Before women's hockey in Olympics, Ruggiero began carving path to Hall of Fame

TORONTO - When Angela Ruggiero was seven years old, she went to her Grade 2 career day dressed up in her hockey gear. Others were in astronaut suits or doctor costumes, but Ruggiero was proud to wear her smelly gear to school.

"I wanted to play hockey," she said. "I just didn't know where it would take me."

Hockey took Ruggiero to the first four Olympics that included women's hockey as she wore the U.S. uniform more times than any other men's or women's player in history.

And it takes her into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member of the star-studded class of 2015 that includes fellow defencemen Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger and Phil Housley, along with Sergei Fedorov, who famously switched to defence when he was called upon.

"This is all icing on the cake, honestly, because I didn't dream about being in the Olympics because there wasn't any, I didn't dream about being in the NCAA because I didn't see it and I wanted to play in the NHL," Ruggiero said. "I didn't dream about being in the Hall because I didn't think it was an option."

Ruggiero is the fourth woman to be inducted, following Canadians Angela James and Geraldine Heaney and American teammate Cammi Granato. While reflecting on her career, the 35-year-old also realizes she's part of an important generation of women's hockey players who are inspiring the next one.

The 35-year-old likes to cite the Billie Jean King quote, "'If you can see it, you can be it," and hopes it's truer now than ever before for young girls taking up the game.

"It's really hard to imagine yourself in someone's shoes that doesn't look like you, whether you're talking gender, race, anything," she said. "To have that barrier broken down by having women in the hall now, young girls, daughters are going to say, 'Oh you think I could be like Angela or Cammi Granato or Geraldine?' And they're going to grow up without even blinking twice thinking that that's not possible."

Ruggiero didn't know this was possible, either, estimating that only 5,000 girls played hockey in the U.S. at the time. Growing up in California, she dreamed about playing for the Los Angeles Kings.

That dream could've ended at age 9 when she was cut from a boy's team. Her father told her next time to pretend one fan in the stands was a scout evaluating her, and it worked so well she was rarely nervous when tryout time came.

Hockey took Ruggiero to Choate Rosemary Hall prep school in Connecticut and then to Harvard University. At 18, she was the youngest member of the U.S. women's hockey team at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

"We broke into the Olympics at the same time," Pronger said. "Mine didn't go as well as hers."

Pronger' Canadian team didn't win a medal, famously foiled by Dominik Hasek and the Czech Republic, while Ruggiero and the U.S. won gold. She helped the Americans to silver medals in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Vancouver in 2010 and won bronze in Turn in 2006.

"I peaked early I guess," Ruggiero said. "We won the gold in '98, but to me that was the most special medal for women's hockey."

Ruggiero was part of four gold-medal-winning world championship teams and was a big part of the U.S. rivalry with Canada. Perhaps more importantly she was a big part of the growth of women's hockey.

"The game has absolutely exploded," Ruggiero said, citing Title IX for gender equality in U.S. college sports and other developments. "Obviously being in the Olympics has done everything for the sport."

Ruggiero is also proud of how many more girls and women are registered to play hockey in North America than when she started. With the Canadian Women's Hockey League in existence and now the National Women's Hockey League paying players, she sees the professionalization of the women's game as the next step.

It has certainly come a long way since the first day Ruggiero play hocked and fell in love with it.

"It's something I couldn't have ever imagined," she said. "I was lucky that I was able to pursue something that there wasn't really a clear path for me."

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