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Foreign athletes
Vicky Sunohara
This Canadian hockey whiz headed south of the border in 1988 because colleges in her home country didn't offer athletic scholarships. Canada's loss was Northeastern's gain when Sunohara and the Huskies won the 1989 national championship. Coach Don MacLeod called her the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey. But after two years in Boston, the homesick Ontario native transferred to the University of Toronto. Northeastern's loss was ... well, you know. Sunohara helped Canada win two Olympic gold medals (that's her in the middle, at the 2006 Turin Games), and scored 119 points in 164 international contests. Even now, as the head coach at her Canadian alma mater, she remembers the lessons learned during her stay in the States. "The opportunities in America, thanks to Title IX, are huge," Sunohara says. "It's made such a difference in our sport. I see the impact in the level of funding for women's hockey at Toronto. It's amazing."
