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Created page with "{{Pro hockey team | text_color = White | bg_color = Blue | team = Pittsburgh Keystones | logo = | logosize = | city = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |..."

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{{Pro hockey team
| text_color = White
| bg_color = Blue
| team = Pittsburgh Keystones
| logo =
| logosize =
| city = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| league = [[Western Pennsylvania Hockey League|W. Penn Hockey League]] (1900-1904)<br>Independent (1895-1899)
| conference =
| division =
| founded =
| operated = 1895 - 1903
| arena = Duquesne Gardens (1899-1903) <br> Schenley Park Casino (1895-1896)
| colors = Blue, White <br> {{color box|blue}} {{Color box|white|border=darkgray}}<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19040110&id=zQgbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nEgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1166,1628458 "Keystones to take a trip"] ''The Pittsburgh Press'', January 10, 1904.</ref>
| owner =
| GM =
| coach =
| captain =
| media =
| affiliates =

| name1 =
| dates1 =

| reg_season_titles = '''(1)''' [[1901–02 WPHL season|1901-02]]
}}

The '''Pittsburgh Keystones''' were a semi-professional [[ice hockey]] club, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was a member of the [[Western Pennsylvania Hockey League]], the first league to openly hire hockey players from 1900-1904. The team played all of its games at the Duquesne Gardens, and was involved in allowing Harry Peel become the first admitted professional hockey player in 1902.

==History==

===Pre-1896===
The Keystones' history can be traced to the '''Keystone Bicycle Club''', which consisted of students from Western University ( today known as the University of Pittsburgh) and Carnegie Tech. Around 1895 the club gave up bicycling, renamed itself the Pittsburgh Keystones and played ice hockey at the newly built Schenley Park Casino, which was located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on Saturday afternoons, as an amateur club.<ref name="Pittsburgh 1">{{harvnb|Pittsburgh Hockey Net|nd|p=Casino}}</ref> On December 30, 1895, the ''Pittsburgh Press'' made mention of a “great international hockey and polo tournament” opening game at the Casino. The newspaper reported that a team consisting of ten players from [[Queen's University]] played against a group of local players from Western University and Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost (today Duquesne University) and a half hour of exhibition of hockey was played before the ice polo match. The paper noted that 2,500 to 3,000 fans showed up to watch the game, despite claims of bad weather. No score or records were reportedly kept but the paper did note that the team from Queen's University outplayed the Pittsburghers, who had never played the game before. Since the students from Western University participated in the game, it is possible that several of those players later played for the Keystones.

The Casino was destroyed in a fire on December 17, 1896<ref name="Trietley">{{harvnb|Trietley|2011|p=npg}}</ref> The Yale University hockey team was to have played a series of games against the Keystones, at the Casino, but they were telegraphed and told not to come to Pittsburgh due to the destruction of the arena.<ref name="Pittsburgh 1"/>

===WPHL era===
[[Image:Keystones02.jpeg|thumb|right|1902 Pittsburgh Keystones, WPHL Champions]]
Afterwards, the Keystones, and every other amateur team in Pittsburgh, began playing all of their games on the new ice rink at the Duquesne Gardens. The Gardens, because of its artificial ice surface, lured many established hockey players to the Pittsburgh-area from [[Canada]]. In 1901 the team became members of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, with the [[Pittsburgh Bankers]] and [[Pittsburgh Athletic Club]]. Aside from league play, the teams also played exhibition games against some of the best amateur teams from North America.<ref name="Fitzsimmons">{{harvnb|Fitzsimmons|nd|p=npg}}</ref> During the [[1901–02 WPHL season|1901-02 season]], Riley Hern, a future member of the [[Hockey Hall of Fame]], began his professional career with the Keystones. In his first season, Hern led the league in victories, with nine in 14 games and was named to the WPHL All-Star Team. However, in [[1902–03 WPHL season|the next season]], Hern led the league in losses, losing 10 out of 11 games.<ref name="Hall">{{harvnb|Hall of Fame|nd|p=npg}}</ref> Joining Hern on the team in 1901 was Arthur Sixsmith who moved to Pittsburgh and turning professional with the Keystones.<ref name="Landucci">{{harvnb|Landucci|1961|p=npg}}</ref> The Keystones would go on to win the 1901-02 WPHL championship title.

====First admitted professional player====
In the summer of 1902 Keystones' player Harry Peel, a Keystones player in 1901-02, admitted that he was paid $35 a week to play in the so-called amateur league and so no amateur teams would play against these teams again without being suspended by either Canadian or U.S. officials. According to Peel "[The Keystones] make no bones whatever about paying men. If they do not pay them, they give them fake positions." Peel was later suspended by the [[Ontario Hockey Association]] and his appeal was rejected on December 10, 1903 and again on November 30, 1904. However, by the [[1902–03 WPHL season|1902-03 season]] the WPHL, was known as a fully professional league.<ref name="Fitzsimmons"/>

===Decline===
The next season, the [[Portage Lakes Hockey Club]] of Houghton, Michigan began a professional league which continued to play professional exhibition game against the WPHL's [[Pittsburgh Bankers]]. However the exposure given by playing Portage Lakes raised the profiles of some of the Pittsburgh players, who were lured away after the season for the promise of better pay in Michigan. The team soon raided Pittsburgh’s teams for top players like Riley Hern and Bruce Stuart. This led the Keystones to withdraw from the league on January 17, 1903. Their players were then redistributed among the three other WPHL teams.<ref name="Crashing">{{harvnb|Crashing|2010|p=npg}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite news|first=Greg|last=Trietley|title=Oakland Once the Hockey Center of Pittsburgh|url=http://pittnews.com/newsstory/trietley-oakland-once-the-hockey-center-of-pittsburgh/|publisher=''Pitt News''|date=November 1, 2011}}
*{{cite web|title=1895-1896 Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park Casino|publisher=Pittsburgh Hockey.net|url=http://pittsburghhockey.net/arenas/schenley-park-casino|accessdate=April 20, 2012}}
*{{cite web|first=Ernie|last=Fitzsimmons|title=Pittsburgh can lay claim to at least a portion of the birth of professional hockey|publisher=Pittsburgh Hockey.net|url=http://pittsburghhockey.net/other-teams/early-professional|accessdate=April 20, 2012}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/LegendsMember.jsp?mem=p196208&type=Player&page=statsawards&list=ByName#photo|title=Riley Hern — Career statistics|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]]|accessdate=2012-04-20}}</
*{{cite news|work=Pittsburgh Press|date=September 27, 1961|title=First 'Pros' Start League Play in 1902|last=Landucci |first=Fred}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.ticky-box.com/crashingthenet/?p=30|title=Before the NHL: Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, International Professional Hockey League|publisher=Crashing the Net|accessdate=April 20, 2012}}

{{Wikipedia}}

[[Category:Ice hockey teams in the United States]]

Pittsburgh Keystones - Revision history

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