Sandy Smith, a pioneering female sports journalist, is set to be inducted into the New Hampshire Legends Hockey Hall of Fame this November, a tribute to her groundbreaking two‑decade tenure covering athletics for the Concord Monitor.
A Milestone in Olympic Coverage
During her 28 years with the Monitor she reported on everything from high school hockey to the Olympic Games, traveling to Nagano, Japan in 1998 and to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002 to bring the drama of those events to readers across New Hampshire.
Smith’s most celebrated assignments included coverage of the first women’s hockey tournament to appear at the Winter Olympics, where she followed the performances of Tara Mounsey, Katie King and Trisha Dunn, and even attended a private celebration with the U.S. team after the gold‑medal final.
Beyond the Byline
Her reporting extended beyond the ice, as she chronicled the Concord boys’ hockey team for more than two decades and forged a close friendship with longtime coach Dunc Walsh, whose mentorship helped shape her nuanced storytelling.
Before retiring, Smith also served as an appointment coordinator at Grappone Honda and as an assistant coach for Concord High School’s softball team, experiences that deepened her connection to the local sports community.
Legacy and Recognition
The induction ceremony, scheduled for November 1, will honor Smith alongside other legends of the sport, a moment that Jim Rivers, who was himself inducted in 2012 for his contributions to hockey radio broadcasting, described as long overdue.
Smith’s early love of sport began on the baseball diamond, where she played Little League and later became a catcher for the Keene State College softball team, laying the groundwork for a career that would break barriers for women in sports journalism.
Her ancestry has also been a source of personal pride; she traced her maternal line back to the exact ports in England and Scotland from which her ancestors set sail, linking her family’s history to the broader narrative of immigration and sport.