Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets
| Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets | |
|---|---|
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| League | United States Amateur Hockey Association |
| Founded | 1915 |
| Operated | 1915–1925 |
| Home arena | Duquesne Gardens |
| Colours | Black, gold, white |
| Owner(s) |
 Roy Schooley (1915-25) |
| Head coach |
 Rennison Manners (1920-1922)Dick Carroll (1923-25) |
| Captain |
Lionel Conacher (1923-25) |
| Franchise history | |
| 1915-1921 | Independent |
| 1921-1925 | United States Amateur Hockey Association |
| Championships | |
| Division Championships | (2) 1924,1925 |
| Playoff championships | (2) 1924,1925 |
| Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| League | International Hockey League, Eastern Amateur Hockey League |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Operated | 1930–1937 |
| Home arena | Duquesne Gardens |
| Colours | Black, gold, white |
| Owner(s) | Roy Schooley (1930-32)John H. Harris (1933-37) |
| Head coach |
Charlie Reid (1930-32)Rennison Manners (1935-37) |
| Franchise history | |
| 1930-1932 | IHL |
| 1932-1934 | Dormant |
| 1934-1935 | Independent |
| 1935-1937 | EAHL |
| Championships | |
| Playoff championships | (0) |
Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets was the name of two separate ice hockey teams based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original team played from 1915–1925. They evolved from being an amateur to a semi-pro team and are one of the earliest sports organizations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Yellow Jackets played primarily in the United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA). After winning the USAHA Championship in 1924 and 1925, the Yellow Jackets were sold to attorney James Callahan and soon became the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League. However, after the demise of the Pirates in 1930, a second club (founded by the owner of the original club), debuted in the IHL as a professional entity, before reverting to an amateur club in 1934. The team would finish its run in the EAHL, before finally folding in 1937.
After a career in local politics, Roy Schooley, a former hockey referee in the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, founded the Yellow Jackets as an amateur hockey team in 1915. As with all American teams of this era, the Yellow Jackets fell under the jurisdiction of the International Skating Union. For 6 years, the club played in independent competitions. In late October, 1920, the United States Amateur Hockey Association was formed, with Yellow Jackets officials Schooley and W.S. Haddock serving as co-founders and respectively acting as the league's secretary-treasurer and president. The Yellow Jackets played exhibition games against other USAHA clubs in its inaugural season before joining the league full-time in 1921.
According to former sports reporter Paul Sullivan, who covered hockey for much of his life for the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, the USAHA wasn't 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." This leads one to believe that money was paid out to top players in the league. The eastern teams of USAHA soon imported Canadian players, to add to their rosters of local players. In 1923, Schooley had invited Lionel Conacher, a future Hall of Famer, to come to Pittsburgh and officiate games in February 1923, "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. Conachar then, under the guidance of Roy Schooley, transformed the Yellow Jackets line-up to an almost Canadian team. Schooley then used his connections in the Pittsburgh media to promote Conachar 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.
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