Alright, so today I wanted to talk a bit about a little project I had, trying to dig up some stuff on Laura Bellamy and her hockey career. It’s not always about the big-name stars, you know? Sometimes, tracking down details on players who made a real impact in their specific leagues or for their college teams can be a real journey.
So, what happened was, I got involved in this thing for our old university alumni group. We were trying to put together a kind of “remember when” piece on some key athletes from back in the day, and Laura Bellamy’s name was definitely on the list, especially for her time as a goalie. She was a solid player, really made a difference.
My task was to find more than just the usual stats you can pull up. We were after stories, maybe some specific game highlights that weren’t widely circulated. I started, like anyone would, with the internet. Searched and searched. Found her college team records, a few old news articles, the basic stuff. But there was this one particular game, people from that era still talked about a specific save she made. No decent footage, though, just stories.
Then I thought, okay, let’s try the university’s athletic department archives. That was a trip. Sent a few emails. Made some calls. It was the classic runaround. “Oh, we might have some tapes somewhere,” or “That would be in the physical archive, it’s not digitized.” Basically, a polite way of saying it was too much hassle for them to go digging through dusty boxes for one old game from years ago. I get it, they’re busy, but it was frustrating.
I was about to tell the alumni group that we’d just have to stick with the written accounts. Then I remembered this guy, let’s call him Dave. Dave was one of those super-dedicated hockey dads. His son played on a rival team around the same time. And Dave, bless his heart, used to film everything with his big, old camcorder. Not official stuff, just his own recordings from the stands. He was always there.
It was a long shot. I hadn’t talked to Dave in, wow, must be over a decade. But I tracked down his number through a mutual acquaintance. Gave him a call. He was surprised to hear from me, but when I mentioned Laura Bellamy and that specific period, he perked up. “Oh yeah, Bellamy the goalie! She was tough to score on,” he said. “I filmed a lot of those games. Let me see what I’ve got in my boxes.” He still had all his old VHS tapes!
Took him about a week, he had to go through a mountain of tapes. But then he called back. “Bingo! Found it!” he said. He actually had the game I was looking for. The quality wasn’t professional, of course, a bit shaky, you could hear him yelling in the background. But the save? Clear as day, relatively speaking. It was exactly what we needed to show folks what the fuss was about.
Even better, Dave had this little habit of sometimes trying to grab a quick word with players or coaches after the game if he could. And he actually had a very short, informal chat with Laura Bellamy on tape right after that game. Just a couple of questions, her quick responses. Pure gold for our little project, something you’d never find in official records.
So, yeah, that was my practical experience trying to piece together a bit more about Laura Bellamy’s hockey days. Sometimes the official routes are a dead end. You gotta think outside the box, remember the people who were there, the dedicated fans or parents like Dave. That’s how we got the real gems for our alumni piece. It’s a good reminder that history isn’t just in official archives; it’s in people’s attics and memories too.
