Card of the Week: Captain Cammi

1993-94 Classic Pro Prospects card #248 – Cammi Granato

For the next two months, the Card of the Week will feature a card of a past Olympic hero, starting with Cammi Granato. She was the team captain of the 1998 U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. It was the first time that women’s hockey was a medal sport at the Olympics, and the U.S. team beat Canada in the final game to win the gold.

Four years before that accomplishment, Granato was featured in several different trading card sets by Classic Games. Classic focused on minor-league prospects, but branched out to highlight some notable women players. The text on the back of the card reads:

With her standout college career now complete, Cammi has her sights set on the 1996 Olympic Games. Her goal is to be at her athletic peak when women’s ice hockey is introduced as a medal sport. Look for Cammi to be the top scorer for the USA at the 1994 World Ice Hockey Championships. In her final season at Providence, she was the most dynamic offensive player in women’s college hockey.

It is interesting to note that the card mentions the 1996 Olympic Games, which did not happen. Instead, the Winter Olympics were held in 1994, so that the Summer and Winter Games would be two years apart instead of on the same year. Maybe Classic did not get the memo, as this set came out in 1993, a few months before the ’94 games in Lillehammer, Norway.

Granato – who is the sister of former NHL player Tony Granato – had a successful career on the international stage. She would also net a silver medal in the 2002 Olympics, 8 silver medals in the World Championships, and finally a gold medal in the 2005 tournament. After that, Granato would go on to be a commentator for NHL games on NBC. In 2008, she was inducted in both the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and the United Stated Hockey Hall of Fame.

Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk View all posts by Sal Barry