• Karyn Bye - 2023

Karyn Bye was born and raised in River Falls where she played youth hockey in a generation where she needed to hide her gender to play, and, in fact, used her initials K.L. Bye as an identity, rather then her first name. She continued playing with the boys in high school from her sophomore year to her senior year, when she was the team captain and second-team all-conference. She also played varsity softball for all four years and was all-conference for three years and first team all-state her senior year. She also played singles and doubles in tennis and advanced to the state tournament three times.

Collegiately, Bye was the leading scorer for the University of New Hampshire all four years, scoring 164 points in 87 games. She also played tennis for the Wildcats. She was named to the UNH Hall of Fame in 1998. In graduate school, she played for two years at Concordia University in Montreal and was named to the Concordia Hall of Fame in 2004. Bye graduated with a graduate degree in Sports Administration.

Bye’s hockey career would continue to grow even before she finished her graduate degree. Her play on the National Women’s Team and the Olympic team would find her scoring 110 goals and 119 assists for 229 points to rank fifth on the all-time scoring list. She joined the U.S. National Women’s Team in 1992 that led to a Silver Medal in the World Championships. Bye would repeat this in 1994 and was named USA Hockey Women’s Player of the Year in 1995. There would be another Silver in 1997 followed by the Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, where she would be the leading scorer with five goals and three assists and would serve as the alternate captain. Bye was again named the Women’s Player of the Year in 1998 and was featured on the now famous Wheaties Box. She won Silver again in 1999 and 2000 at the World Championships and took home the Silver Medal in 2001 at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

In 2009, Bye and her teammates were inducted into the USA Hockey Hall of Fame. As an individual, she has been inducted into the respective specific Hall of Fame of several other organizations: the IIHF Hall of Fame (2011); the USA Hockey Hall of Fame (2014); the National Federation of High Schools Hall of Fame (2020); and the WIAA Hall of Fame (2021).

In other activities, Bye has worked for the Minnesota Wild in its grassroots program and served as a color commentator for the Minnesota State Girls High School Hockey Tournament. She is a former Hudson Youth Hockey board member and has coach or assistant at several different levels. Bye owns and runs a summer hockey camp in Hudson and is a Motivational Speaker. She teaches at the Riverside Athletic Club and serves as an assistant hockey coach for the Hudson Girls hockey team. Bye and her two children Brody and Tatum live in Hudson.