Birth of the Stanley Cup: Greatest Sports Trophy

On March twenty six teen ninety four, the very first championship series where Lord Stanley's Cup is played in Montreal, Canada, won by the Montreal Hockeya. Here's a story about the most famous trophy in all of sports and how it all began today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive in sports history. Every day you probably heard it called just the Stanley Cup or even Lord Stanley's Cup. Why is it called that? How did it become so iconic? How still today is the most famous single trophy as they do not make replicas as they do such as trophies in the NFL in Major League Baseball, there's only one trophy. Everyone gets a chance to win. This all happened after the Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada. Maybe that sounds like a bunch of gibberish if you're in America, But a lord in Britain is a politician. Being the Governor General of Canada means you are representing brown in Canada. Canada has a really close connection with Britain as the Queen and Kings are still on Canadian money to this day. And this all happened team eighty eight being in While Lord Stanley was in Canada, he got exposed to a new sport. It was ice hockey, and his whole family got engaged in it that eighteen eighty nine inter Carnival where he saw the Montreal Victorians play the Montreal Hockey Club. It was so delighted that he wanted to get involved in the sport. His sons Arthur Jerryon formed a team called the Ottawa Renewed Haul Rebels, and later Arthur played a key role in forming Ottawa Hockey Association, one of the precursors to the NHL. But Lord Stanley wanted to create a symbol for hockey for its greatness, and wanted to put on a hockey championship a great trophy as a prize. So Stanley went and purchased what is described as a decorative hunch bowl, which is more commonly known as a rose bowl made of silver in England and costs roughly sit in a half towns of Sterling, which back then was almost fifty dollars today that's about sixteen hundred dollars in today's month and on the side of the cup it says Domain Hockey Challenge Cook on the outside rim. On the other side it says from Stanley of Preston, and before the first tournament it was given the name Stanley Stuffed as he was the one that presented it and that name has stuck ever since. It was initially given to the top amateur hockey teams in Canada and has bounced around a little bit from amateurs to professionals until it got to the NHL. In eighteen ninety four, the Amateur Hockey Association Canada put together their first season, which lasted about three months and featured five teams, three from Montreal, one from Ottawa, and one from Quebec. And they each played eight games in the series and the top two teams based off win loss record and goals four and against, would play each other, and the championship featured the Montreal Hockey Club versus the Ottawa Hockey Club. The Victoria run on March twenty, eighteen ninety four. Now, this time games were played outdoors, so the weather played a large factor, and it being later in the year, ice was starting to sew and so it made the play very rough and fouling was very free. There is multiple tripping and slashing, including many injuries, especially the Ottawa's team, but this allowed Montreal take hold of the game and win three to one, coming the first team to win Lord Stanley's Cup. Now, this Cup would continue to be played for for years before it made its way to the AHL in nineteen twenty six. But the original trophy that was given has actually been retired in nineteen sixty two and put on display the Hockey Hall of Fame, and they made a new trophy, which is the large trophy we see today and the reason why it's so large is it includes every team that's ever won the championship in Greatdon so it continues to get larger and larger the more champions we have. And like I said before, this is the only trophy that has reproduced, meaning there's only one and the team that wins it, it's a fairy year till the next playoff and champion emerges. And have fun. Fact, each player in front office employee is given twenty four hours with the cup. Many take it to their hometowns, so some just have some fun with putting beer, bathwaterod all inside of it or taking it fishing or going swimming. It's arguably the most recognizable trophy in the world, and as a fun tradition, continues to this day. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please like and subscribe wherever you're at so you don't miss any episodes, because it comes out every day and we don't want you to get behind, but if you do, you can always catch up. Back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.