Sue Pope from Madison has been an “influencer” when it comes to girls’ and women’s hockey long before that term became popular on social media.  Born in California, her family moved to Waukesha where she met her future husband Russ in high school.  Both wound up at UW-Madison and married in 1965.  Early on, they followed the Badger men’s hockey team at Hartmeyer Arena and were among the first season ticket holders. Watching hockey led to her first experience as a player and she would spend decades playing as an adult.  When the UW Women’s Hockey Club was formed, Pope joined and quickly became involved, spending countless hours organizing, fund raising and promoting the club.  Due to the small number of women’s teams, the Women’s Hockey Club played in the Minnesota Women’s Hockey League.  As interest and the number of women grew, it led to the founding of the Madison Edge, the first Madison women’s club team outside of the UW.  Pope was instrumental in helping other women to begin playing hockey, and forming teams, and this would give her more opportunity to play.  At one point, Pope was rostered on three teams in the Madison area and was known to drive from one game to another in full equipment.

Along the way, Pope was frustrated as she met women from other areas who grew up skating and the number of women who took up hockey as adults who said they wished they could have played as girls, and Pope worked to change that in Wisconsin.  Pope helped launch the Wisconsin Girls and Women’s Hockey Association in 1991.  In that same year, Pope also helped start the Wisconsin Challengers Girls Hockey Team, the first competitive peewee girls hockey team in the State of Wisconsin.  The Challengers were the forerunner to the Madison Capitols Girls Hockey program.  She served on the Challengers association board for many years.  She also helped with the launch of the Women’s Central Hockey League.

Pope served as a commissioner of the Badger State Games, ensuring that women’s and girl’s hockey was included as part of that event.  She also advocated for the elevation of women’s hockey to varsity sport status at UW-Madison.  Pope spent countless hours working behind the scenes promoting the growth of the sport for girls and women.  As a participant, she played and officiated over her 50-year career.  Her skills and passion were in organizing, promoting, growing and playing the sport.  She was a member of the Madison Edge team that won the USA Hockey Women’s 50+ National Rec Hockey Tournament in 2013, and she would finish her career with the Madison Edge at age 75 as the team closed out their final season.