Ottawa has a long and proud sport tradition, and in this ongoing series, we present highlight moments and figures from our local sport history. The Ottawa Sport History Highlight series is produced collaboratively by the Ottawa Sports Pages and the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, which has welcomed almost 300 inductees dating back to its establishment in 1968.

With Ottawa’s east end set to welcome the 2025 Canadian Ringette Championships, we look back on when Gloucester hosted the inaugural World Ringette Championships in 1990 in this edition of the Ottawa Sport History Highlight Series, along with the critical role played by Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer Betty Shields in the sport’s development.

Gloucester to welcome 2025 Canadian Ringette Championships, 35 years after hosting first World Championships

A pair of Ottawa natives and the head coach and captain of the Ottawa 67’s will have the chance to become the first local representatives to earn a World Junior Hockey Championships title in their hometown when the nation’s capital hosts the 49th edition of Canada’s favourite holiday season classic.

When the Canadian Ringette Championships return to one of the sport’s major epicentres from March 30-April 5 in the nation’s capital, Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer Betty Shields will be marking several memorable anniversaries:

• It’s 50 years since she unassumingly launched what would become a storied career as a ringette builder when she became a volunteer timekeeper for her daughter’s games back in 1975.
• It’s 40 years since she established the Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup, which is presented to the champion of the National Ringette League – Canada’s top women’s competition for the sport.
• And it’s 35 years since she oversaw the first Ringette World Championships as founding president of the International Ringette Federation.

Hosted by the Gloucester Ringette Association at Earl Armstrong Arena in 1990, the first World Championships served as a showcase for the blossoming sport.

Created in North Bay, ON in 1963 as a team ice sport for girls – during a time when they weren’t allowed to play ice hockey – ringette had grown from 6,284 registered Canadian players in 1980 to 28,166 in 1989.

“We’ve certainly reached the point of maturity in Canada, and we’re just starting internationally,” Shields told Ottawa Citizen reporter Martin Cleary before the tournament. “If other countries were ready, we’d have a national team.”

Entries from host Gloucester, Team Ontario representative Etobicoke, national teams from Finland and USA, and provincial teams from Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Western Canada (Alberta) competed in the first worlds from Jan. 29-Feb. 3, 1990.

“The international federation must concentrate on getting more countries,” Shields added.

New Zealand, Sweden, France and the Soviet Union had also wished to participate but couldn’t secure funding, while a lack of funds turned Team USA’s desired air travel plans into a 25-hour bus ride from St. Paul, MN.

Team USA drew from more than 300 players in the St. Paul area to form their team, but the sport wasn’t played much elsewhere in the U.S. Once they arrived, the Americans were promptly whipped by a combined count of 50-3 in their opening-day matches against Finland and Gloucester, which let up later in their contest.

“I didn’t feel it would be this lopsided,” noted Shields, who had earlier endured worries that the tournament may not go forward when the first-ever City of Gloucester employee strike occurred in the week leading up to worlds, but supervisors ended up stepping in to handle maintenance needs.

But the rocky start to the first World Championships gave way to a rocket of a finish.

First came a heart-warming moment when overmatched USA managed a goal against Ontario. The Etobicoke goalie got up after she’d been scored on, congratulated her opponents and joined in the Americans’ celebrations. The rival teams later mixed together for a spontaneous post-game photo.

The action on the ice heated up too, with closer matches between the Canadian sides and the Finns.

Against long odds, the Gloucester Debs club team rose into the playoff round with an 8-2 win over Finland in their last round robin game, which made it an all-Canadian affair in the medal round alongside Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.

Coached by Dave Mainwood (who continues to embrace that role 35 years later), Gloucester ultimately lost a pair of one-goal games to Ontario and Quebec in the playoff round to finish fourth. The home team treated their fans to a furious finish when they clawed back from a 5-1 deficit in the bronze medal match to force overtime, before falling in the second extra session 7-6.

The gold medal game had an electric conclusion as well. Facing Western Canada, Ontario tied the game 5-5 with 1:48 left, but Lisa Brown responded for the westerners 28 seconds later by scoring the championship-winning goal.

“Our team didn’t start well this week,” Brown told Cleary. “It was a world championship. None of us had international experience and some had never been to a national championship. We never jelled until now because we have special rivalries. It’s difficult to play against someone and then play with them. The problem was we didn’t have a common goal. The captains told us we had to get together … and to have respect for each other.”

Both finalist coaches praised the other team’s play and underlined that the sport of ringette was the big winner.

Said to be “on the threshold of becoming a major winter sport” during the tournament, ringette was added to the Canada Winter Games programme the next year in 1991, and it had hopes of joining the Olympics in the future.

“It’s a realistic chance,” Shields said. “We’re trying to get into the Olympics, but that’s seven to 10 years away before we get to the demonstration level.”

The sport hasn’t grown internationally quite the way many would have liked since the first edition of the worlds and Olympic inclusion does not seem to be on the near horizon.

Generally held every second year, the senior-level World Ringette Championships has evolved into a series between Canada and Finland. Finland has won all five series since the format was introduced in 2013, and the Finns’ golden streak sits at eight overall. The second in Finland’s series of victories was a 5-4 overtime win over Canada in the 2007 world final at a well-packed Ottawa Civic Centre.

The senior teams from the world’s top two ringette nations didn’t face off at the last World Championships in 2023, which took place one year after a COVID-delayed edition. Czechia, Sweden, and USA did compete in the developmental President’s Pool at the last worlds, which also featured a Junior World Championship with Canadian and Finnish under-21 players and a U18 International Development Festival.

With 32,738 registered players in 2023-24, ringette still enjoys a very strong foothold in Canada. The Canadian Championships for the U16, U19 and NRL levels remain a signature celebration, with Ottawa set to welcome 49 teams and over 800 athletes for 150 games at the upcoming nationals.

First women’s hockey worlds followed groundbreaking global ringette event

1990 was a big year for women’s ice sports in the nation’s capital. Ottawa also hosted the first IIHF Women’s Hockey World Championship shortly after the ringette worlds, with medal matches for the March 5-11 tournament played at the Ottawa Civic Centre.

Just over a month after capturing gold with Alberta at the ringette worlds, defender Judy Diduck pulled on a pink Team Canada jersey for the hockey worlds and earned a gold medal once again. The 1998 Olympic silver medallist began playing ringette at age 10, but didn’t know any organized women’s hockey existed until she was 19.

That’s when Diduck joined the Edmonton Chimos, which received a recent tribute from Ottawa Charge coach Carla MacLeod when she sported their vintage sweater behind the bench of a sold-out PWHL Takeover Tour game at Rogers Place.

At age 23, Diduck had been grappling with which sport to pursue, but she eventually chose hockey, which had 108,313 registered Canadian female players in 2023-24.

“It’s such a tough choice,” she told the Citizen‘s John MacKinnon around the 1990 hockey worlds. “I don’t know how much more ringette I’ll be playing, especially now that we’ve won. But going out with the gold is probably the best way to do it.”

The 1990 ringette worlds also marked a bit of a finish line for Shields, who passed the torch to a newly-selected IRF president from Finland after the event.

“When I agreed to be international president, I wanted to get it started and set the groundwork,” Shields explained to Cleary. “In ringette, I’ve always said the babies gave birth to the parents because we started out with provincial associations, then a national association and then an international federation.”

Shields played an instrumental role in laying much of the foundation for ringette. Her contributions were recognized when she was inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame in 1992 and later the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2018.

During her involvement, Shields coordinated the 1982-83 revision of the Ringette Canada Community Policy Manual and the writing of Let’s Play Ringette: an introductory handbook.

After her initial introduction as a timekeeper, Shields took a keen interest in the sport and went on to serve as treasurer, convenor and then president of the Alta Vista Ringette Association from 1977-79. The next year she was appointed vice-president of the Ontario Ringette Association and Ringette Canada. Two years later she became the president of Ringette Canada, a post she held for four years.

Following her run from 1987-1990 as head of the International Ringette Federation, Shields was selected as the Canadian Sports Federation volunteer administrator of the year.

She was also a recipient of Canada’s 125th medal in 1992 and was honoured with the Agnes Jacks Award of Merit for outstanding contribution to international ringette in 1994.

Apart from sport, Shields was a Bronze Award winner for Ottawa-Carleton Board of Trade business person of the year and was a co-recipient (along with her brother) of the Canadian Association of Movers’ distinguished service award.

Shields’ daughter Nanci Laroche continues to represent the Gloucester and Area Adult Ringette Association on the Eastern Region Ringette Association executive.