POLL: What do you think Ottawa's PWHL team should be called?
The PWHL has filed an application to trademark the “Ottawa Alert” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Do you like it?
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Ottawa makes its debut in the Professional Women’s Hockey League tonight, facing off against Montreal in front of a sold-out home crowd.
But those 8,000-some Ottawa fans don’t yet have a team name they can cheer on. All six of the PWHL teams (the new original six) are making their launch on the ice with jerseys that only show the name of the home city.
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POLL: What do you think Ottawa's PWHL team should be called? Back to video
However, the PWHL has filed an application to trademark the “Ottawa Alert” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Do you think this should be the name for Ottawa’s pro women’s hockey team?
Vote in our poll
Have a better team name idea? Share it in the comment section.
Read more about the history of the Ottawa Alerts team, as told by our columnist Bruce Deachman back in 2016: Ottawa’s ‘Queen of the Ice’ popularized women’s hockey a century ago
Here’s an excerpt:
She was the “Queen of the Ice” and helped popularize women’s hockey a century ago, when many men’s leagues were folding as players signed up for a larger battle overseas.
Eva Ault was one of the first players with the Ottawa Alerts, a team formed in 1915 from the best “hockeyists,” as one account of the day referred to them, at Ottawa Ladies’ College and the Young Women’s Christian Association.
Playing out of Dey’s Arena and wearing striking yellow-and-black uniforms, the Alerts were not part of any league, but played exhibition matches in a circuit that included Montreal, Renfrew and Pittsburgh. In 1916, they famously defeated the Pittsburgh Ladies Club three times in a single day, and followed that feat with a victory the next day against Toronto.
That year, the Alerts also faced the Cornwall Victorias, led by Albertine “Miracle Maid” Lapensée, for the ladies’ hockey championship of Canada, a three-game series held in, of all places, Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer promised a “spirited duel,” although the Alerts ultimately lost all three matches. They did, however, capture the Canadian title in the 1922-23 season.
Ault, who later married Ottawa Rough Rider James Buels, was a fan favourite, described by one Toronto newspaper as a “real star” who scored at least one goal in almost every game she played…
Ottawa’s ‘Queen of the Ice’ popularized women’s hockey a century ago
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