Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pittsburgh Pirates
Division	American Division
Founded	1925
History	Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets 1915–1921 (independent) 1921–1925 (USAHA) Pittsburgh Pirates 1925–1930 Philadelphia Quakers 1930–1931
Home arena	Duquesne Garden
City	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Colors	Black, gold, white, orange
Media	Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Press KDKA (AM)
Stanley Cups	0
Conference championships	0
Division championships	0

The Pittsburgh Pirates were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). They were based in Pittsburgh from the 1925–26 season to the 1929–30 season. The team got its name from the baseball team that was also in the city. For the 1930–31 season, the hockey team moved to Philadelphia. There, they played one season as the Philadelphia Quakers.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Hockey Team

How the Team Started

The Pittsburgh Pirates hockey team began as the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets. This team played in the United States Amateur Hockey Association. The Yellow Jackets won championships in 1924 and 1925. However, their owner, Roy Schooley, had money problems.

The team was then sold to a lawyer named James F. Callahan. On November 7, 1925, Pittsburgh was given a team in the National Hockey League. This made them the seventh team to join the NHL. Callahan renamed the team the Pittsburgh Pirates. He got permission from Barney Dreyfuss, who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.

The Pirates were placed in the NHL's American Division. The other teams in this division were the Boston Bruins and the New York Americans. These were the only other American teams in the NHL at that time. The Pirates played their home games at Duquesne Garden in Pittsburgh.

The First Season: 1925–26

The Pirates started playing in the 1925–26 NHL season. Their very first NHL game was on November 26, 1925. They played against the Boston Bruins in Boston and won 2–1. Defenseman and captain Lionel Conacher scored Pittsburgh's first NHL goal. Left winger Harold Darragh scored the winning goal. Goaltender Roy Worters made 26 saves to secure the win.

Two nights later, the Pirates beat the Montreal Canadiens 1–0. This game was the last for the famous Canadiens' goaltender Georges Vezina. He had chest pains during the game and died from tuberculosis four months later.

The first NHL game played in Pittsburgh was on December 2, 1925. About 8,200 fans watched the Pirates lose to the New York Americans 2–1 in overtime.

In their first season, the Pirates had a good record of 19 wins, 16 losses, and 1 tie. They finished third in the league. In the playoffs, they played the Montreal Maroons. The Pirates lost the series by a total score of six goals to four. The Maroons went on to win the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals. This first season was arguably the team's best.

Seasons 1926–1928

In the next season, the Pirates did not make the playoffs. They finished in fourth place.

Their third season saw the team make the playoffs again. They had 19 wins, 17 losses, and 8 ties. In the playoffs, the Pirates were defeated by the New York Rangers by a total score of 6–4. They lost the first game 4–0 but won the second game 4–2. However, they could not overcome New York's lead in goals. This was the second time the team lost in the first round to the team that would win the Stanley Cup. It was also the last playoff game in the Pirates' history.

Team Decline and Move

In 1928, the team faced money problems. Owner James Callahan sold the team to a new ownership group. This group included Bill Dwyer and Benny Leonard. Even with new owners, the team's performance did not get better.

The team's coach, Odie Cleghorn, left after the 1928–29 season. Frank Fredrickson then became the new coach. The team also changed its uniform colors to black and orange.

The 1929–30 season was their fifth and final season in the NHL. The team had its worst record with only 5 wins, 36 losses, and 3 ties. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression caused the owners to have serious financial problems. Fewer people came to games, and the team was deeply in debt. They also needed a new arena because Duquesne Garden was old.

Relocation to Philadelphia

On October 18, 1930, the team moved across Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. They were renamed the Philadelphia Quakers. The owner, Benny Leonard, hoped to bring the team back to Pittsburgh later if a new arena was built. Thirteen players from the Pirates moved to the Quakers.

The Quakers had a very poor record in the 1930–31 season. They won only 4 games, lost 36, and tied 4. On September 26, 1931, the team got permission from the NHL to stop playing temporarily. They hoped to find a new permanent arena in either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.

However, the Great Depression hurt the entire league. Four teams had to stop playing, leaving only the six teams. A new arena in Pittsburgh was not built until 1961. Because of this, Leonard gave up his team in 1936. The NHL played with six teams for 25 years. In 1967, the league expanded. This brought the Pittsburgh Penguins to Pittsburgh and the Philadelphia Flyers to Philadelphia. Both new teams adopted colors similar to the old Pirates and Quakers.

The last player from the Pittsburgh Pirates to play in the NHL was Cliff Barton. He played his final game in 1940.

Historic Firsts and Records

The Pittsburgh Pirates made some notable marks in NHL history.

• Odie Cleghorn, the Pirates' coach for their first four seasons, was the first NHL coach to change players "on the fly." This means he would switch players during the game without stopping play. He would change the forward lines halfway through each period.
• Cleghorn was also the first coach to use three different forward lines. Before this, coaches usually kept their best players on the ice for as long as possible.
• The Pirates set an NHL record for player salaries. They signed defenseman Lionel Conacher to a three-year deal worth $7,500 a year. Conacher was later named Canada's athlete of the half-century.
• On December 26, 1926, the Pirates and the New York Americans set an NHL record. They combined for 141 shots in one game. This record still stands today. The Pirates' goalie, Roy Worters, made 70 saves in that game.

Logos and Uniforms

The Pirates were one of the first Pittsburgh teams to use the black and gold colors. These colors came from the Flag of Pittsburgh. Decades after the team stopped playing, black and gold became the colors for all three of Pittsburgh's major sports teams.

In 1925, the Pirates' owner, James Callahan, needed new uniforms and logos. His brother, a Pittsburgh Police officer, gave him old emblems and patches. These were in the city's official black and gold colors. The team used these on their uniforms.

The Pirates wore bright yellow wool jerseys with black stripes in their first season (1925–1926). They had a "P" on the front. They also used Pittsburgh's city crest emblems from old police jackets on their sleeves. These first jerseys might have been from the old Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets team.

In 1928–29, the Pirates got new jerseys. These were gold with blue stripes. The word "Pirates" was written in arched, block letters. The city crest on the sleeves was replaced with a "P".

For their final season in 1929–30, the Pirates switched to black and orange uniforms. These jerseys had a chain-knit logo of a pirate face with an eye patch and a hat with a skull and crossbones. When the team moved to Philadelphia and became the Quakers, they kept the orange and black colors. Later, when the Philadelphia Flyers joined the NHL in 1967, they also adopted orange and black.

The Pittsburgh Pirates also had a connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1980, the Boston Bruins protested when the Penguins wanted to change their colors to black and gold. The Penguins used the Pirates as an example of another NHL team that had used black and gold. The NHL then allowed the Penguins to change their colors.

Team Personnel

Owners

• James F. Callahan (1925–1928)
• Bill Dwyer and Benny Leonard (1928–1930)

Head Coaches

• Odie Cleghorn (1925–1929)
• Frank Fredrickson (1929–1930)

Captains

• Lionel Conacher (1925–1926)
• Harold Cotton (1926–1929)
• Gerry Lowrey (1929–1930)

Hall of Famers

These players from the Pittsburgh Pirates are in the Hockey Hall of Fame:

• Lionel Conacher
• Frank Fredrickson
• Mickey MacKay
• Roy Worters

Olympic Medal Winners

Several Pirates players won medals at the Olympics before or during their time with the team.

• 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium:
  • Frank Frederickson won a gold medal with the Canadian national hockey team.
  • Herb Drury won a silver medal with the American national hockey team.

• 1924 Olympics in Chamonix, France:
  • Bert McCaffrey won a gold medal with the Canadian national hockey team.
  • Herb Drury won a silver medal with the American national hockey team.

Season-by-Season Record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

See also

• Philadelphia Quakers
• List of Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) players
• Head Coaches of the Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)
• List of defunct NHL teams