The Pittsburgh Bankers were one of the earliest professional ice hockey clubs. The club was based in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania and was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League , the first league to openly hire hockey players, from 1899–1904 and 1907–1909. The team played all of its games at Duquesne Garden , and was involved in the first known trade of professional hockey players.
20-544: In October of 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which had comprised only three teams in its previous season of 1898–99 , took applications for a fourth member for the upcoming 1899–1900 season . Applicants included Carnegie Athletic Club of Braddock , Homestead Library & Athletic Club , Keystone Bicycle Club , and the Bankers' Association of Pittsburgh. The team representing
40-558: A 10–4–1 record to win the league title. The championship came down to the last game of the season in which Duquesne beat the Pittsburgh Bankers 4–2. The Duquesne team existed only in the last season of the WPHL, a season during which many players in the league "jumped" their contracts for better offers from Canadian clubs. Such desertions depleted the league's rosters and forced the mid-season disbandment of one Pittsburgh team,
60-596: A WPHL ice hockey team to be "composed of stars". The hockey team took the place in the league vacated by the defunct Pittsburgh Pirates . The club secured Alf Smith , former Ottawa Silver Seven star who began his professional career with the Pittsburgh Athletic Club , to captain the team and choose its players. Though unable to retain Smith for more than a small part of the season, the DAC finished with
80-425: Is unclear since Portage Lakes would win two of the four games and tie a third and the Bankers claimed the edge in total goals, 11–6. Another of the era's stars, Charlie Liffiton , joined the Bankers in 1902 to help the club win its first title. Over his two seasons with the club, Liffiton reportedly scored three goals in four playoff matches. The following season , the Bankers saw their star player, Hod Stuart, leave
100-478: The Lyceum , whose remaining players were distributed to the league's three remaining teams. The official WPHL referee, Roy Schooley , questioned whether the DAC would have won the title had all of the teams that started the season finished intact, but praised Duquesne's performance, saying that "after the making over process they played earnestly, consistently, and at times brilliantly". Schooley gave special credit for
120-732: The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League . Four Pittsburgh -area teams competed in the season, in which all games were played at the Duquesne Gardens. The league reconstituted in the newly finished hockey rink at the Duquesne Gardens , after the Schenley Park Casino was destroyed in an 1896 fire that cut short the previous WPHL season. The old venue's in-house, Pittsburgh Casino team, was not reformed and only three teams played in
140-482: The Bankers became enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame : Starting with their first season of 1899–1900, the Bankers wore sweaters marked with a yellow dollar sign. The Pittsburgh Post referred to the team at points during the next two seasons as the "blue and old gold" and "wearers of the gold and blue". On the day of the 1903–04 season opener, it was reported that the team's new uniforms would be "all blue with
160-722: The Bankers sent Joseph Donnelly and Bert Bennett to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jim MacKay , Edgar Dey and Dunc Taylor . On January 31 the Pirates would also acquire Gordon McGuire from the Bankers through a separate purchase. The Bankers would go on to win their second league title in 1907–08. The Bankers then played a "World's Series" with the Montreal Wanderers . The Wanderers won the series two games to one. The following season saw future Stanley Cup winner Skene Ronan made his professional hockey debut with
180-483: The Bankers' Association won admission and on November 28, 1899 played its first league game. In 1902, the Bankers signed Hod Stuart to a professional contract; this was disputed between the Bankers and the Pittsburgh Victorias , who also claimed him. Eventually the Bankers won the dispute and kept Stuart, who was considered, in certain hockey circles, to be the “greatest hockey player in the world." Hod
200-605: The Bankers, however Ronan would later break his contract to leave the team and play with the Toronto Professionals . Meanwhile, future Hall of Famer Alf Smith returned to the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League and played for the Bankers and the Duquesne Athletic Club before he was suspended from the two teams for rough play. However the defection of star Bankers players such as Ronan, Tommy Smith , Harry Smith and Edgar Dey were now common in
220-583: The Pittsburgh Bankers was revived for the 1907–08 season , once the IPHL folded. During that season, the Bankers were involved in what might have been the first trades of professional hockey players. The Bankers traded Dutch Koch to Lyceum for Harry Burgoyne in December 1907, and in early January, reacquired Koch from Lyceum in exchange for Fred Young. A bigger deal took place on January 27, 1908, when
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#1732776750500240-765: The WPHL could consolidate into the Pittsburgh Professionals and begin playing in the International Professional Hockey League . The idea for the new league was the idea of James R. Dee, a Houghton businessman, who came up with the idea after watching the Bankers and Portage Lakes play in 1904. Several Bankers' players, such as Lorne Campbell and Hod Stuart , played for the Pittsburgh Professionals. Meanwhile, other Bankers players, like Charlie Liffiton, played for Portage Lakes. The WPHL, along with
260-474: The WPHL. The newly revived league could no longer rely on salaries as novelty to attract Canadian talent, since professionalism had spread into Canada. Many players signed up, particularly since the WPHL played on Duquesne Garden's artificial ice and was not dependent on cold weather to provide a naturally frozen surface; however as winter began and Canadian rinks became available, the players would just flock north to teams closer to home. This jumping affected all of
280-401: The final championship of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL). The Duquesne Athletic Club (DAC) was established in 1908 in a new building leased from steel and real estate magnate Henry Phipps . Located on Duquesne Way in downtown Pittsburgh, the building featured a swimming pool, a gymnasium and Turkish baths. The new club promised to support a variety of sports and teams, including
300-552: The league's teams. Once the Pittsburgh Lyceum team folded on December 23, it was decided to discontinue the WPHL after the season. The championship of the final season came down to the last game between the Bankers and the Duquesne Athletic Club on February 6, 1909. The D.A.C. won the game 4–2, making them champions and preventing the Bankers from claiming a third WPHL title. The following members of
320-690: The league. The Pittsburgh Athletic Club won 9 of 12 games to win their first WPHL championship. This ice hockey league article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to sports in Pennsylvania is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Pittsburgh -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Duquesne Athletic Club The Duquesne Athletic Club professional ice hockey team, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , played for only one season in 1908–09. It won
340-411: The letter B in white". When the WPHL was revived in late 1907 after three seasons of inactivity, the Bankers came back wearing olive green jerseys with a gold dollar sign on the chest. A game report in late 1908, during the team's and the league's last season, referred to the Bankers as red and white. 1898%E2%80%9399 WPHL season The 1898–99 WPHL season was the second season of operation for
360-554: The team to join the Portage Lakes Hockey Club. In fact as Portage Lakes continued to play professional exhibition games, the team raided all of the WPHL teams for their key players. The Bankers' Charlie Liffiton was offered $ 1350 to play for the Portage Lakes club for the remainder of the season, making him the era's highest paid player. The WPHL and the Bankers disappeared for the following season so that
380-552: The team's success to players Harry McRobie (who finished the season as captain), Tom Westwick , Joe Dennison , and Ray Robinson, the last of whom Schooley called "by far the best left wing in the league". McRobie, Westwick, and Dennison abandoned the team in early January for the St. Catharines Pros of the Ontario Professional Hockey League , but after only a few days there, reconsidered and came back to
400-684: Was offered a salary of US$ 15–20 per week, plus steady income from a day job in Pittsburgh. Stuart scored seven goals and had eight assists and was named the best cover-point in the league in 1903 . The Bankers claimed their first WPHL title that season and faced off against the Portage Lakes Hockey Club , located in Houghton, Michigan , for the title of top professional team in the United States. The winner of that series
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