Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets The Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets was an amateur ice hockey team that existed between ( 1915 – 1925 ) . They evolved from being an amateur to a semi - pro team and are one the earliest sports organizations in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . The Yellow Jackets played primarily in the United States Amateur Hockey Association ( USAHA ) . After winning the USAHA Championship in 1924 and 1925 the Yellow Jackets were sold to attorney James Callahan and soon became the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League . However after the demise of the Pirates in 1930 , the Yellow Jackets became an IHL club from 1930 – 1932 . A third team of the same name played in the Eastern Hockey League from 1935 to 1937 . Franchise History . Yellow Jackets . The Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets , of the United States Amateur Hockey Association were formed in 1915 . The organization ' s owner was a former referee named Roy Schooley . According to former sports reporter Paul Sullivan , who covered hockey for much of his life for the old Pittsburgh Gazette - Times , the USAHA wasn ' t a completely amateur league . Sullivan noted that even though the USAHA was called an amateur league , " They didn ' t come down from Canada because they thought Pittsburgh was a nice place . " This leds one to believe that money was paid out to top players in the league . The Jackets won the USAHA ' s championship in 1924 and 1925 under Dick Carroll , who had coached the Toronto Arenas to the Stanley Cup in 1918 . The Yellow Jackets of the Western Division were so dominant that they spun off another Pittsburgh team , the Fort Pitt Hornets , who played in the Eastern Division . The Yellow Jackets ended up defeating their cross - town rivals , 2 - 1 , on April 11 , 1925 to win their second USAHA championship . Captain Lionel Conacher scored in the first period on an end - to - end rush and Harold Cotton scored the final goal in the team ' s history at the 13 : 00 mark of the first period by beating the Hornets ' goalie Earl Miller . The Yellow Jackets won three games and tied one against the Hornets due to solid goaltending from Roy Worters . Pittsburgh Pirates . The Yellow Jackets stopped playing after the US Amateur Hockey Association folded at the end of the 1924 – 25 season . When Schooley encountered financial problems he sold the team to James Callahan , a lawyer from Pittsburgh ' s Lawrenceville . Callahan wanted to move the team to a professional league . As a result he was granted an NHL team which became the Pittsburgh Pirates , stealing the name from the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball club . The core of the Pirates was formed from the stars of the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets . Among the Jackets - turned - Pirates were two Hockey Hall of Famers - - Lionel Conacher , who would be named Canadian male athlete of the half century , and goalie Roy Worters . The Pirates would operate from 1925 until 1930 . Yellow Jackets II . The Pirates left Pittsburgh and became the short - lived Philadelphia Quakers in 1930 , due to issues related to the Great Depression and the failure to find a replacement for the aging Duquesne Gardens . Shortly afterwards a second version of the Yellow Jackets returned to Pittsburgh after Schooley re - acquired the team . This team played in the IHL . The team completely folded in 1937 when they were later purchased by Pittsburgh theatre chain owner , John Harris , who also purchased the Detroit Olympics in October 1936 . He later moved the Olympics to Pittsburgh and renamed them the Pittsburgh Hornets . Logos and Uniforms . The Yellow Jackets wore yellow wool jerseys with a " P " on the front of their jerseys in 1924 . The wool jerseys featured black felt lettering would become the Pirates first set of jerseys . The team used the Pittsburgh ' s city crest emblems on the uniform sleeves . John McMahon , a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Press once referred to the color of the home jerseys as a " dingy mustard yellow . " When the Yellow Jackets evolved into the City ' s first NHL team , the Pittsburgh Pirates , the color scheme followed . In fact when the City ' s second NHL team , the Pittsburgh Penguins wanted to change their uniform colors from blue and white to black and gold , a move protested by the Boston Bruins , the Pirates - Yellow Jackets jerseys were showcased as precedence for the move .