Roy Dunlap Schooley was a former hockey referee who later became the manager of both Duquesne Gardens, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the United States Amateur Hockey Association. In 1925, the Yellow Jackets hockey club, evolved into the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League. On March 16, 1920 at the Duquesne Gardens, he helped found USA Hockey, the governing body for amateur ice hockey in the United States. That same year, he assembled the first U.S. Olympic Hockey Team which won a silver medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium and is credited with helping to foster the growth of hockey in the country.

The Duquesne Gardens was the main sports arena located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the first half of the 20th century. Built in 1890, the building originally served as a trolley barn, before becoming a multi-purpose arena. The Gardens opened three years after a fire destroyed the city's prior sports arena, the Schenley Park Casino, in 1896. Over the years, the Gardens was the home arena of several of Pittsburgh's historic sports teams, such as ice hockey's Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Hornets. The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which was the first ice hockey league to openly hire and trade players, played all of its games at the Gardens. The arena was also the first hockey rink to ever use glass above the dasher boards. Developed locally by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, Herculite glass was first tested in Pittsburgh. Most rinks were using wire mesh before the shatterproof glass was invented. Finally, the Pittsburgh Ironmen, a charter member of the Basketball Association of America, played at the Gardens from 1946 to 1947.