Mleczko Scores on Quick Retort

BOSTON—Among the most humorous moments of A.J. Mleczko’s induction into the New England Women’s Sports Hall of Fame was a result of the ironic choice of the evening’s honorary chair, Digit Murphy, coach of Harvard’s archrival Brown.

During Mleczko’s near-perfect senior season, the Crimson’s only defeat was to the Bears, and Murphy did not let her forget it.

“That year Harvard had a 33-1-0 record. Guess which team beat them,” Murphy said, drawing laughter from the audience. “Please help me welcome the wonderful and talented A.J. Mleczko.”

Not to be outdone, Mleczko delivered a perfect impromptu reply upon taking the podium to the cheers of the crowd.

“For everybody’s information in here we played Brown three times that season, the last one coming in the semifinals of the national championship, but Digit failed to mention that,” Mleczko said drawing further laughter, which she followed up with a polite commentary on Murphy’s contributions to college hockey.

Claudio Asano ’99, Mleczko’s co-captain during the near-perfect season, was in attendance. A recent hire as an assistant coach, she was appreciative of the rebuke.

“A.J. is unbelievable. She never brings a piece of paper, and she always pulls off the best speech,” Asano said. “I thought A.J. handled it well with Digit. Brown is a huge rivalry for us. We don’t take it lightly that that’s the team we did lose to.”

The introductions for the other four inductees went without incident.

A Doll’s House

Among the fundraising methods employed by the New England Women’s Fund at Tuesday night’s event was a silent auction of various memorabilia that had been donated by local individuals and organizations.

If there was any doubt that the audience at the silent auction was predominantly female, the proliferation of signatures beneath the WUSA’s Boston Breakers autographed jersey compared to the blank sheet for the minimal bid of $200 for an autographed Doug Flutie B.C. jersey would have served notice.

Also among the auctioned items was a Swimming Barbie doll, whose packaging was autographed by 1998 Fall of Hame inductee Jenny Thompson, the 10-time Olympic swimming medalist from New Hampshire.

Mleczko said she was too out of the loop to donate anything to the auction. But had she been aware of the opportunity to donate an autographed doll, she wouldn’t have had to settle on substituting her likeness for one of the rarely produced Hockey Barbie dolls.

USA Hockey produced bobblehead dolls for three players each from the 2002 U.S. men’s and women’s team, Mleczko included.

“I’m not sure how much [the autographed doll] would have gone for,” Mleczko said.

The hand-painted dolls, unautographed, sold for slightly more than $30 to rabid souvenir-seeking tourists at the Olympic Store in Salt Lake City.

Though the Mleczko doll bears her name, it’s debatable as to whether it is a better resembles to her likeness than the Barbie. USA Hockey did little to distinguish the anatomy of the female bobbleheads from the male ones.

Front Row

Mleczko wasn’t the only Harvard name to earn a shout out at Wednesday night’s festivities. Harvard crew coach Harry Parker earned an emotional thank you from rowing legend Anita DeFrantz towards the end of her acceptance speech for the New England Women’s Fund’s 2002 Billie Jean King Pioneer Award.

DeFrantz, a graduate of Connecticut College, was the first American woman and African-American woman to be elected to the International Olympic Committee in 1986, and in 1997 she became the organization’s first female vice president.

DeFrantz’s international rowing career began with the 1976 Olympics, the first year women’s rowing was offered. Parker was the coach who selected DeFrantz for that team.