and further evolved into the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the United States Amateur Hockey Association) was founded. The Carnegie Tech hockey club and the University of Pittsburgh hockey team also played their home games at the Garden. Crowds also attended skating sessions at Garden and took part in public skating events. In 1920, public skating was held every evening, except on days for performances, with Saturday morning being set aside for school children who wanted to learn how to skate. On March 16, 1920, the United States men's national ice hockey team was founded at the Garden. That same year at the Garden, Roy Schooley, the arena's manager, put together an 11-player squad that won silver at the Antwerp Games, in the sport's Olympic debut. The Garden also hosted several contests, which were played on Mondays and Tuesdays, to help raise money in order to cover the expenses associated with sending the U.S. Olympic Hockey team to the games held in Antwerp, Belgium. By 1924, the Yellow Jackets of the USAHA's Western Division were so dominant that they spun off another Pittsburgh team, the Fort Pitt Hornets, who played in the Eastern Division. In 1925, both Pittsburgh clubs won their respective divisions and played each other for the 1924-1925 USAHA championship at the Garden. The Yellow Jackets won the title in a best of five series, 3 games to none with one tie. In 1925, the Yellow Jackets were sold to Duquesne Garden president Henry Townsend and attorney James Callahan and were renamed the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates then joined the NHL on November 7, 1925. During this time, the Garden's massive ice surface was reduced to conform to the NHL's standards. Pittsburgh's first-ever NHL game was played on December 2, 1925, with the Pirates taking on the New York Americans in front of 8,200 fans. The Pirates lost the game in overtime, 2-1. By 1930, financial issues, associated with the Great Depression caused the Pirates to relocate to Philadelphia, before folding. What helped make the city such a hotbed for hockey in the early part of the century, the Duquesne Garden, ultimately helped doom the Pirates. The Garden held slightly more than 5,000 fans, which was fine at the turn of the century but small by comparison in the late 1920s to other arenas sprouting up, such as 18,000-seat Madison Square Garden. The Pirates did not make very much