Joseph McCormick (ice hockey)
Joseph Wallace "Joe" McCormick was a Canadian-born ice hockey player, from Buckingham, Quebec. He began his career playing for the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets, shortly before World War I broke out. In 1918, Joe enlisted in the U.S. Army. His younger 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.
He was the captain and a forward on the 1920 American ice hockey team, which eventually won the silver medal. He returned to Pittsburgh and played for the Yellow Jackets until March 30, 1922. He was one of the leading scorers in the amateur ranks throughout his career. The January 23, 1922 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described McCormick as "one of the cleanest and fairest players to ever don a uniform". The Post-Gazette also stated that he had one of the most powerful shots in hockey, "shooting past goaltenders from 50 feet away". He later ended his career with the Portland Rosebuds in 1925. On October 7, 1925, McCormick was traded to Portland along with Bobby Trapp in exchange for Eddie Shore and Art Gagne.
