One-handed Lester Patrick vs. the Spokane women’s team

The Patrick family were longtime advocates of women’s hockey, a subject I’ll get into later in more detail. But one brief and bizarre chapter has never been recounted.

When the Victoria franchise of the PCHA moved to Spokane, it made enough of an impression that two women’s teams were formed.

“Long slashes of court plaster will adorn many a fair cheek and arnica will be in demand,” the Spokesman-Review wrote on Nov. 28, 1916. “The costumes will be gymnasium suits and the team colors will be splashy combinations of different hues.”

Chief organizers Virginia Murphey and Bernice Winter were said to each be assembling eight-player teams drawn from the membership of the new Arctic Skating Club. Team members were dutifully reported, as seen in the clipping below.

The final paragraph revealed Lester Patrick had challenged the teams to a match:

The conditions are unique. Mr. Patrick is to have his left hand tried [sic], and will defend the goal against both of the two opposing teams of women folk. The stake is a 16 to 1 dinner at Davenport’s. He gave the challenge last evening at a meeting of the Arctic club.

If I understand correctly, that means if the women won, they’d have to buy Lester dinner. If Lester won, he’d have to buy all 16 of his opponents dinner.

The Spokesman-Review carried another story the following day, saying there had never been “a more charming and unequal struggle” than what the women faced. The newspaper likened it to a Greek athletic contest, for Lester “is a tall, lithe, Greek-god sort of a type, six feet and over and with long locks.”

They also elaborated slightly on the rules of the contest: in addition to Lester having his hand tied behind him, he was forbidden from interfering with anyone. Conversely, though, “Any girl able to reach his hair may pull it if she thinks it will help her side.”

The women were said to be arranging a practice before the stunt game, which was “the talk of Spokane tea tables.”

“Mr. Patrick is not making the wager in a spirit of bravado, but merely to increase the interest in the sport,” the newspaper claimed. “When interviewed he summed up as his reason for making the bet that he considered, in hockey, that the female of the species was not as deadly as the male.”

However, this strange exhibition never came to pass, and we are left to wonder why. The Spokesman-Review never mentioned it again.

On Dec. 5, 1916, the newspaper said the women’s team captained by Bernice Winter was to hold its first practice in a couple of days with Lester as coach. Nine days later, one of the teams was reported to have practiced under coach Kenny Mallen, a member of Spokane’s PCHA club: “The falls were few and the goals fewer.” However, “the girls in their bright sweaters looked very dashing.”

Around the same time, wives of the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club members were said to be organizing two teams. They would practice on the club’s flooded tennis courts, and then play games at the same arena that was home to the PCHA club.

But after that, I could find no further mentions of either team. What happened? It’s not clear.

We do have contemporary pictures of the captains of both teams that were to be drawn from the Arctic Skating Club: Virginia Murphy and Bernice Winter’s portraits appeared after they each became engaged in 1917.

Left, Bernice Winter, and right, Virginia Murphey from the Spokesman-Review of Nov. 18 and Dec. 24, 1917.

There was also a photo of Katherine Clark, who was listed as one of the prospective players.

Spokesman-Review, Nov. 12, 1916

The Arctic Skating Club took a lengthy hiatus after 1917, re-emerging in 1922 and continuing until 1927. I can’t find any further references to women’s hockey in Spokane until 1974.

Spokesman-Review, Nov. 12, 1916 (top) and Spokane Daily Chronicle, Dec. 17, 1917 (above).