Joseph Wallace McCormick was a Canadian-born ice hockey player, from Buckingham, Quebec. Early in his career, during World War I, he played in Pittsburgh for the Duquesne Garden and Pittsburgh Athletic Association teams. In 1918, Joe enlisted in the U.S. Army. His older brother, Lawrence, followed his lead shortly afterwards. Joe served in the Army in France during the war. Because the brothers held an honorable discharge from the Army, they were entitled to automatic US citizenship and on March 17, 1920, just five weeks before playing in the 1920 Summer Olympics, they both became naturalized Americans.