Ruth Denesha

Ruth Evelyn Denesha (March 19, 1894 – January 15, 1973) was a Canadian-born American ice hockey player and a pioneer in women's ice hockey in the United States. She was a co-founder and the captain of the Boston Girls' Hockey Team, one of the first documented intercity women's ice hockey teams in the United States and the first in Boston. She is considered a pioneer in women's ice hockey in the United States.

Early life Denesha was born in 1894 in Ontario, Canada to American-born parents, Captain William A. Denesha and Hattie M. Denesha . She had two older brothers: Harry Russell Denesha and Douglas A. Denesha. Denesha's father passed away in November 1899 following an accident on his tugboat, the Ruth. now part of Boston University. She graduated from the Sargent School in 1915, and continued working at the school as an assistant in general gymnastics, athletics and swimming, and heavy apparatus work.

Denesha ran tryouts for the team on December 30, 1916, with advertisements for tryouts reaching as far as Cleveland.

Denesha played rover and scored two of Boston's three goals in the team's first intercity game against the New York's St. Nicholas Blues in Boston. While the team lost the next two away games in New York, Denesha remained a strong player.

Denesha died on January 15, 1973, aged 78, at A. Barton Hepburn Hospital in Ogdensburg, New York and was buried at Brookside Cemetery in Waddington.