The Pittsburgh Keystones were a Pittsburgh ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 club that consisted of a group of local men from Western University (University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

) and Carnegie Tech during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Keystones began as an amateur hockey team which played on Saturday afternoons at the Schenley Park Casino

Schenley Park Casino

The Schenley Park Casino was Pittsburgh’s first multi-purpose arena. The facility was considered the envy of the sports and entertainment world during the early 1890's, with amenities that were unsurpassed anywhere on the globe. It was built at the entrance to Schenley Park in Oakland near the...

 located in the Oakland

Oakland (Pittsburgh)

Oakland is the academic, cultural, and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland...

 neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

. The team was formed from members of the Keystone Bicycle Club.

When the Casino burned to the ground in 1896

1896 in sports

-American football:College championship* College football national championship – Lafayette Leopards and Princeton Tigers -Association football:England...

, the Keystones, and every other amateur team in Pittsburgh, played all of their games at the new Duquesne Gardens

Duquesne Gardens

Duquesne Gardens was the main sports arena located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA during the first half of the 20th century. It opened 3 years after a fire destroyed the city's prior sports arena, the Schenley Park Casino, in 1896. The arena was the first hockey rink to use glass above the dasher...

. The Gardens, because of its artificial ice surface, lured many hockey players to Pittsburgh from Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. In 1901 the team became members of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League

Western Pennsylvania Hockey League

The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League , was a semi-professional ice hockey league from the early 1900s. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the league was the pre-eminent ice hockey league at the time in the United States...

. This led to the Keystones laying partial claim to being the first team to pay athletes.

In the summer of 1902 Harry Peel

Harry Peel (ice hockey)

Harold Peel was an early professional ice hockey player with the Pittsburgh Keystones of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League. He was a member of the Keystones 1902 WPHL championship team. He was also one of the first openly professional hockey players. In the summer of 1902, one of th 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. Peel was later suspended by the Ontario Hockey Association

Ontario Hockey Association

The Ontario Hockey Association is the governing body for the majority of Junior and Senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Other Ontario sanctioning bodies along with the...

 and an appeal was rejected on December 10, 1903 and again on November 30, 1904. However by the 1902-03 season

1903 WPHL season

-Final standings:Source: Fitzsimmons, p. 414-References:...

 the WPHL, was known as a fully professional league.

The next season, the Portage Lakes Hockey Club

Portage Lakes Hockey Club

The Portage Lakes Hockey Club was one of the first professional ice hockey clubs. Based in Houghton, Michigan, the club played at the Amphidrome from 1904 until 1906...

 of Houghton, Michigan

Houghton, Michigan

Houghton is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and largest city in the Copper Country on the Keweenaw Peninsula. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,708. It is the county seat of Houghton County...

 began a professional league which continued to play Pro exhibition games against Pittsburgh. However the league soon raided Pittsburgh’s teams for top players like Riley Hern

Riley Hern

William Milton "Riley" Hern was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He was the first professional goaltender to play on a Stanley Cup-winning team....

 and Bruce Stuart

Bruce Stuart

Bruce Stuart was a Canadian amateur and professional ice hockey forward who played for the Quebec Bulldogs, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Wanderers from 1899 to 1911...

. This led the Keystones to withdraw from the league on January 17, 1903. Their players were redistributed among the three other WPHL teams.