Career
He played for the Ottawa Hockey Club and later moved to Pittsburgh and to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba to play professionally. As one of the first professional ice hockey players, he captained and managed several of the championship teams in the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL). Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Sixsmith first played senior hockey at the age of 15 with the Ottawa Cliffsides of the Ottawa City Hockey League.
He played junior hockey until 1899 when he joined the Ottawa Hockey Club, playing two seasons for the club, scoring seven goals in nine games.
He also played for the Canadian Soo in 1900. In 1901, Art visited Pittsburgh on his way back to Ottawa from his wedding in Campbellton, New Brunswick.
In Pittsburgh he met Arthur McSwigan and the two men founded the WPHL. He then turned professional with the WPHL"s Pittsburgh Keystones, for which he played with for the next three seasons. In 1903, became the capatain and manager of the Pittsburgh Victorias.
However, in 1905, the WPHL teams were consolidated into the Pittsburgh Professionals of the International Professional Hockey League (IPHL).
Art then served as the captain of the Professionals for the next two seasons. In 1906, he also moved to Portage la Prairie to play for the Portage Cities of the Manitoba Professional Hockey League (MPHL). When the WPHL was revived in 1907, Art returned to Pittsburgh and played with the Pittsburgh Bankers for two further seasons.
In 1909, he played several games with the Cities before retiring from competitive play.
In 1915, Art became the manager of the Pittsburgh Winter Garden hockey team However the team only lasted one season, before disbanding in 1916.
Following his hockey career he went into the banking industry working his way up the corporate ladder in Mellon Banking to become Andrew West. Mellon"s personal assistant. He held this position during Mr.
Mellon"s tenure working for United States. Presidents: Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Warren G. Harding.
During this time he amassed a personal fortune of over ten million dollars only to lose it in the stock market crash of 1929. He retired to Florida, later lived with a son in Cheyenne, Wyoming and died in Titusville, Florida in 1969.