Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets AI simulator
(@Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets_simulator)
Hub AI
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets AI simulator
(@Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets_simulator)
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets was the name of three separate ice hockey teams based at Duquesne Garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original team was part of the United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) from 1920 to 1925 and developed from predecessors dating back to 1915. After winning the USAHA Championship in 1924 and 1925, the ostensibly amateur (but arguably semi-professional) Yellow Jackets turned fully professional and became the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League. After the Pirates relocated in 1930 to play as the Philadelphia Quakers, a second Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets club (organized by the founder of the original club) played for two seasons in the International Hockey League, a minor professional circuit. A third Yellow Jackets team was organized at the amateur level in 1935 by John H. Harris and competed in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League before folding in 1937.
The roots of the Yellow Jackets trace back to the winter of 1915–16, when Roy Schooley, a local politician and former hockey referee, put together an amateur team to play exhibition games at the Duquesne Garden. Schooley brought in Canadian players including Dinny Manners, brothers Larry and Joe McCormick, and Russell McCrimmon. The team, known as the "Duquesne Garden hockey team" after its home arena, compiled a record of 20 wins, 3 losses and no ties in early 1916 against teams from Canada and the US. A highlight of the season was a three-game series sweep of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Athletic Club, which had won the MacNaughton Cup as champion of the American Hockey Association and had defeated the Lachine club of Canada, holders of the Art Ross Cup. After beating St. Paul, the Duquesne Garden team was claimed to be the hockey champion of the world, though this claim was not officially or widely recognized.
After its first season, the Duquesne Garden exhibition team established an affiliation with the Pittsburgh Athletic Association (PAA), a private athletic and social club, adopting that organization's name, colors, and "Winged Head" insignia. The team finished its 1916–17 campaign with a 37–3–0 record. A late-season addition to the roster was Herb Drury, an immediate star who would remain with the team and all its successors through to the final one, the Philadelphia Quakers.
During the winter of 1917–18 the PAA team joined the New York Wanderers, Boston Arenas and Boston Navy Yard in forming the United States National Hockey League, which would last only one season. The PAA won the league title and went on to defeat the Montreal Hochelaga club, holders of the Art Ross Cup, in an international amateur championship series to win a new honor called the Fellowes international trophy. That season's overall record of 24–3–2 included a 22-game winning streak.
There was no 1918–19 season for the PAA, with Duquesne Garden being used as a barracks and most of the players in military service. The team resumed its dominance in 1919–20, going 25–5–3 playing an independent schedule.
The PAA team figured prominently in the formation of the first U.S. Olympic ice hockey team. When the sport was about to debut as an Olympic competition at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium, the PAA won a three-team American tournament (with Boston AA and St. Paul AC) that was originally supposed to determine which one of the clubs would be sent intact to the Olympics to represent the United States. However, as it became clear that no team had enough US-eligible players to furnish a full Olympic roster, it was decided to choose representatives from all three of the teams. Four of the eleven selections were from the PAA: the two McCormicks and Drury, who were born in Canada but had acquired US citizenship, and US-born goalie Ray Bonney. Joe McCormick was appointed the US team's captain. PAA manager Schooley, who assembled the Olympic team, said that the PAA's Manners, McCrimmon, and Ed Nagle, all Canadians, would have been worthy of inclusion had they been eligible. The Americans won the silver medal, having overwhelmed all of their opponents except for Canada's gold medalist Winnipeg Falcons, to whom they lost 2–0.
In late October, 1920, the United States Amateur Hockey Association was formed, with Schooley and William S. Haddock serving as co-founders and respectively acting as the league's secretary-treasurer and president. The team that had been playing under the PAA banner reorganized as the Pittsburgh Hockey Club, shedding the red and gray colors of the PAA for new uniforms of black and gold. An original member of the USAHA, the team played only a few exhibition games in its inaugural season before suspending operations because of eligibility problems. It was reapproved for league play for the following season. The team would not become known as the Yellow Jackets until the 1922–23 season.
According to former sports reporter Paul Sullivan, who covered hockey for much of his life for the Pittsburgh Gazette Times and later the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, the USAHA was not a completely amateur league. Sullivan noted that even though the USAHA was called an amateur league, "They didn't come down from Canada because they thought Pittsburgh was a nice place." The eastern teams of USAHA soon imported Canadian players, to add to their rosters of local players. In February 1923, Schooley invited Lionel Conacher, a future Hall of Famer, to come to Pittsburgh and officiate games, "to see if the crowd would take to him". Schooley then asked Conacher to play with the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets in a four-game series against his former team, the Toronto Aura Lee hockey team, and against the Hamilton Tigers. Conacher impressed the Pittsburgh fans by scoring 11 of the Yellow Jackets' 23 goals in the four games. Schooley then used his connections in the Pittsburgh media to promote Conacher to the city's hockey fans. After seeing how well the fans took to Conacher, Schooley made him the team's captain, and asked him to invite a number of his friends to play for the Yellow Jackets. These players included Harold Cotton, Hib Milks, Harold Darragh, Rodger Smith, Duke McCurry, "Tex" White and goalie Roy Worters.
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets was the name of three separate ice hockey teams based at Duquesne Garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original team was part of the United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) from 1920 to 1925 and developed from predecessors dating back to 1915. After winning the USAHA Championship in 1924 and 1925, the ostensibly amateur (but arguably semi-professional) Yellow Jackets turned fully professional and became the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League. After the Pirates relocated in 1930 to play as the Philadelphia Quakers, a second Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets club (organized by the founder of the original club) played for two seasons in the International Hockey League, a minor professional circuit. A third Yellow Jackets team was organized at the amateur level in 1935 by John H. Harris and competed in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League before folding in 1937.
The roots of the Yellow Jackets trace back to the winter of 1915–16, when Roy Schooley, a local politician and former hockey referee, put together an amateur team to play exhibition games at the Duquesne Garden. Schooley brought in Canadian players including Dinny Manners, brothers Larry and Joe McCormick, and Russell McCrimmon. The team, known as the "Duquesne Garden hockey team" after its home arena, compiled a record of 20 wins, 3 losses and no ties in early 1916 against teams from Canada and the US. A highlight of the season was a three-game series sweep of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Athletic Club, which had won the MacNaughton Cup as champion of the American Hockey Association and had defeated the Lachine club of Canada, holders of the Art Ross Cup. After beating St. Paul, the Duquesne Garden team was claimed to be the hockey champion of the world, though this claim was not officially or widely recognized.
After its first season, the Duquesne Garden exhibition team established an affiliation with the Pittsburgh Athletic Association (PAA), a private athletic and social club, adopting that organization's name, colors, and "Winged Head" insignia. The team finished its 1916–17 campaign with a 37–3–0 record. A late-season addition to the roster was Herb Drury, an immediate star who would remain with the team and all its successors through to the final one, the Philadelphia Quakers.
During the winter of 1917–18 the PAA team joined the New York Wanderers, Boston Arenas and Boston Navy Yard in forming the United States National Hockey League, which would last only one season. The PAA won the league title and went on to defeat the Montreal Hochelaga club, holders of the Art Ross Cup, in an international amateur championship series to win a new honor called the Fellowes international trophy. That season's overall record of 24–3–2 included a 22-game winning streak.
There was no 1918–19 season for the PAA, with Duquesne Garden being used as a barracks and most of the players in military service. The team resumed its dominance in 1919–20, going 25–5–3 playing an independent schedule.
The PAA team figured prominently in the formation of the first U.S. Olympic ice hockey team. When the sport was about to debut as an Olympic competition at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium, the PAA won a three-team American tournament (with Boston AA and St. Paul AC) that was originally supposed to determine which one of the clubs would be sent intact to the Olympics to represent the United States. However, as it became clear that no team had enough US-eligible players to furnish a full Olympic roster, it was decided to choose representatives from all three of the teams. Four of the eleven selections were from the PAA: the two McCormicks and Drury, who were born in Canada but had acquired US citizenship, and US-born goalie Ray Bonney. Joe McCormick was appointed the US team's captain. PAA manager Schooley, who assembled the Olympic team, said that the PAA's Manners, McCrimmon, and Ed Nagle, all Canadians, would have been worthy of inclusion had they been eligible. The Americans won the silver medal, having overwhelmed all of their opponents except for Canada's gold medalist Winnipeg Falcons, to whom they lost 2–0.
In late October, 1920, the United States Amateur Hockey Association was formed, with Schooley and William S. Haddock serving as co-founders and respectively acting as the league's secretary-treasurer and president. The team that had been playing under the PAA banner reorganized as the Pittsburgh Hockey Club, shedding the red and gray colors of the PAA for new uniforms of black and gold. An original member of the USAHA, the team played only a few exhibition games in its inaugural season before suspending operations because of eligibility problems. It was reapproved for league play for the following season. The team would not become known as the Yellow Jackets until the 1922–23 season.
According to former sports reporter Paul Sullivan, who covered hockey for much of his life for the Pittsburgh Gazette Times and later the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, the USAHA was not a completely amateur league. Sullivan noted that even though the USAHA was called an amateur league, "They didn't come down from Canada because they thought Pittsburgh was a nice place." The eastern teams of USAHA soon imported Canadian players, to add to their rosters of local players. In February 1923, Schooley invited Lionel Conacher, a future Hall of Famer, to come to Pittsburgh and officiate games, "to see if the crowd would take to him". Schooley then asked Conacher to play with the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets in a four-game series against his former team, the Toronto Aura Lee hockey team, and against the Hamilton Tigers. Conacher impressed the Pittsburgh fans by scoring 11 of the Yellow Jackets' 23 goals in the four games. Schooley then used his connections in the Pittsburgh media to promote Conacher to the city's hockey fans. After seeing how well the fans took to Conacher, Schooley made him the team's captain, and asked him to invite a number of his friends to play for the Yellow Jackets. These players included Harold Cotton, Hib Milks, Harold Darragh, Rodger Smith, Duke McCurry, "Tex" White and goalie Roy Worters.