During the early 1900s, Roland’s Mary Dunn emerged as a trailblazer in the world of women’s hockey. Not only did she excel on the ice, but she also became a prominent female figure in sports leadership at both the provincial and national level.
Born on Feb. 7, 1903, in Roland, Mary Armitage spent her childhood on the family farm southeast of the village. As the youngest of two daughters to Robert and Annie Armitage, who came from England, she was deeply rooted in her family’s heritage.
Armitage moved to Winnipeg in 1921 after completing her schooling in Roland, attended the Manitoba Agricultural College at the University of Manitoba, and was promptly elected president of student athletics in 1924.
A strong athlete, she played as a centre on the Manitoba Bisons women’s ice hockey team, and scored the winning goal in a 1926 Banff Winter Carnival semi-final game against the Vancouver Amazons. That season, her team practiced lots with future Toronto Maple Leafs star Andy Blair and other members of the Bison men’s hockey team in Winnipeg.
Armitage graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science and later married Jimmy Dunn, a well-known sports executive from Winnipeg.
During the mid-1930s, Dunn (formerly Armitage) was vice-president of the Manitoba branch of the Women’s Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada (WAAF of C), which oversaw all amateur sport for ladies in the province, and sought to organize a women’s softball organization for Manitoba.
She helped plan the Manitoba Girls’ Track and Field Championships and implemented the same events as the Canadian Track and Field Championships. She also coordinated fundraising efforts to send Manitoba’s best track and field athletes to London, Ontario, for the Canadian national team trials in advance of the 1934 British Empire Games.
By May 1935, the Manitoba branch of WAAF of C was operated solely by Dunn after all of the remaining executive officers had retired. In 1936, Dunn was awarded the first honorary life membership in the Manitoba branch of the WAAF of C for contributions to women’s sports in Manitoba.
She later served as president of the Winnipeg Branch of the WAAF of C for one season, and focused her efforts on basketball, softball, and track and field. The Great Depression and World War II led to the end of the WAAF of C, but sportswriter Vince Leah wrote in the Winnipeg Tribune at the time that Dunn was one of the association’s more aggressive officials and was not to blame for its demise.
In the hockey world, Dunn was secretary of the Manitoba Ladies’ Hockey Association formed in 1933, which sought to organize provincial playoffs and enter a Manitoba team into the Dominion Women’s Amateur Hockey Association (DWAHA) championship.
After World War II, Dunn was the hockey representative to the Canadian Federation of University Women and presented the Lady Bessborough Trophy to the Winnipeg All-Stars who won the senior women’s championship in 1950.
Dunn was later one of the founding officers of the Oriole Community Club in Winnipeg in 1948. She was president of its women’s auxiliary in 1953, and oversaw the club’s annual May Day tea social. She served as a vice-president of the club from 1959 to 1961, and as president from 1961 to 1964. Under her leadership, the club operated a youth sports program and had seven minor ice hockey teams as of 1961.
Vince Leah of the Winnipeg Tribune praised Dunn’s volunteer work and wrote that her efforts had made the Oriole Community Club “one of the city’s better community centres.” She received a citation from the National Recreation Association of America in July 1959, in recognition of her career of contributions to athletics and recreation in Winnipeg.
Dunn also served as a president of the Winnipeg Community Chest and the Central Volunteer Bureau of Manitoba. The bureau maintained a pool of volunteers to provide help to 94 health and welfare organizations in Winnipeg including the Canadian Red Cross, and Dunn assisted with the Winnipeg Block Plan that coordinated the city-wide collection of donations for local charities and service organizations.
Mary Dunn passed away on Jan. 10, 1965, at the Winnipeg General Hospital at the age of 61.
An incredible pioneer in the history of women’s sports in the province, Dunn paved the way for many other women to make their mark in the sporting world.
