The Pittsburgh Pirates were an early professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

club based in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and were members of the

Western Pennsylvania Hockey League The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL) was an originally amateur and later professional ice hockey league founded in 1896 and existing through 1909. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the league became the pre-eminent ice hockey league in ...

for the 1908 WPHL season. The team, and the league, played all of their games at Duquesne Garden. The Pirates made one of the first known trades of professional hockey players. Team president was local sports magnate

Barney Dreyfuss Bernhard "Barney" Dreyfuss (February 23, 1865 – February 5, 1932) was an executive in Major League Baseball who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise from 1900 to his death. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. Drey ...

who also owned the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

team by the same name.

History

When the WPHL was revived in 1907, the only two original teams to return to the league after operations were suspended after the 1903–04 season were the

Pittsburgh Athletic Club The Pittsburgh Athletic Club (PAC) was one of the earliest professional ice hockey teams. It was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from around 1895 until 1904 and again from 1907 to 1909. The team was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey Le ...

and the

Pittsburgh Bankers 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 1899–1 ...

. Two new teams were needed to get the league back to its original number of four teams. One of the teams to enter the league in 1907 was the

Pittsburgh Lyceum The Pittsburgh Lyceum Club, or Pittsburgh Lyceum, was a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League from 1907 to 1908 and played all of its games at Duquesne Garden. ...

, and the other was the Pirates. The Pirates entered the league loaded with professional players like Dunc Taylor, Ray Robinson, Ed Robitaille‚ Harry McRobie,

Edgar Dey Edgar Ernest Dey (April 30, 1883 – February 13, 1912) was an early amateur and professional ice hockey player and an athlete in canoeing. A member of the Dey family of Ottawa, known for canoe building, athletics and arena operation, he died in 1 ...

Charles Masson Charles Masson (1800–1853) was the pseudonym of James Lewis, a British East India Company soldier and reporter, independent explorer and pioneering archaeologist and numismatist. He was the first European to discover the ruins of Harappa nea ...

and

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

Jim MacKay. After the 1902 season, the WPHL became the first league to openly hire hockey players. Many of the athletes in the WPHL were Canadians who were drawn to Pittsburgh because of Duquesne Garden, which was one of the few arenas in North America that had an artificial ice rink. The Pirates made one of the first known trades of professional hockey players, sending Jim MacKay, Edgar Dey and Dunc Taylor to the Pittsburgh Bankers for Joseph Donnelly and Bert Bennett on January 27, 1908. (It was not the first trade of the WPHL season, as Dutch Koch had already been dealt from the Bankers to Lyceum for Harry Burgoyne and back to the Bankers for Fred Young.) On January 31 the Pirates also acquired Gordon McGuire from the Bankers through a purchase. The Pirates played only

one year ''One Year'' is the debut solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Colin Blunstone, a member of the Zombies. It was released by Epic Records in 1971. It includes "Say You Don't Mind", which peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Prod ...

in the WPHL. They ended their only season with a record of 5 wins, 10 losses, and 2 ties.

References

"Hockey trade put through"
''The Pittsburgh Press'', January 28, 1908.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh Pirates (Wphl) Pirates (WPHL) Defunct ice hockey teams in Pennsylvania Pirates (WPHL)

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...