ABSTRACT
Two of my professors saw the potential for research in this particular element of professional sport, and I decided to use my position as the wife of a professional ice hockey player to carry out research on players’ wives for my Master’s thesis. Although I have kept a journal for the whole of my husband’s career on three different National Hockey League teams, I spent one year conducting detailed field research and interviews with the wives of players on one particular team. Although each team has its own particular “group culture”—which also affects players’ families-there are striking similarities in the subculture of professional sports. However, I have tried to be careful not to make generalizations beyond the particular team that I studied.
