09-18-2004, 12:52 PM
From the Toronto Star:
What would Lord Stanley think of this?
GARTH WOOLSEY
Who wants to play for the Stanley Cup?
Not interested, it would seem, are the National Hockey League and its teams and players, who have plunged into a collective bargaining deep freeze that threatens to wipe out an entire season, complete with playoffs and Cup presentation.
So the Stanley Cup, strictly speaking, is for grabs. The independent trustees who control the original version of the trophy could choose to award it — if not the actual hardware, then something else representing the spirit of the thing at least — to someone other than the NHL champion, especially if there is no champ.
Under the terms of the award, stated by old Lord Stanley himself, the trophy is open to challenge. "I have for some time been thinking," wrote Canada's sixth governor general, back in 1892, "it would be a good idea if there were a challenge cup which could be held from year to year by the leading hockey team in Canada."
Forget the Maple Leafs (ha!) or the Calgary Flames. That could be your team, brother (or sister).
As the competition evolved, of course, the Cup was awarded to teams outside Canada, too, and with the eventual formation of the NHL, the Cup was adopted as the symbol of that league's championship. The "challenge" aspect has long since been co-opted by the world's top professionals.
But actual stewardship of Lord Stanley's legacy has been passed down through generations of trustees, independent of any league. The current keepers are Brian O'Neill and Ian (Scotty) Morrison.
"Under agreement, the National Hockey League owns the Stanley Cup," Morrison, former chief of NHL officiating and former head of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said this week. "Your next question is, what happens if there is no NHL? In that case, it falls back to the trustees — Brian O'Neill and myself. There are some hockey historians who view the Stanley Cup as a challenge trophy. But it really isn't. The trophy itself belongs to the NHL."
In fact, the original bowl presented by Lord Stanley, the real deal, is on permanent display at the Hall in Toronto and is not a component of the familiar trophy presented each spring. There are, in fact, two such large trophies we all recognize so easily — a so-called "original" (in fact, an old copy) that has been kicking around for decades and an exact replica, so that one can always be on display at Yonge and Front while the other is out and about.
The "original copy" is easily distinguished by the old Hockey Hall of Fame logo on its bottom, Morrison said. But he said the real deal, the motherlode, the actual ornate bowl that cost 10 guineas (less than $50) way back when, never goes anywhere and is far less popular with visitors to the Hall than the later incarnations of what is in fact called the Dominion Challenge trophy, but almost immediately became known familiarly as the Stanley Cup.
While the pair of iconic trophy clones may physically "belong" to the NHL, the original is what the trustees are charged with protecting — and, it belongs to all of us, in the purest sense. Surely the spirit of the Stanley Cup belongs to the people, to the hockey fans of Canada. In Lord Stanley's day, hockey was amateur in the best sense of the word — the NHL assumed control of the competition after 1926. Could the name, the old award, the original honour — if not the actual hardware, then some new spinoff — go to someone else this spring, if there is no functioning NHL?
Morrison acknowledged that he and O'Neill would have to consider the options, at least.
"Say this `Original Six' league being organized out in Mississauga, or wherever, suppose that thing gets off the ground with current or former NHL players. I could see someone there saying, `Hey, we'd like to challenge for the Stanley Cup. We're NHL players, former players.' I guess we'd have to get into it with the league, and the lawyers," said Morrison.
Randy Gumbley, the man behind the six-team Original Stars Hockey League, a four-a-side stop-gap league that proposes to tour across the country, said: "That's all news to me. I had no clue. As it is we have a trophy, the Assante Cup, being sponsored by the Assante financial management group."
As for a possible "challenge" for the Stanley Cup, Gumbley added: "I'll have to sleep on it." Then: " If I'd only thought of it earlier ..."
Should it get off the ground, the proposed World Hockey Association, featuring Bobby Hull as commissioner, might be interested. The Star was not able to contact Lord Stanley's heir, the 19th Earl of Derby, Sir Edward Richard William John Stanley, the great-great-grandson of the Cup's namesake, to ask his opinion on these matters. Living in England, Sir Stanley, at last report (three years ago) had never actually seen an "ice hockey" game, let alone visited Canada.
The only year since 1893 that the mug wasn't awarded was 1919, when the finals were called off due to more natural causes than the current ones — an influenza outbreak suspended the playoff series between Montreal Canadiens and a team from Seattle, with it at two wins each, one game tied.
"At this point, none of us like to think of (the entire season being wiped out)," said Morrison. "We all hope there will be a resolution, there will be a season, there will be the Stanley Cup being presented."
As for the Cup going to anyone but the NHL champions, Morrison said he thinks fans would have mixed emotions. As angry as they may become with a prolonged work stoppage, hockey fans love their traditions, too.
"I really don't know. I think there would be enough people, fans, who said `No, no, no,' that the Stanley Cup belongs to the NHL."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garth Woolsey is a Star sports columnist.
What would Lord Stanley think of this?
GARTH WOOLSEY
Who wants to play for the Stanley Cup?
Not interested, it would seem, are the National Hockey League and its teams and players, who have plunged into a collective bargaining deep freeze that threatens to wipe out an entire season, complete with playoffs and Cup presentation.
So the Stanley Cup, strictly speaking, is for grabs. The independent trustees who control the original version of the trophy could choose to award it — if not the actual hardware, then something else representing the spirit of the thing at least — to someone other than the NHL champion, especially if there is no champ.
Under the terms of the award, stated by old Lord Stanley himself, the trophy is open to challenge. "I have for some time been thinking," wrote Canada's sixth governor general, back in 1892, "it would be a good idea if there were a challenge cup which could be held from year to year by the leading hockey team in Canada."
Forget the Maple Leafs (ha!) or the Calgary Flames. That could be your team, brother (or sister).
As the competition evolved, of course, the Cup was awarded to teams outside Canada, too, and with the eventual formation of the NHL, the Cup was adopted as the symbol of that league's championship. The "challenge" aspect has long since been co-opted by the world's top professionals.
But actual stewardship of Lord Stanley's legacy has been passed down through generations of trustees, independent of any league. The current keepers are Brian O'Neill and Ian (Scotty) Morrison.
"Under agreement, the National Hockey League owns the Stanley Cup," Morrison, former chief of NHL officiating and former head of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said this week. "Your next question is, what happens if there is no NHL? In that case, it falls back to the trustees — Brian O'Neill and myself. There are some hockey historians who view the Stanley Cup as a challenge trophy. But it really isn't. The trophy itself belongs to the NHL."
In fact, the original bowl presented by Lord Stanley, the real deal, is on permanent display at the Hall in Toronto and is not a component of the familiar trophy presented each spring. There are, in fact, two such large trophies we all recognize so easily — a so-called "original" (in fact, an old copy) that has been kicking around for decades and an exact replica, so that one can always be on display at Yonge and Front while the other is out and about.
The "original copy" is easily distinguished by the old Hockey Hall of Fame logo on its bottom, Morrison said. But he said the real deal, the motherlode, the actual ornate bowl that cost 10 guineas (less than $50) way back when, never goes anywhere and is far less popular with visitors to the Hall than the later incarnations of what is in fact called the Dominion Challenge trophy, but almost immediately became known familiarly as the Stanley Cup.
While the pair of iconic trophy clones may physically "belong" to the NHL, the original is what the trustees are charged with protecting — and, it belongs to all of us, in the purest sense. Surely the spirit of the Stanley Cup belongs to the people, to the hockey fans of Canada. In Lord Stanley's day, hockey was amateur in the best sense of the word — the NHL assumed control of the competition after 1926. Could the name, the old award, the original honour — if not the actual hardware, then some new spinoff — go to someone else this spring, if there is no functioning NHL?
Morrison acknowledged that he and O'Neill would have to consider the options, at least.
"Say this `Original Six' league being organized out in Mississauga, or wherever, suppose that thing gets off the ground with current or former NHL players. I could see someone there saying, `Hey, we'd like to challenge for the Stanley Cup. We're NHL players, former players.' I guess we'd have to get into it with the league, and the lawyers," said Morrison.
Randy Gumbley, the man behind the six-team Original Stars Hockey League, a four-a-side stop-gap league that proposes to tour across the country, said: "That's all news to me. I had no clue. As it is we have a trophy, the Assante Cup, being sponsored by the Assante financial management group."
As for a possible "challenge" for the Stanley Cup, Gumbley added: "I'll have to sleep on it." Then: " If I'd only thought of it earlier ..."
Should it get off the ground, the proposed World Hockey Association, featuring Bobby Hull as commissioner, might be interested. The Star was not able to contact Lord Stanley's heir, the 19th Earl of Derby, Sir Edward Richard William John Stanley, the great-great-grandson of the Cup's namesake, to ask his opinion on these matters. Living in England, Sir Stanley, at last report (three years ago) had never actually seen an "ice hockey" game, let alone visited Canada.
The only year since 1893 that the mug wasn't awarded was 1919, when the finals were called off due to more natural causes than the current ones — an influenza outbreak suspended the playoff series between Montreal Canadiens and a team from Seattle, with it at two wins each, one game tied.
"At this point, none of us like to think of (the entire season being wiped out)," said Morrison. "We all hope there will be a resolution, there will be a season, there will be the Stanley Cup being presented."
As for the Cup going to anyone but the NHL champions, Morrison said he thinks fans would have mixed emotions. As angry as they may become with a prolonged work stoppage, hockey fans love their traditions, too.
"I really don't know. I think there would be enough people, fans, who said `No, no, no,' that the Stanley Cup belongs to the NHL."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garth Woolsey is a Star sports columnist.