Television rankings and advertising dollars will let you know that championship trophies like The Vince Lombardi trophy in the NFL and the Commissioner’s Trophy in Major League Baseball are the most important prizes to be won in pro sports.

Within the pantheon of final prizes in professional sports activities, however, no sport trophy can match the historical past, mystique, or even the aesthetic aura of Lord Stanley’s Cup. No different sport allows the victors to drink the celebratory champagne from the very trophy they have simply secured while reading the names of the victorious teams that came earlier than them.

The Holy Grail of hockey was established in 1892 as a present from Governor General of Canada Lord Frederick Stanley of Preston to be awarded to the top amateur staff of the land. From 1914 till 1922, the 2 greatest teams the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA)would face off for the prize every year, each year the winner would have the team, management and club staff engraved onto the cup to permanently emblazon their team and their names throughout hockey history.

In 1922, a third league entered the fray for the Stanley Cup when the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) joined with the now re-named NHL and the PCHA. The three staff scramble lasted till 1924 when the WCHL and PCHA merged. By 1926, the only league left competing for Lord Stanley’s Mug was the NHL. Though other leagues would compete for the Stanley Cup till the 1940′s, no crew outside of the NHL was able to safe hockey’s biggest prize.

The Cup is rarely duplicated for past champions to get pleasure from like sports trophies in other main sports. Rather, the exact same cup is turned over from the previous yr’s champion to the brand new victor if they should fail to defend it. In other phrases, if you wish to benefit from the Stanley Cup for greater than only one year, your team must earn the appropriate to maintain it.

It’s the exclusivity of the cup that adds to it is elusiveness. Players will refuse to the touch the cup until they have earned the correct by securing the NHL Championship and having their names perpetually etched in immortality. Hockey Legend Ray Borque waited 21 lengthy years earlier than hoisting hockey’s holy grail.

The Stanley Cup also has a constantly altering picture in a means that no different major championship trophy can match. Because the historical past of the sport grows, so does the trophy. What was once a bowl measuring simply over 7 inches in peak now stands almost 3 feet tall and weighs over 34 pounds. As every ring turns into filled with the names of winners past, a new ring is added in order that future victors might be part of the historic ranks on the hallowed cup.

Tagged with: •

Filed under: Michael Oher

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!