Monday Milestone: Lord Stanley’s Mug
This Week in History
1892, March 18
Lord Stanley of Preston donates a trophy to North American hockey beginning the tradition of the Stanley Cup.
“There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which now matches elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly, and under rules generally recognised, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team”
– Lord Stanley’s instructions, 1892
What’s in a trophy?
From the time kids begin playing sport they are enticed to compete with two distinct motivations: a feeling of superiority over their peers; and a traditional prize at the end of the season, usually some sort of gilded incentive, to reward their efforts.
The logic follows then, that as the children get older and more serious, so should their trophies. But by the time they reach professional status, the paycheques and the glory have certainly grown, yet in most sports, the silverware has not.
Hockey, on the other hand, bucks this trend. The Stanley Cup, presented to the team that wins the NHL each year, is enormous. It must be among the grandest trophies across sport on the planet.
So the Milestone heads back this week to 1892 when Lord Stanley of Preston created this monster by purchasing a silver bowl for less than $US50. The simple engraving “Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup” on the side, the original Stanley Cup was certainly unassuming.
Fast forward to today, and the Stanley Cup remains the oldest professional trophy in North America. Over more than a century, it has undergone plenty of refurbishment, and collected its fair share of superstitions, stories and misadventures along the way. The stature of “Lord Stanley’s Mug” has grown from a humble piece of silverware into a symbolic global institution.
You’ll find it somewhere in Los Angeles today as the NHL’s perpetual trophy. It currently stands almost a yard high and weighs in somewhere around 15.5kg, its many layers engraved with the names of players, coaches, trainers and pretty much anyone else involved in a championship. Former Montreal Canadien Dickie Moore’s name is reportedly engraved on the trophy six times – somehow spelt five different ways. And when they run out of space, they simply remove and archive the oldest layer, and add a new one. Genius.
Just don’t touch the Stanley Cup before it has been rightfully won. It’s purportedly terrible luck. An irrational concept, perhaps, but with a moral lesson entwined: Hands off until you’ve earned it. In fact, don’t touch any conference trophies either, lest the hockey gods somehow see it fit to deny any potential success.
But should you prove victorious and manage have your name engraved, tradition dictates that players must first skate around the rink first of their triumph with the huge cup lofted above their heads in victory. Then they must fill it with champagne and toast their success.
A disturbing thought, given some of its misadventures. For instance, in 1905, the Senators tried to drop kick the Cup across Rideau Canal in Ottawa. Fortunately it was frozen over. The Penguins in 1991 decided to test its buoyancy in various pools. For the record, it does not float. Furthermore it has been used to plant geraniums and baptise urinating children (yes, seriously), picking up more than its fair share of dents along the way. Suddenly the champagne does not seem so enticing.
Nonetheless, many people would still give anything to drink from the Stanley Cup, a humble prize that grown in size and stature to become one of the truly great enormous pieces of sporting silverware anywhere in the world.
That’s some trophy.
Milestone Five: Awesome trophies across the globe
5. US Masters – Not really a trophy but there is something to be said about receiving an item of clothing – a green jacket for winning the grandest golf tournament in the world. Same could be said about the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
4. Claret Jug – Still on golf, the Open Championship winner receives a silver replica of the jug first awarded in the 1870s.
3. America’s Cup – Have you ever seen that thing? It's massive. Perhaps they never expected to move it from the New York Yacht Club. Pity Australia II changed everything in 1983.
2. Winfield Cup – Now a defunct trophy, the NRL trophy for fourteen seasons (1982-95) represented a different, tremendous era in the great game of rugby league. Many look upon these years as the greatest in the history of the game
1. Stanley Cup – The grandest trophy in the Americas now stands 89cm high, and will not need a new layer created until approximately the 2018-19 season.
With thanks to Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America for the picture
