Alberta football leaders added to Canadian hall of fame, including its 1st woman

Vicki Hall will be the first woman inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame later this year.

The Calgary journalist has written about sports in Canada for two decades, covering the CFL, the NHL and the Olympics. She has worked for Postmedia, CBC News and The Canadian Press over her career.

In 2015, she also became the first female president of the Football Reporters of Canada, and then the first woman on the Canadian Football Hall of Fame selection committee. She is now a journalism instructor at SAIT.

"Over the years, I tried really not to focus on being the only woman. I tried to focus on being great at my job. So actually when they first told me, I didn't even think about it," she said in an interview with The Homestretch.

"Then I started thinking about it in terms of what it might mean for other people and young women coming up after me."

Hall is one of 10 new inductees into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum in Hamilton. The 2023 class includes five players, two builders of the game and three members of the media.

She is the first woman in any category to receive the honour.

"On behalf of the entire Canadian football community, it's my distinct privilege to open the doors of the Hall of Fame to the Class of '23," said the museum's executive director, Eric Noivo, in a news release.

"Their play on the field and their efforts to build up Canadian football have made our game what it is today."

WATCH | Vicki Hall reflects on her career as a sports journalist:

Hall says that throughout the beginning of her career, she was often the only woman around.

As a rookie, she understood she had to earn her stripes, but she often felt an extra weight on her shoulders, especially if she made a mistake.

"The