Hockey referee Despite his positive impact in promoting
ice hockey in the United States, Schooley was actually born in
Canada. On April 13, 1880, he was born in
Welland,
Ontario. He studied law at the
University of Toronto, however his fascination with sports diverted him away from that career path. Schooley then came to Pittsburgh in 1901 and worked as a hockey referee. Since the sport was new to most Pennsylvanians, he was viewed as an expert on the sport. Schooley officiated several of the teams associated with the
Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL), the first hockey league to openly hire and trade players. During the
1903-04 season officiated inner-state six games between the
Portage Lakes Hockey Club and several teams from the WPHL. He also served as a referee at the Duquesne Garden from 1906-1908. However the
Pittsburgh Press reported on January 5, 1908, that he resigned from his officiating duties, because he could not arrange to with his employers to get away two nights of the week at referee games. On January 14, 1908, the
Pittsburgh Press made mention of Schooley returning to work as the referee of a game between the
Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the
Pittsburgh Lyceum. Schooley became a nationalized citizen of the United States on September 27, 1912. However outside of his league and manager duties, Schooley also served as his team's coach at times. On December 5, 1922, he briefly took over coaching duties for the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets at the request of the team's coach,
Dinny Manners, to prepare the team against the
Toronto Argonauts. According to former sports reporter Paul Sullivan, who covered hockey for much of his life for the
Pittsburgh Gazette Times, the USAHA was not 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 leads one to believe that money was paid out to top players in the league. The eastern teams of USAHA soon imported Canadian players,to add to their rosters of local players. In 1923, Schooley had invited
Lionel Conacher, a future
Hall of Famer, to come and ref in Pittsburgh in February 1923, "to see if the crowd would take to him". Schooley then asked Conacher to play with the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets in a four-game series against his former teammates, and the
Toronto Aura Lee hockey team, and against the
Hamilton Tigers. Conacher impressed the Pittsburgh fans by scoring 11 of the Yellow Jackets' 23 goals in the four games. Conacher then under the guidance of Roy Schooley, transformed the Yellow Jackets line-up to an almost Canadian team. Schooley was president of the new team,
1920 U.S Hockey team In 1920, Schooley became the manager of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team. As manager of the Olympic squad, he had full power to select the players for the team. Schooley knew the Pittsburgh players well enough and also evaluated other players from both
Boston and
St. Paul, when they were at the Duquesne Garden for games in early to mid-March. On March 16, 1920 he named his team.
Forwards:
Joe McCormick,
Larry McCormick and
Herb Drury of Pittsburgh;
Frank " Moose" Goheen and
Anthony Conroy of St. Paul; and
George Geran and
Frank Synott of Boston.
Defensemen:
Irving Small and
Leon Tuck of Boston; and
Ed Fitzgerald of St. Paul.
Goaltenders:
Raymond Bonney of Pittsburgh and
Cyril Weidenborner of St. Paul. Schooley later named Joe McCormick from Pittsburgh as the team's captain. However $15,000 was still need to fund the team's trip to Antwerp, so Schooley used the Duquesne Garden as the source of the funds. His intent was to play two series of two games each against "worthy" opponents at the Gardens. The first series on March 22–23 would be against the Winnipegs, while an opponent remained to be named for March 29–30 games. All money beyond the guarantee paid to the visitors and "bare overhead expenses" would go to the Olympic team. The team that Schooley built won a silver medal at the Antwerp Games.
Media and politics It was during this time that he also became a reporter for the
Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph and the
Gazette Times. After working on a few general assignments, Schooley was promoted to covering city politics. He soon became a member of the
Republican Party and gained the backing of those politically active in the city and
county. Political officials were impressed with his executive ability and his faculty of grasping political situations, leading Schooley to become the leading figure in several campaigns. He soon was put in charge of
Joseph G. Armstrong's 1913 mayoral bid. Once Armstrong was elected mayor in 1914, Schooley was given the title "Secretary to the Mayor". However, after a series of newspaper attacks against the Armstrong Administration, Schooley was transferred to the position of
city clerk in charge of the Pittsburgh
public works division. In 1917 Schooley became the campaign manager for Edward V. Babcock, who would go on to become Pittsburgh's mayor in 1918. After Babcock's victory, Schooley was made the city treasurer. He later became the superintendent for the city's bureau of recreation. In 1926, he helped elect
John S. Fisher,
Governor of Pennsylvania as well as assist
Charles H. Kline in getting re-elected mayor of Pittsburgh. Schooley was then reappointed as the city's treasurer. However, he was forced from the Treasurer's Office in 1931, the result of a purchasing scandal. The failure of the Franklin Savings and Trust Company, brought forth an audit of the Treasurer's Office, since that office was in charge of distributing funds linked to the company. The audit revealed that the city's money was not protected by bonds, as required by law. Other irregularities soon developed which led to a jury indictment of Schooley on embezzlement and misdemeanor charges. Schooley was then removed from office by Charles Kline, who himself was under fire for the scandal. At the same time, Schooley became ill and was unable to even leave his home to attend his own trial. The hearing was postponed indefinitely and charges were still pending at the time of his death. He died at his home in Pittsburgh on November 13, 1933, surrounded by his friends and family. ==Notes==