CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Meghan Duggan stood in her parents’ living room as a wide-eyed 12-year-old in 1998, watching Team USA skate to the world’s first Olympic gold medal given to a women’s hockey team.
Days after those 1998 Olympic Games, Duggan attended an event to meet Gretchen Julian, where Julian placed her gold medal around Duggan’s neck and allowed her to wear her jersey.
It was her ah-ha moment, she said, recalling the memory before the NWHL All-Star Game Sunday at the Lemieux Sports Complex.
“I think recognizing powerful women in a role like that was huge for me at that age,” she said. “I only hope that myself and everyone here today can be that for younger girls that are watching.”
Now, nearly two decades later, her involvement in the NWHL as an all-star is helping to grow a powerful movement of women’s hockey in the United States.
That realization kicked in for Duggan during an event that her and her Boston Pride teammates attended in New York earlier this season. While in a suite at a New York Knicks game mingling with celebrities like Chris Rock, Michael J. Fox and Jason Biggs, Duggan felt starstruck enough to text her brother to tell him of the happenings. His reply struck a chord.
“He texted me and said, ‘You deserve to be there. Don’t doubt that for one second,’ ” she said. “I think that’s pretty cool. When I’m at big events like that, in my mind I’m like ‘Women’s hockey deserves this.’ I’m proud to be part of those events.”
Had a women’s league been around when Duggan and the Riveters’ Ashley Johnston were younger, more female athletes could have been part of this pioneering league in the states.
“It would have been huge,” Johnston said before recalling her ah-ha moment. “I’ll never forget watching before the 2004 Olympics a Team USA and Team Canada exhibition game. It was definitely the moment where my love for hockey grew tenfold. So for there to be more moments like that now just not ever four years but every year, every weekend, I think that’s great for the game.”
Fans of the sport in Pittsburgh bought enough tickets to sell out the Lemieux Sports Complex just days before All-Star Weekend came to town, showing that growth certainly is possible in the NWHL (more on that later). But it also means that powerful women like Duggan and Johnston can bring smiles to the faces of hockey players and fans even in a place that doesn’t have a professional women’s team.
