Former college hockey players Bill Hay and Angela Ruggiero were elected Monday to join the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Hay, a Colorado College product who became the first former NCAA player to play in the NHL, will join in the builder category.
Ruggiero, who was an All-American defenseman in all four years at Harvard and enjoyed a successful U.S. national team career, was one of five players named to the class of 2015.
They will be inducted on Nov. 9 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Hay played for Colorado College from 1956 to 1958, earning All-American honors in both seasons and leading the Tigers to the 1957 national championship.
He played eight seasons for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and later led Hockey Canada, the Calgary Flames and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“Being recognized by my hockey peers is truly a great honor,” Hay said in a news release. “Seeing the game — and the Hockey Hall of Fame — become truly international has been a tremendously rewarding experience.”
At 18, Ruggiero was the youngest member of the 1998 U.S. Olympic team that won the first women’s hockey gold medal. She added two Olympic silver medals and one bronze and also served as a member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission.
In college, she was the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Award winner after leading the country in scoring by a defenseman with 61 points.
Ruggiero also played alongside her brother, Bill, with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.
“I’ve visited the Hockey Hall of Fame many times and never get tired of learning about the rich tradition of the inductees,” said Ruggiero, the fourth female to be elected for induction. “The fact that I’m now joining them is very special, and the greatest accomplishment I can think of as a hockey player.”
Hay and Ruggiero join Peter Karmanos Jr., Sergei Fedorov, Phil Housley, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger in the class of 2015.
