Often referred to as the most beautiful trophy in sports, the Stanley Cup is every hockey players’ dream. But how many Stanley Cups are there in the world? This week’s NHL trivia touches on that.
Every major sports league in North America makes a new trophy every season. What made the Stanley Cup special was that there was only one. Turns out, that’s not entirely true. Want to impress your friends at NHL trivia? Point out that there are actually three Stanley Cups in the world.
There is the original Lord Stanley’s Cup, a Presentation Cup, and a replica of the Presentation Cup. The original Stanley’s Cup goes way back to 1892, when the Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley Preston gave the Cup to award the best amateur hockey team. He loved hockey and wanted this Cup to represent his legacy as the Governor General.
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Since then, it went through many transformations. Sometimes, when players won the Cup, they would engrave their names onto the bowl. To avoid that, in 1924, the league added a three-foot-long cylinder to the bottom of the bowl where they could properly put the names of the champions. That lead to the addition of bands that we see today.
Then, in 1963, the president of the NHL, Clarence Campbell decided that the Stanley Cup was becoming too brittle for his liking. (at that point the Cup was 71 years old and had endured a ton of misuse) He remade the Cup with the five bands and it is still being used to this day.
In 1993, a replica called the “Presentation Cup” was made by a silversmith in Montreal. Its purpose is to be displayed in the Hall of Fame and to be given to players when they have their day to celebrate with the Cup. Everyone has heard of the crazy stories the Cup has been through, whether it’s baptizing children, getting drop-kicked into the Rideau Canal, and to an active war zone in Afghanistan to boost the morale of Canadian and American troops. There is no way that the league would trust the authentic, 125-year-old trophy with drunken players, so the Presentation Cup is used instead.
Even though the Stanley Cup has three different variations, it is still considered the greatest trophy in sports. It’s the only trophy where every member of the championship team is engraved and it’s the only trophy where a new replica isn’t made for every team.