CENTER TWP — His first experience with hockey was using a tree branch as a goalie stick.

Bob Arturo has since branched out in the sport — hastening the growth of youth hockey at the same time.

A Center Township resident since 1998, Arturo, 57, was recently inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame for his work in the Chicago area before returning home to serve as hockey director for the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.

Arturo grew up in the Penn Hills area and was introduced to hockey by following his sister and her boyfriend to the pond at Long Vue Country Club.

“I was in the eighth grade and a bunch of high school kids were playing hockey on the frozen pond,” Arturo said. “They needed a goalie, handed me a tree branch and put me in there.

“I’ve been in love with the game ever since.”

He went on to join friend Fred Jacob in founding the first-ever hockey team at Central Catholic High School, where he served as club president and team captain. He played hockey for the University of Pittsburgh’s club team, serving as club president and assistant captain there.

Arturo originally worked in the child development field at a home in the inner city.

“I was a naive kid from the suburbs ... They chewed me up and spit me out,” he said.

He then worked in the finance department for a car dealership, but wasn’t happy there, either.

“I hated my life. I felt like a failure,” Arturo recalled.

So he turned to something he loved.

Hockey.

Sports Dynamics, a Chicago-based company that ran Learn to Play Hockey programs throughout that city, had an opening for a hockey director in 1983.

“I interviewed and two weeks later, I moved to Chicago,” Arturo said. “That company went out of business after a year, but I loved working with kids in hockey. I knew what I wanted to do.”

For the next 15 years, Arturo proved instrumental in developing youth hockey in Chicago. For 10 years, he was owner of Kids on Ice, which ran Learn to Play Hockey programs at more than 15 rinks in the Chicago area.

For five years, he published Chicagoland Hockey, a 32-page newspaper printing 16 times a year that detailed Chicagoland youth, high school and college hockey. He opened the Orland Park Arena in Chicago in 1995.

Arturo’s dedication to the growth of youth hockey earned his induction into the Illinos Hockey Hall of Fame in its eighth year of existence.

“I just like having a positive impact on youths and hockey is a fun thing to do,” Arturo said. “After a year or so, I’m always hopeful a child feels better about life through his involvement with hockey.”

Arturo was able to spread that passion to the Pittsburgh area when he took on his current post at the Island Sports Center.

His son, Mike, was a goaltender for Butler High School and is now a freshman at Robert Morris. He also works as an amateur hockey official. His daughter, Becky, is a senior pole vaulter on the Golden Tornado track and a field team and a former gymnast.

“My wife came from a small town and we felt Chicago was too big. We wanted to get out of there,” Arturo said. “When I took the Island Sports Center job, I had family in Butler and chose to come here.

“We love this community. It’s laid back and a down home place.”

Arturo estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 families come through the Island Sports Center on a weekly basis. He started a high school inline league in 1998 that consisted of seven teams and four schools. It now has more than 100 teams and 40 schools.

Arturo began a 3-on-3 league in 1999 that has grown from 24 teams to 120.

“We get players from Butler County down here, from Indiana, Morgantown, Meadville, all over,” he said.

All told, Arturo estimates he’s introduced more than 14,000 children to hockey during his lifetime.

“The Pittsburgh Penguins’ success has a lot to do with the growth of the sport around here,” he admitted. “The Penguins are the model pro sports franchise in terms of aiding youth interest and involvement in the game.

“The work they do with area rinks and youth hickey programs is amazing.”

Still, youth hockey in Pittsburgh pales in comparison to Chicago.

“Different size market, to be sure, but the Chicago area has 90 sheets of ice while the Pittsburgh area has 30,” Arturo said. “When I came (to Chicago) in 1983, they only had 40 sheets of ice. It’s more than doubled.

“But now, in Pittsburgh, we’re getting more athletes playing the sport. For years, the best athletes in Western Pennsylvania weren’t playing hockey. That’s changing.

“Hockey has not reached its peak in this town ... not yet,” he added.