It was 30 years ago when Eleanor Muir, now a veteran referee of 30 years, was told she couldn't coach a hockey team because "Women didn't know much about hockey."
Muir had volunteered to coach one of two U6 hockey teams because it didn't have a coach, but said she was denied because organizers decided Muir wasn't a good fit for the sport.
"I was a little miffed to say the least. I just couldn't even fathom that they would think like that," Muir told CBC Radio's Morning Edition.
Muir has been recognized for her time as a referee by Hockey Canada, the governing body for hockey in the country, by being named Hockey Canada's Ambassador. She has reffed about 3,000 games over the decades in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Muir, 60, lives in Russell, Man. and is still calling the shots on the ice today.
"I was leaving the arena and another gentleman said to me 'If you want to show them what you know about hockey, why don't you take up reffing?' And I [was] basically 'Yeah, okay, well whatever' and yeah, I haven't looked back since," Muir said.
At the time she took up reffing, she said there were about 17 female referees in the province at the time. Muir said she would wear bulky sweaters and cut her hair short so people could not tell if she was a woman or a man while out on the ice.
Muir said she first reffed a female hockey game five years into her career but the game has grown significantly for women as officials or players since then. (Malcolm Campbell/CBC)
Muir had been a referee for five years before she coached her first women's hockey game. Now the game has grown and she has witnessed it from the closest vantage point possible without firing a puck in the net herself.
"Initially, I was treated differently. I had to make sure I was on my game, so to speak," she said, adding she had to earn the respect of the coaches, players and fans. It's not a problem today, Muir added.
Muir's granddaughter, Lainie, began reffing in 2016.
"That was phenomenal — to know that my granddaughter Lainie would choose to ref because her grandma refs and that I got to ref her first game with her, there was no other feeling in the world that made me prouder," Muir said.
In addition to reffing, Muir umpires baseball, fastball and teaches skating lessons.
