Duquesne Athletic Club

Not to be confused with Duquesne Country and Athletic Club (ice hockey) or Duquesne Country and Athletic Club (football).
Duquesne Athletic Club
CityPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
LeagueWestern Pennsylvania Hockey League
Founded1908; 116 years ago (1908)
Operated1908–1909
Home arenaDuquesne Garden
General managerJ.G.S. Ramsey
Championships
Regular season titles1 (1908–09)
Alf Smith

The Duquesne Athletic Club professional ice hockey team, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, played for only one season in 1908–09. It won the final championship of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL).

History

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 a WPHL ice hockey team to be "composed of stars".[1] The hockey team took the place in the league vacated by the defunct Pittsburgh Pirates.[2]

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.[3][4] Though unable to retain Smith for more than a small part of the season,[5] the DAC finished with a 10–4–1 record to win the league title.[6] The championship came down to the last game of the season in which Duquesne beat the Pittsburgh Bankers 4–2.[7]

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, 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 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".[8]

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 the DAC.[9] The Duquesne team was from then on nicknamed the "Prodigals", referencing the biblical Parable of the Prodigal Son.[10][11]

References to uniform color are in reports of a game played December 19, 1908: The team was referred to in one newspaper as the "brown and white artists"[12] and in another as the "maroon jersey wearers".[13]

References

  1. ^ "New Athletic Club Meets with Success". The Pittsburgh Post. October 28, 1908. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Pittsburg Expects Great Hockey Year". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 14, 1908. Picture and Sporting Sec., p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Western Pennsylvania Hockey League Season Opens Nov. 12". The Pittsburg Press. October 25, 1908. p. 19 – via Google News Archive.
  4. ^ "Canadian Hockeyists Are in Great Demand". The Winnipeg Tribune. October 16, 1908. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Alf Smith Goes to His Canadian Home". The Pittsburg Press. December 15, 1908. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Fitzsimmons, Ernie (2000). "Early Professional, Early Senior WHA and Modern Minor Professional League Standings". In Diamond, Dan (ed.). Total Hockey. Total Sport Publishing. pp. 414–432. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.
  7. ^ "D.A.C. Defeats Bankers, 4 to 2, Capturing Hockey Championship". The Pittsburgh Sunday Post. February 7, 1909. Sec. 3, p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Schooley, Roy D. (February 14, 1909). "Hockey Season Reviewed by Roy D. Schooley". The Pittsburg Press. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Former Hockey Stars To Be Seen Here Again". The Pittsburgh Post. January 11, 1909. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Prodigals Devour Calf P.A.C. the Victim". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh. January 13, 1909. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Indoor Skating Season to Close Saturday Night". The Pittsburg Press. January 31, 1909. Sporting sec., p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Bankers and D.A.C. Hockey Teams Victorious in Double-Header". The Pittsburgh Sunday Post. December 20, 1908. Sec. 3, p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Bargain Night at Duquesne Garden". The Pittsburg Press. December 20, 1908. Sporting Sec., p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.