Angela Diane James (born December 22, 1964) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
former
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
player who played at the highest levels of
senior hockey
Senior hockey refers to amateur or semi-professional ice hockey competition. There are no age restrictions for Senior players, who typically consist of those whose Junior eligibility has expired.
Senior hockey leagues operate under the jurisdic ...
between 1980 and 2000. She was a member of numerous teams in the
Central Ontario Women's Hockey League
The Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL) is a defunct hockey league in Ontario, Canada. During the 1998-99 season, the COWHL was renamed the National Women's Hockey League as the teams from the former league began to compete against teams ...
(COWHL) from its founding in 1980 until 1998 and finished her career in the
National Women's Hockey League
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...
(NWHL). She was named her league's most valuable player six times. James is also a certified
referee in Canada, and a coach. She lives in
Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Internationally, James played in the first women's world championship, a
1987 tournament that was unsanctioned. She played with
Team Canada in the first
IIHF World Women's Championship
The IIHF World Women's Championship (WW or WWC), officially the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, is the premier international tournament in women's ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).
The offi ...
in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
, setting a scoring record of 11 goals and leading Canada to the gold medal. She played in three additional world championships, winning gold medals in
1992,
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
and
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
. Controversially, she was left off the team for the first women's
Olympic hockey tournament in 1998. She played in her final international tournament in 1999.
Considered the first superstar of modern women's ice hockey, James has been honoured by numerous halls of fame. She was one of the first three women inducted into the
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008 and one of the first two inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. She was inducted into
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. James was named to the
Order of Hockey in Canada
The Order of Hockey in Canada is an award given out annually by Hockey Canada. It honours Canadian ice hockey players, coaches and executives and recognizes their contributions to the game. The first group of honourees was announced on April 10 ...
in 2021.
As of 2022, James serves as co-owner of &
General Manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
for the
Toronto Six of the
Premier Hockey Federation
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...
, as well as the Senior Sports Coordinator at
Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a multiple-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area, and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada regions. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate an ...
in Toronto.
Early life
James was born on December 22, 1964, in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
.
She is the daughter of Donna Barrato, a white Canadian from Toronto, and Leo James, a Black American from
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
who came to Canada to escape
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
.
She has two half-brothers and two half-sisters on her mother's side.
Her father, who was involved with a Toronto nightclub, estimates she has at least nine half-siblings by him, though Angela believes the number is closer to 15.
Among them is
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL) player
Theo Peckham.
A single mother, Donna raised Angela and her two half-sisters with the help of government assistance. They lived in a subsidized townhouse in the
Flemingdon Park
Flemingdon Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the city's North York district. It is part of the Don Valley East federal and provincial electoral districts, and Ward 26: Don Valley East (South) municipally. In 2011, it ...
neighbourhood of Toronto.
Donna worked as a bookkeeper and at the concession stand of the local arena.
She battled depression and mental illness and her eldest daughter, Cindy, worked two part-time jobs at the age of 16 to help the family meet financial obligations. Angela was closest to her sister Kym, though the two often fought as children. Her father never had a consistent place in her life growing up and did not provide financial support to the family, but was available if she needed him. As one of few Black children in Flemingdon Park, Angela often faced insults, particularly over the fact that she was a mixed-race child with a white mother and sisters. She often got into fights over the slurs, forming a combative attitude she carried into the game of hockey. Her maternal grandparents never accepted Angela as a child, though they treated her sisters well.
James quickly developed an interest in sports. Her godfather gave her a
baseball bat
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than in diameter at the thickest part and no more than in length. Although histor ...
and
glove to celebrate her first
holy communion. She excelled at hockey,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
, and
synchronized swimming as a young child. Her mother wanted her to focus on swimming due to the lack of opportunities for girls in hockey in the 1970s.
Her passion was for hockey, however, and she was constantly playing
ball hockey
Ball hockey is a team sport and an off-ice variant of the sport of ice hockey. The sport is also a variant of one of several floor hockey game codes but more specifically a variant of street hockey.
Ball hockey is patterned after and closely r ...
with the neighbourhood boys from the time she was in
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
.
James first played organized hockey in a Flemingdon Park boys house league at the age of eight, and then only after her mother threatened legal action as officials opposed her inclusion.
James dominated the Flemingdon Park league. She started in the
novice
A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience.
Religion Buddhism
...
(7–8 year old) age group, but her skill level was so much higher than her peers that she was moved up to atom and then peewee (11 and 12-year-olds).
James's participation in the Flemingdon Park league ended partway through her second year due to jealousy from the parents of the boys in the league. The president's son was on James's team, and was particularly offended that his boy was being overshadowed by a girl. He ordered a change in the league's policy to forbid girls from playing.
The only feasible option James had for a girls league was at Annunciation, a Catholic organization in the
Don Mills
Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper. In 1998, North York, including the Don Mills com ...
district. Lacking a vehicle to drive to the games, her mother would take her to and from games at various rinks via the bus.
The girls' hockey program was small, requiring that teams be made up of players from all age groups in order to field complete rosters.
Skipping the bantam age group entirely, James first played
senior hockey
Senior hockey refers to amateur or semi-professional ice hockey competition. There are no age restrictions for Senior players, who typically consist of those whose Junior eligibility has expired.
Senior hockey leagues operate under the jurisdic ...
with the Newtonbrook Saints. She was 13 at the time, playing against women 16 and older.
The Saints were a Senior C team, the fourth-highest level of women's hockey in the Toronto area at the time.
Playing career
College
Focused on hockey, exposed to drugs and alcohol, and frequently getting into fights, James paid little attention to her education and nearly dropped out of school. A vice-principal at Valley Park Middle School, Ross Dixon, encouraged her to pay greater attention to her studies, allowing her to graduate from Overlea High School, now named
Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute
Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute (Marc Garneau CI, MGCI or Garneau), formerly known as Overlea Secondary School, is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and part of the Toronto District School Board. It is the host school of the Talented Off ...
, and move on to
Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a multiple-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area, and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada regions. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate an ...
in Toronto. James struggled academically in her first year at Seneca, partially because she had rarely been held accountable for failing in her studies in the past, and partly because she was playing two sports at both the college and community level while working part-time jobs to help pay the family's bills. Seneca's hockey coach Lee Trempe had several arguments with James before she began to take her studies seriously.
James was a two-sport star for the Seneca Scouts. She joined the softball team in 1983, playing the
outfield
The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area.
In cricket, baseball a ...
and
batting cleanup. She was an
Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) All-Star and led her school to the inaugural OCAA women's softball championship.
She was named an OCAA All-Star again in 1984 and 1985, leading Seneca to another provincial championship and a silver medal finish.
Though James always played forward in her community hockey leagues, Trempe converted her to
defence
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense indus ...
so that she could set up the plays and incorporate her teammates into the offensive systems the team used.
Despite the change in position, James still led the league in scoring in 1982–83, recording 15 goals and 10 assists in an 8-game season. She was named the OCAA's most valuable player, but Seneca settled for the silver medal after losing the OCAA finals. Leading the OCAA with 30 points in 10 games in 1983–84, James carried Seneca College to its first championship.
She was named an All-Star on defence, and again voted the most valuable player. James won both awards again the following season.
Seneca repeated as champions in 1984–85 while James dominated the OCAA. She again led the league in scoring, setting school and association records with 50 goals and 73 points in just 14 games. Her scoring exploits led a Toronto reporter to call James "the
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
of women's hockey".
The OCAA named James its athlete of the year in both 1984 and 1985 for her exploits in hockey and softball.
She set OCAA career hockey records of 80 goals and 128 points, which stood through to 1989 when the OCAA disbanded its women's hockey program due to a lack of competing teams. Seneca College retired her jersey number 8 in 2001,
she was inducted into the Seneca Varsity Hall of Fame in 1985 and in 2004, received the Seneca College Distinguished Alumni Award.
Senior
After one year of Senior C hockey, James moved up to the Toronto Islanders in 1980, a Senior AA team in the newly founded
Central Ontario Women's Hockey League
The Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL) is a defunct hockey league in Ontario, Canada. During the 1998-99 season, the COWHL was renamed the National Women's Hockey League as the teams from the former league began to compete against teams ...
(COWHL).
The league was at the highest level of women's hockey in southern Ontario at the time,
and James established herself as one of the league's stars within a year.
She played in the first
women's national championship in 1982, scoring the tying goal in the third period en route to a 3–2 overtime victory over Team Alberta to win the McTeer Cup.
When the Islanders folded in 1982, James moved to a team in
Burlington, where she stayed for three seasons.
In 1983, she led her new team to the national title as Burlington captured the inaugural
Abby Hoffman Cup
The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lad ...
. For James, appearances in the women's nationals were nearly an annual event, as she played in 12 national championship tournaments.
James changed teams frequently, moving for a variety of reasons. She often changed teams to follow friends or if she did not agree with the coach's philosophy. Sometimes she moved out of necessity, such as if a team ceased operations.
She left Burlington in 1984–85 to join Lee Trempe with the Agincourt Canadians for one season, then played with the Brampton Canadettes for another. In 1986–87 she again followed Trempe to the Mississauga Warriors, where she stayed for three seasons. James won her first of seven consecutive COWHL scoring titles that season, then was loaned to the Hamilton Golden Hawks for the 1987 Women's Nationals and helped lead that team to victory.
Changing teams again, James joined the
Toronto Aeros
The Toronto Aeros, often called Beatrice Aeros after their primary sponsor, the North York Aeros, and the Mississauga Aeros were a semi-professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario. The team played its home ...
in 1989. The Aeros had formed in 1974 as an outgrowth of the Annunciation team she played with as a child. She led the team to two national championships, in 1991 and 1993.
In the first, she scored the only goal, against future national team teammate
Manon Rhéaume, in a 1–0 victory over Team Quebec. In the 1993–94 season James scored 40 goals and 70 points in 28 games.
She continued to switch teams, joining the Toronto Red Wings/Newtonbrook Panthers franchise for a couple of seasons before rejoining the Aeros in 1997. She remained with the team when it was rebranded the Beatrice Aeros in 1998 and joined the newly formed
National Women's Hockey League
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...
(NWHL).
James scored 38 goals and 55 points in the inaugural NWHL season of 1998–99 and was named the league's most valuable player.
The following season, she was named the Western Division's best forward and on its First All-Star team. The Aeros won their first NWHL title dominating the Sainte-Julie Pantheres in the finals. Also OWHA champions, the Aeros captured the women's nationals against Team Quebec. Once the season was over, James retired from competitive hockey in 2000.
International
The
Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) hosted the first women's world championship in 1987. The event, which was not sanctioned by the
International Ice Hockey Federation
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...
(IIHF), featured six participating teams while several nations sent observers.
Team Canada was represented by the national champion Hamilton Golden Hawks, with whom James had played in the national tournament, while "Team Ontario" was represented by her usual club team in Mississauga. While she was eligible to play with either team in the tournament, James suited up for her usual Mississauga team. She led Team Ontario throughout, and after a 5–2 semi-final win over the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, played for the title against Team Canada. Team Canada defeated James's Team Ontario, 4–0 in the final.
The IIHF sanctioned the first official
Women's World Championship
The Women's World Championship was the first women's professional wrestling world title.
History
Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was originally for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she was bille ...
, held in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
and played in Ottawa. Canada and the United States easily dispatched their European rivals to reach the gold medal final, which Canada won by a 5–2 score. James scored the first goal in the tournament's history, and 11 overall. She tied American
Cindy Curley for the tournament lead which, along with USA's
Krissy Wendell
Kristin Elizabeth "Krissy" Wendell-Pohl (born September 12, 1981) is an American former women's ice hockey player, and current amateur scout for The Pittsburgh Penguins. During the 2004–05 season, Wendell set an NCAA record for most short-han ...
in 2000, stands as the record for most goals by one player in one tournament, through 2012.
James appeared in three additional Women's World Championships, all three of which were won by Canada over the United States. She was named an All-Star at forward in the
1992 tournament in
Tampere
Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...
, Finland, where Canada won the gold medal with an 8–0 victory. The Americans provided a stronger challenge at the
1994 tournament in
Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303.
The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburg ...
. James scored two goals and was named the game's most valuable player in the final, a 6–3 victory. She won her fourth, and final, World Championship in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, a 4–3 overtime victory.
Reflecting the growth of the game, the
1998 Nagano Games featured the first women's
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
hockey tournament. The announcement of Canada's first Olympic team on December 9, 1997, brought a storm of controversy. Head coach
Shannon Miller
Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion, and a member of the g ...
left James off the roster, telling the press that the 32-year-old James was a "defensive liability" and suggesting she was not a team player. James was devastated at being cut and enraged by Miller's explanations.
Stating she had been "treated like a dog" and "set up and cheated" by Miller, she appealed the decision to
Hockey Canada. James also argued Miller's criticisms were unjustified and that the coach had previously maintained she was playing well. She was the national team's leading goal scorer in preliminary games that led up to the national team camp.
At the time of the appeal, rumours surfaced that Miller was having an affair with one of her players. While the allegations were unfounded, their timing resulted in James being falsely accused of being their source. Hockey Canada officials determined that the rumours were started by a third party attempting to create controversy. They also rejected James's appeal, ending her Olympic dream. Neither her teammates nor her opponents could understand how she was left off the team. Canada and the United States met in the final, as expected, but it was the Americans who emerged victorious. Having already defeated Canada 7–4 in the preliminary round, the Americans won the gold medal with a 3–1 victory. Former teammates argued that James could have made a difference for Canada had she been included.
At the time, James was suffering from the effects of undiagnosed
Graves' disease, a
thyroid
The thyroid, or thyroid gland, is an endocrine gland in vertebrates. In humans it is in the neck and consists of two connected lobes. The lower two thirds of the lobes are connected by a thin band of tissue called the thyroid isthmus. The thy ...
condition that resulted suffering weight loss and fatigue throughout that camp. She learned of and was treated for her condition following the Olympics, recovering lost weight and strength. The national team, under a new coach, added James back to its roster for the
1999 3 Nations Cup
The 1999 3 Nations Cup was the fourth playing of the annual women's ice hockey tournament. It was held in Montreal and Sherbrooke, Quebec, from November 28 until December 5, 1999.
Results Preliminary round
Gold medal game
Statistics ...
. She was used sparingly, but accepted her diminished role with the team. During the tournament, James made the decision that it would be her last. James's international career ended in storybook fashion as the championship game, against the United States, went to a
shootout
A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
. Selected as the first shooter, she scored the winning goal to lead Canada to a 3–2 victory. James played in 50 games for Team Canada, scoring 33 goals and 21 assists.
Playing style
James was a dominant player in the OWHA.
Women's hockey historian Elizabeth Etue attributed James's success to her skating strength and "dynamic, bullet-like shot".
She was a physical player who helped the women's game overcome a reputation that it was not a sport where the players were willing to play a "gritty," tough style. Opponents claimed running into James was like "hitting steel".
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
commentator
Robin Brown, who played against James in the OWHA, said of her: "She could do it all. She had end-to-end speed, she had finesse as a stick handler and her slap shot was harder and more accurate than any female player I have ever seen. She was a pure goal scorer like
Mike Bossy and aggressive like
Mark Messier. In her prime, she was referred to as the '
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
of women's hockey'."
Capable of playing any position, James was primarily a
centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
* Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...
during her senior career, but excelled on
defence
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense indus ...
. In one game where her team was without a
goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...
, she played the position and recorded a
shutout
In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball.
Shutouts are usuall ...
.
Coaching and officiating
James has been active in many areas of the sport. She gained accreditation as a referee in Canada in 1980,
and has been an active official since. As a referee in a Senior D women's game in 1986, James was involved in an altercation with a player that resulted in the player becoming the first woman banned for life from the OWHA. The player became upset at a penalty James assessed, shoved a linesman and punched her. James ultimately gained level IV certification through Hockey Canada and has served as the OWHA's Referee-in-Chief.
Upon her graduation from Seneca College, James took up coaching. Serving first as an assistant coach, she helped Seneca win the Ontario College Championship, its third consecutive title. The school repeated as champions in 1987 with James as its head coach.
She has coached at all age levels of the game, including the national championship. She was an assistant with the gold medal winning Team Ontario at the 1999
Canada Winter Games
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...
, and led Ontario to a gold medal at the 2001 under-18 national championship.
Prior to the
2010-11 CWHL season, she was named
Brampton Thunder
The Markham Thunder was a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, O ...
head coach, but, finding the responsibilities too time consuming, she stepped down in December 2010. She believes she can offer the most at the grassroots level of the sport, and has operated both her own hockey school and directed one organized through Seneca College.
PHF
On June 24, 2021, the
Toronto Six of the
Premier Hockey Federation
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...
(PHF) added James to their coaching staff as an assistant coach and she served in that role for the 2021–22 PHF season.
Sports executive & owner
On March 7, 2022, James became a co-owner of the
Toronto Six of the
Premier Hockey Federation
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...
after joining an ownership group comprising
BIPOC
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
Canadian hockey leaders including herself,
Anthony Stewart,
Bernice Carnegie, &
Ted Nolan.
On May 31, 2022, James was named as
General Manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
of the Six, succeeding Krysti Clarke. Her new role with the team involves "manag(ing) player activities, team operations and logistics, as well as game day event management", including "selling tickets, which she will take charge of and report to the team’s new ownership group.
Honours and legacy
James has been called "the first superstar of modern women's hockey", and has been hailed as a pioneer who brought the women's game into the mainstream. Longtime women's hockey administrator
Fran Rider stated that James brought credibility, without which the women's game would never have gained recognition as an Olympic sport.
An eight-time scoring champion and six-time most valuable player during her senior career, James has been honoured by several organizations. She was named Toronto's Youth of the Year in 1985 and was presented the city's Women in Sport Enhancement Award in 1992. Hockey Canada named her the 2005 recipient of its Female Hockey Breakthrough Award.
The Flemingdon Park arena was renamed the Angela James Arena in 2009, and the
Canadian Women's Hockey League
The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...
presents the
Angela James Bowl
The Angela James Bowl was a women's ice hockey trophy introduced in 2007-08 to recognize the top points scorer in the newly formed Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). The trophy was donated in order to help preserve the statistical history of th ...
to its leading scorer each season. She has been inducted into several Halls of Fame, including the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2005, and the
Black Hockey and Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
Reflecting her role as a pioneer of the sport, James was one of the first three women, along with
Geraldine Heaney
Geraldine Heaney (born October 1, 1967) is an Irish-Canadian ice hockey coach and former defenceman. She played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games with the Toronto Aeros organization, won six Ontario provincial championships and was named Ontario W ...
and
Cammi Granato
Catherine Michelle Granato (born March 25, 1971) is an American former ice hockey player and one of the first women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2010. She currently works as an assistant general manager for the Vancou ...
, to be inducted into the
IIHF Hall of Fame
The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...
. They were enshrined in 2008 as part of the IIHF's 100th anniversary celebrations.
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame hailed James as a role model upon inducting her in 2009.
One year later, she joined Granato as the first two women inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame. James described being informed of her election as a day she never thought would happen, adding: "I'm really honoured to represent the female hockey players from all over the world".
On February 26, 2021, James was named to the
Order of Hockey in Canada
The Order of Hockey in Canada is an award given out annually by Hockey Canada. It honours Canadian ice hockey players, coaches and executives and recognizes their contributions to the game. The first group of honourees was announced on April 10 ...
by
Hockey Canada, in recognition of her career and contributions to the game in Canada.
Personal life
After earning a diploma in Recreation Facilities Management from Seneca College,
James was hired by the school as a sports programmer in 1985.
She continues to work for Seneca and is now a senior sports coordinator at its King campus.
James realized as a teen that she is
lesbian. She met her partner, Ange, in 1994, and the couple formalized their relationship in a
commitment ceremony two years later. They have three children. Ange carried their first child, Christian, in 1999, and then gave birth to fraternal twins, son Michael and daughter Toni, in 2004.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
:''Note: Complete statistics unavailable''
International
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Angela
1964 births
Living people
Black Canadian ice hockey players
Black Canadian LGBT people
Black Canadian sportswomen
Canadian ice hockey centres
Canadian women's ice hockey defencemen
Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
IIHF Hall of Fame inductees
Lesbian sportswomen
LGBT ice hockey players
Canadian LGBT sportspeople
Order of Hockey in Canada recipients
Seneca College alumni
Ice hockey people from Toronto
20th-century Canadian LGBT people
21st-century Canadian LGBT people
Officers of the Order of Canada
Sportspeople from Richmond Hill, Ontario