The Stanley Cup

It all started on March 18, 1892, at a dinner of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association. Lord Kilcoursie, a player on the Ottawa Rebels hockey club from Government House, delivered the following message on behalf of Lord Stanley, the Earl of Preston and Governor General of Canada:

Shortly thereafter, Lord Stanley purchased a silver cup measuring 7 ½ inches high by 11 ½ inches across for the sum of 10 guineas (approximately $50); appointed two Ottawa gentlemen, Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross, as trustees of that cup; and set the following preliminary conditions to govern the annual competition:

• The winners to return the Cup in good order when required by the trustees in order that it may be handed over to any other team which may win it.

• Each winning team to have the club name and year engraved on a silver ring fitted on the Cup.

• The Cup to remain a challenge competition and not the property of any one team, even if won more than once.

• The trustees to maintain absolute authority in all situations or disputes over the winner of the Cup.

• A substitute trustee to be named in the event that one of the existing trustees drops out.

The first winner of the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) hockey club, champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada for 1893. Ironically, Lord Stanley never witnessed a championship game nor attended a presentation of his trophy, having returned to his native England in the midst of the 1893 season. Nevertheless, the quest for his trophy has become one of the world's most prestigious sporting competitions.

UP

Stanley Cup Notebook

The Original Bowl
The bowl that currently sits atop the Stanley Cup is a carefully constructed copy of the original bowl purchased by Lord Stanley in 1893. The original trophy was retired in 1969 because it had become brittle and easily damaged. It can still be viewed and studied at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Growth of the Cup
In the early days, players added their names to the trophy by scratching them onto the original bowl with a knife or a nail. From the 1890s to the 1930s, various bands were added to the bottom of the bowl to hold the names of the winning teams and their players. Throughout this time, the appearance of the Cup kept changing almost from year to year. In 1939, the Stanley Cup was given a standardized form as a long, cigar-shaped trophy. It stayed this way until 1948, when it was rebuilt as a two-piece trophy with a wide barrel-shaped base and a removable bowl and collar. The modern one-piece Cup was introduced in 1958.

Women on the Cup
Seven women have had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup: Marguerite Norris (1955) was president of the Detroit Red Wings; Sonia Scurfield (1989) was a co-owner of the Calgary Flames; Marie-Denise DeBartolo York (1991) was president of the Pittsburgh Penguins; Marian Ilitch (1997, 1998) was a co-owner of the Detroit Red Wings; Denise Ilitch (1997, 1998) with the Detroit Red Wings, Lisa Ilitch (1997, 1998) with the Detroit Red Wings and Carole Ilitch Trepeck (1997, 1998) with the Detroit Red Wings.

Playoff Postponements
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. forced the postponement of three series games during the quarterfinal rounds of the 1968 Stanley Cup playoffs. Match-ups between the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers, and Minnesota North Stars and Los Angeles Kings were delayed by a minimum of two days.

Stanley Before Calder
Tony Esposito and Danny Grant both won the Stanley Cup one year and the Calder the next with different teams. Grant was a member of the 1968 Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens before winning the Calder as the NHL's top rookie in 1969 with Minnesota. Tony Esposito won the Cup with the Canadiens in 1969 and the Calder the following season with the Chicago Blackhawks. A player remains eligible for the Calder if he has played 25-or-fewer NHL regular-season games.

Conn Smythe Trophy Update
A total of 31 different players have won the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player to his team in the playoffs. The trophy was first awarded in 1965. Four players - Bobby Orr, Bernie Parent, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux - have won the award twice. Patrick Roy is the only three time winner. Four players - Roger Crozier of the 1966 Detroit Red Wings, Glenn Hall of the 1968 St. Louis Blues, Reg Leach of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers and Ron Hextall of the 1987 Philadelphia Flyers - have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as members of losing teams in the Finals. Twenty-year-old Patrick Roy of the 1986 Montreal Canadiens was the youngest player ever to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. The Conn Smythe Trophy is voted upon by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) at the conclusion of the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Shutouts
Since the NHL was established in 1917, at least one shutout has been recorded in every playoff year except 1959 (18 games).

Crease Captain on the Cup
Charlie Gardiner, captain of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1934, is the only goaltender to have his name appear on the Cup as the captain of a Cup-winning team.

U.S.-Based Teams in the Stanley Cup Championship
The 1916 Portland Rosebuds were the first team based in the United States to participate in a Stanley Cup championship, while the 1917 Seattle Metropolitans were the first to win the Cup. The Detroit Red Wings have won nine Stanley Cups, more than any other American team, and were the first to win back-to-back titles (1936 and 1937).

Sub-.500 Teams in the Stanley Cup Championship
Fifteen teams have advanced to the Stanley Cup Championship after posting regular-season records below the .500-mark. The complete list follows:

The Oldest Goalie
When Johnny Bower appeared in his last playoff game on April 6, 1969, at the age of 44 years, four months and 38 days, he became the oldest goalie to appear in an NHL playoff game. Lester Patrick at 44 years, three months, and eight days and Jacques Plante at 44 years, two months, and 19 days are more-than-honorable mentions.

Eye in the Sky
For the first time in NHL history, a playoff result was determined by a video replay during the 1992 Division Semifinals between the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars. In overtime Sergei Fedorov's shot appeared to hit the crossbar. After a stop in play, referee Rob Shick consulted the supervisor of officials and video-replay official Wally Harris, who determined that the puck had entered the net, giving the Wings a 1-0 victory.

Back-to-Back Winners
Many players have won consecutive championships in their careers, but few have ever accomplished the feat with two different teams. One player, Eddie Gerard, won the Cup with the 1921 Ottawa Senators, 1922 Toronto St. Pats and again in 1923 with the Senators. A total of 10 different players have accomplished the feat:

Penalty Shots in the Stanley Cup Championship
A total of seven penalty shots have been awarded to players in Stanley Cup Championship history:

Canadiens Own Mark for Pro Titles
The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cup Championships, more than any other team. The total is the second greatest number of championships in the history of professional sports. Major League Baseball's New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles.

Gold Medalist and Stanley Cup Champion
New York Islanders' defenseman Ken Morrow is the only player in hockey history to win both an Olympic Gold Medal and a Stanley Cup in the same year. After helping the United States Olympic team win the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, Morrow joined the New York Islanders and helped them win the first of their four consecutive Stanley Cup championships.

UP

The Stanley Cup: The Early Years

For a century now, the Stanley Cup has reigned unchallenged as the symbol of supremacy in the sport of ice hockey. It had humble beginnings, indeed, but over the years has become steeped in legend and lore. It is hockey's Holy Grail.

For fans across North America, the very words "Stanley Cup" have a special ring to them. A tightening of emotions. A quickening of pulse. A sense of anticipation. The promise of excitement.

Is their anything in sports to match a draining tensions of Stanley Cup sudden death? The boundless joy of victory, or the deepest gloom of a heartbreaking loss? For hockey fans, there is nothing like it anywhere.

The Stanley Cup has it all - tension, fear, pressure. For the winners, it is everything. For the losers, nothing.

Since its inception in 1892, the Cup has provided one thing above all others - drama. The once squat trophy glitters now from its silvery perch at the Hockey Hall of Fame, but is has suffered countless indignities along the way.

Men have spent small fortunes and lifetimes in pursuit of having their names engraved on one of the many silver bands that circle the famed trophy. The Cup's history had become legendary … and new chapters are added every year.

Throughout its checkered history, the Cup has been through just about everything - good and bad. But it has always gone to hockey's best team, as simple as that. It's the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America, predating by seven years the famous Davis Cup trophy of tennis.

There was no direct competition when the Cup first came into being back in 1892. At the time it was presented by Lord Stanley of Preston, later the Earl of Derby, who was then Governor-General of Canada. The fact that Canada's numerous hockey teams were playing just for fun was brought to the attention of Lord Stanley by Lord Kilcoursie, a hockey-playing member of Lord Stanley's staff.

Stanley quickly became a hockey enthusiast, and at a dinner on March 18, 1892 he expressed his wish to do something tangible for the great winter sport. He was returning to England upon expiration of his term as Queen Victoria's representative in Canada and he felt the Cup would serve to perpetuate his memory.

Not even the wildest promoter could have envisioned the future of the Cup. It originally cost less than 10 pounds sterling, though it has since gone on to become the most famous trophy in all sports.

Initially, Lord Stanley intended his trophy be granted only to amateur teams. There was no outright professional hockey at the time, although certain players "freelanced" from club to club, selling their services to the highest bidder. "I have for some time been thinking if there were a challenge cup, which could be held from year-to-year by the leading hockey club in Canada," Lord Stanley said in offering the trophy.

"There does not appear to be any outward or visible sign of championship at present, and considering the interest that hockey matches now elicit, and the importance of having the games played under recognized rules, I am willing to give a cup that shall be annually held by the winning club," he said. Lord Stanley's proposal was hailed in local circles, and he immediately arranged for an aide, Capt. Colville, then in England, to invest in a gold-lined silver bowl. The Lord also appointed a pair of trustees to care for the trophy.

The custom of Cup trustees endures to the present, although the initial appointments seemed to work against Lord Stanley's wishes. Apparently, he had hoped the initial presentation would be made to his favorite team in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. But that didn't happen.

Although the Ottawa club was indeed a championship one, the trustees held that no one be granted "squatters' rights" to the first Cup. And that a game between Ottawa and a Toronto club would decide the winner. The game was to be played in Toronto. But the Ottawa club refused. The trustees held firm, however, and Ottawa resigned from the Ontario Hockey Association in protest. A year went by before the trustees made a new announcement:

That established the first of many ironies for the Cup: Its first winner didn't really compete for the right to have it. In another historical irony, Lord Stanley left the country before ever seeing a game between two teams compete for the trophy.

Despite the initial controversy, the Cup itself was an immediate hit, serving as the catalyst that more or less turned many amateur teams into professional operations. As interest in hockey grew and crowds increased, club owners and managers naturally started to pull out all the stops in their efforts to secure the services of more and more star players. The inducements to play grew each year, and within 20 years only professional teams fought for the right to the Cup.

With Lord Stanley gone, the Earl of Aberdeen succeeded him in Canada. Although the Earl and Lady Aberdeen occasionally attended hockey games, they were bigger fans of curling, another game played on ice that endures to this day. For that reason, the name on Lord Stanley's trophy was never changed, giving him a much greater historical note in history than most of his successors.

UP

The Stanley Cup: Famous Incidents

Shaped like a punch bowl (and often used as same by celebrating champions), the Stanley Cup quickly became the prime objective of all hockey teams in Canada.

The first two decades of competition provide some of the most famous Cup incidents.

It was March 22, 1894, when the first real game for the Stanley Cup was contested. The Amateur Hockey Association standings had finished in a four way tie between Montreal AAA, Ottawa, Quebec and the Montreal Victorias. Quebec withdrew after a dispute about scheduling, so the remaining three teams played a round robin, with Ottawa getting the bye.

Montreal AAA edged the Victorias, 3-2, for the right to play for the Cup against Ottawa on March 22. The game was very well played, and won by Montreal, 3-1, with Bill Barlow starring for the victors. A newspaper talent amusing by today's standards, read as follows:

The growth of hockey was so fantastic that by the next season, in 1895, practically every village in Canada thrived on hockey. The sport had jumped from the original hotbeds of Ontario and Quebec to the west coast, and lo and behold, a prairie team from Winnipeg, also known as the Victorias, was challenging for the Stanley Cup.

It was the Victorias of Montreal versus the Victorias of Winnipeg on February 14, 1896, at Montreal. Somehow, the westerners won, 2-0. It was such an upset, that a rematch came off less than a year later.

This one was reported as "the greatest sporting event in Winnipeg history," and believe it or not, seats were supposedly "scalped" for as much as $12 apiece. The Montreal Victorias were also reported as the "much younger team ... having a more agile appearance