well-known name in women’s hockey today, but she is most certainly influential. Her talent speaks for itself in her records and achievements. They’re made even more remarkable by the fact that the sport barely had the infrastructure to support her. If Curley were playing today, I would imagine she’d have the star status of a player like Hilary Knight or Marie-Philip Poulin. Her addition to the Hockey Hall of Fame is well-deserved. In the future, hopefully more important players of her era will get their due recognition.
What to read (and listen to)
If you like history stories like this one, check out this article from Radio Canada about the astonishing life of Albertine Lapensée, one of Canada’s earliest women’s hockey stars (it’s in French, but worth running through a translator even if you don’t speak the language.)
I also have a women’s hockey history podcast for The Ice Garden called “Purple Posts,” which you can find wherever you get your podcasts. Check out the episodes on Team Sweden’s 2006 Olympic miracle, or stories of women who played in men’s hockey leagues.
For more audio content, never miss an episode of The IX Sports Podcast: Hockey Edition, available wherever you get your podcasts! This week, host Maya Smith digs into the state of affairs for the Ottawa Charge. Charge fans who prefer text can also take a look at Melissa Burgess’ Ottawa summer roster check-in.
There were a handful of PWHL signings over the last few days, so stay up to date on your team’s personnel with our handy signing tracker.
Rep The IX Sports at your next game!
Shop the logo collection or special “Women’s Sports are Front Page News” collection now on Shopify.
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
