FReeper Canteen ~ Get Cup Crazy ~ April 27, 2006

Colonel_Flagg

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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Get Cup Crazy!

It’s the oldest trophy in North American professional sports and it’s also the hardest trophy to win. Four rounds spread over six weeks – sixteen playoff wins requiring total commitment, heart and desire, but the result for the winner is a year’s custody of perhaps the most recognizable trophy in sports as well.

The Stanley Cup was the gift of this gentleman:

Lord Stanley of Preston, who bought the initial Stanley Cup for about $50 in 1892. At that time, it looked like this:

Note the height of the trophy, or rather the lack of the same. The original Cup lasted until 1948 when it was redesigned. By tradition (in fact, as a condition of the original challenge competition set down by Lord Stanley), each winning team would inscribe its name on a ring added to the cup, a tradition which, since 1924, has since been expanded to inscribe the names of the members of the winning team and their organizations. The Stanley Cup is thus the only trophy in North American professional sports so inscribed. The names of eight women are also inscribed on the Cup.

But equally as impressive as the Cup is the colorful history it carries. Tradition also dictates that each member of the Cup-winning team gets to take the trophy for a day and do what he pleases with it. That has led to some great stories, which follow. For more information, check out http://www.geocities.com/szczepanczyk/stanley.html. Enjoy!

1905 Ottawa Silver Seven

Hockey was a different game at the turn of the 20th Century – no forward passing was allowed in the offensive zone, and teams, as this picture will attest, only had seven players without substitutions. But that didn’t stop hijinks with the Cup. The story goes that after the Silver Seven won the Stanley Cup, one celebrant boasted he could kick it across the frozen Rideau Canal, which links Ottawa on the Ottawa River with Kingston on Lake Ontario. In a day when the Cup was a football-sized bowl and when most hockey players also played rugby, he proceeded to drop kick it into the frozen canal. (Some sources list it as being submerged.) The partiers proceeded to party elsewhere, leaving the Cup behind. The next morning, the players realized that the Cup was still at the Canal, and thankfully found it.

1907 Montreal Wanderers

Not to be outdone by the Silver Seven, the Wanderers added to Cup lore a few years later. The club reportedly wanted its picture taken with the Cup in the studio of photographer Jimmy Rice. After taking the photo, the team left – without the Cup. It stayed in the studio for some months until Rice's mother (some sources say it was his wife or his housekeeper or his cleaning lady) used it as a vase, as it held red geraniums in the Studio window.

1924 Montreal Canadiens

After winning in 1924, the Canadiens took the Cup to the home of their owner, Leo Dandurand, for a party. Naturally, hilarity ensued when the car carrying the Cup had a tire blowout. And equally naturally, the Cup was left behind on the roadside after the tire was fixed. Thankfully, it too was found where it was left. You’d think that the trophy would be easy to remember. Or, perhaps not.

1927 Ottawa Senators

King Clancy was a great defenseman of the 1920s. He was so great, in fact, that the Senators left the trophy in his living room for most of the 1927 off-season. There it served as a holder for letters, bills, chewing gum and cigar butts. Nothing like a useful piece of furniture.

1940 New York Rangers

The most famous instance of Cup misplay. In 1940, the mortgage on the then-new Madison Square Garden was paid off. The management publicly celebrated by burning the mortgage in the Cup. Some fans claimed that this act "desecrated" the Cup, leading to the alleged Curse of 1940. The Rangers waited 54 years for their next triumph.

1947 Toronto Maple Leafs

Legendary coach Conn Smythe was pretty sure of his Maple Leafs in 1947. Leading Montreal three games to two in the finals, Smythe left the Cup in Montreal knowing that it would be there to celebrate a Game Seven win for his Leafs. However, the Leafs won Game Six in Toronto, taking the series 4-2. When the time came to hoist the Cup – well, it was in Montreal. Oops. The NHL’s playoff MVP trophy is now named for Smythe – it’s a good thing the award has nothing to do with prognostication.

Late 1960s and early 1970s – No One

This is the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and our story of Cup miscues continues here. For it was from this building that the Stanley Cup was stolen, twice, in the late 1960s and early 70s along with the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Bill Masterton Trophy, presented each year for perseverance and dedication to hockey. Thankfully, even though no trophy is given for dedication to police work, all three trophes were recovered on both occasions.

1980 – New York Islanders

Meet Clark Gillies, one of the better forwards of the 1980s. His highly publicized visit with the Cup after the Isles’ first of four straight wins in 1980 featured Gillies letting his dog eat from the bowl. Good dog. Teammate Bryan Trottier, on the other hand, chose to sleep with the Cup to make sure it wasn’t a dream. Trottier would go on to win seven Stanley Cup rings – six as a player and one as an assistant coach.

1986 – Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens wing Chris Nilan was known primarily for the expert way he accumulated penalty minutes during his NHL career. Renowned (or reviled) as one of the league’s great pugilists, he achieved fame after Montreal’s 1986 win by photographing the Cup with his infant son sitting in the bowl. One would hope that Gillies had cleaned out the dog food first.

[AZamericonnie]

Don't I always??? lol That's pretty fun....till I got ripped up!:)

[EsmeraldaA]

It is annoying, isn't it? LOL!

[GodBlessUSA]

Thanks :) I'm getting carried away now.;)

[GodBlessUSA]

Excellent Pictures Ma

[Lady Jag]

Love your patriotic kitties.

What other country is this lucky to have so many patriotic pets?

[Radix]

Imagine that a barre living in Barre.

Some folks pronounce it like Berry, but I ain't one of em.

[Lady Jag]

Did you see the video? One of the cubs was very concerned with her mother and came down from the tree to nudge her and talk her into waking up.

[Kathy in Alaska]

LOL!!! How are the former 2LT and #2 brave warrior doing? How is Proud Dad doing?

[Lady Jag]

We pronounce it Barry, although we don't know anyone by that name or anyone in Barre.

[Kathy in Alaska]

No video....may I assume that it was local to Barre?

[StarCMC]

Hey Radix!! Goodtaseeya!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, angel boy.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hope you and Ms Printer are having a good day.

[Radix]

The former 2LT is playing golf and being an all around general beach bum these days.

I always knew that he'd make general someday.

I never knew that he played golf, but ever since the day that I "lent" him my clubs he seems to have grown fond of that ridiculous sport.

Imagine grown men, aiming and hitting a little ball with a metal stick so that it falls into a little hole a half mile away. Imagine them spending time walking through brush, and trees dodging mosquitoes and other wild life simply to locate an errant ball just so that they can whack at it again so that it falls by some other brush, trees, and mosquito territory.

Yeah....imagine that.........

[Lady Jag]

I thought I remembered Fox's Shepherd Smith talking about the Barre Bears, but I dream of him saying a lot of things.

[EsmeraldaA]

We are ignoring each other effectively...


Hehehehehehehe

[StarCMC]

I will never forget the day my FIL threw his club into a tree. I don't play golf at all, but it was his passion. He was so funny about it. Went out and bought a new one of the same brand and everything the next day. I new then and there I'd be sticking to putt putt! LOL

[StarCMC]

Hi Es! *HUGS!*

[Kathy in Alaska]

Well, good for the former 2LT. Have you seen your clubs since the "lending"? It is a funny game isn't it? LOL!