The 16th annual Esso Golden Ring was held Jan. 18-20, 2002 and hosted Bunny through Intermediate divisions.
There were 169 teams in 16 different divisions.

The tournament was sponsored for the sixteenth year by Imperial Oil Limited.

• Teams from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba took part in the three-day competition. In addition to the 67 Calgary teams there were 76 teams from other parts of Alberta, and 27 out of province teams - 10 from British Columbia, 10 from Saskatchewan, 2 from Ontario, and 5 from Manitoba.
• A total of 183 applications were received for the tournament. The tournament committee was able to accommodate 169 of those teams, but unfortunately had to turn away 14.
• There were a total of 336 Games (453 hours of ice).
  The ice bill was $42,000.
• Committee members accumulated 338 draw prizes for players (2 for each team), including 200 custom-made powder blue stinger sticks.
• All participants also received 2002 Esso Golden Ring skate towels and lapel pins. Over 9500 items were given away to players in the coaches packages.
• All bunny teams received participation medals for their friendship series.
• Participants, coaches and those back home were able to check game scores on the website - for the first time scores were uploaded over the weekend using a laptop and a cell phone.
• The Hospitality Night was held Friday January 18th at Marlborough Community Hall, and was again presented as a carnival. Activities included kareoke, a radar gun to test shot speeds, carnival games, cotton candy, hot dogs, snow cones and lots of fun.
• The Junior, Belle and Open AA divisions used SHOT CLOCKS for all of their games.
• In the interest of fair play, in the Bunny and Novice divisions each player on a team was allowed to score a maximum of three goals per game.
• There were 22 tournament committee members, who opened arenas as early as 5:45 am, and closed as late as 1:00 am.
• The "control centre" was located at East Twin and was staffed with committee members and volunteers all weekend who circulated game scores, compiled results, verified gamesheets and generated pre-printed gamesheets for all games.
• Gamesheets for each game (regardless of location) were shuttled by volunteers to East Twin arena for verification. Customized Esso Golden Ring Game sheets were used once again.
• Committee members were linked by cellular phones donated by Fido, and averaged more than 500 km of driving over the weekend each.
• In addition to the tournament committee, there were 250 arena volunteers from Calgary teams, 12 shot clock volunteers, and 130 volunteers who were minor officials at the 41 semi and final games.
• There were approximately 80 on-ice officials used in the tournament.
  Referee game fees for the tournament total $9200. The cost of "importing" referees and transporting them was an additional $3500. Thanks to Cathy Over for generating the referee schedule, and to Robyn Schweitzer for her assistance.
• A van was provided to transport out of town officials to all of their games. (thanks to Murray Todd who drove the van, and to Lonnie Krahn for his assistance in the "peak" times.