Laura Halldorson discusses her career as a hockey pioneer in Minnesota, at Princeton, with the Gophers – The Rink Live

Laura Halldorson is a pioneer in girls and women’s hockey. She played girls hockey in the 1970s for the Wayzata Checkers and then played college hockey for Princeton from 1981-85.

Halldorson went into coaching and was an assistant for Princeton before taking over as the head coach at Colby College, an NCAA Division III school in Waterville, Maine. She left Colby to become the first women’s head coach for the University of Minnesota in 1996 and ended up coaching the Gophers for 10 seasons before working for the development program from 2007-22.

Recently retired, she talks about her career and changes in hockey for girls and women with The Rink Live’s Jess Myers and Mick Hatten.

TIME STAMPS

3:30 Playing youth volleyball, basketball, softball; how she started playing hockey

5:20 How she got talked into playing hockey as a girl, despite her reservations

7:20 Girls hockey teams in the 1970s, winning a state title, national title, Minnesota Checkers

10:10 Girls playing on all-girls teams vs. playing on boys hockey teams (Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell)

12:45 What college hockey was like when she played for Princeton in the early 1980s

16:00 Getting into college hockey coaching for Princeton after working for a mail order company and coaching other sports, making $2,500 as an assistant coach for the Tigers, living in a room in the gym, working part time at the same time

20:25 Why she left Colby to become first head coach for the Gophers women’s hockey head coach, being honest about having an all-Minnesota roster to start with, challenges the first few years

29:00 The rivalry with the Gophers and Minnesota Duluth, winning their first national title

35:10 The decision to leave coaching after 10 successful season for the Gophers; faith, family and friends vs. working and winning

43:00 What the first Gophers players mean to her