This Day in Hockey History – March 18, 1892 – Raising a Cup to the Cup

Mar 18, 2020

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Ottawa’s celebration of hockey on March 18, 1892 would lead to the biggest hockey celebrations in North America. For a banquet held in honor of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club (OAAC), Lord Stanley of Preston sent a memo announcing the creation of a “challenge cup” to be presented annually to the “champion hockey team in the Dominion.” The first presentation of the Stanley Cup would occur the following April, and today the NHL continues the tradition of annually awarding and celebrating the Stanley Cup champions.

Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley became Canada’s sixth Governor General on June 11, 1888. At Montreal’s 1889 Winter Carnival, Lord Stanley and his entire family became hooked on hockey. They quickly had their own rink built outside of their Ottawa residence, Rideau Hall. Apparently, only a month after seeing the carnival’s hockey game, in March 1889 his daughter Isobel played on a women’s team there.

Stanley’s sons, Arthur and Algernon, formed the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels, and in 1890, Arthur established the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). The OAAC was a founding member of the OHA and won its first three championships. For their second of these, in 1892, they had “a record as honorable in the making as it was splendid in success” of 9-1-0. While they had scored 53 goals in these championship contests, they only allowed 19 goals against.

On March 18, 1892, the OAAC celebrated its second championship with a dinner held at the Russell House Hotel, which was located between the current National War Memorial and the National Arts Centre. It was the first formal dinner ever held by the OAAC and proved “very enjoyable” with a “menu as good as appearances promised.” About 70 to 80 attended with still more ladies joining the festivities after dinner.

The OAAC’s president, J.W. McRae, was the chairman leading the evening’s program from 10 to midnight. He gave a toast to Queen Victoria and to the health of Lord Stanley, who could not attend. Then, Stanley’s aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Viscount Frederick Rudolph Lambart Kilcoursie, presented a memo on Lord Stanley’s behalf. According to the press, “The reading of the letter was greeted with enthusiastic applause.” With these words, the Stanley Cup was born.

I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion.

There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.

I am not quite certain that the present regulations governing the arrangement of matches give entire satisfaction, and it would be worth considering whether they could not be arranged so that each team would play once at home and once at the place where their opponents hail from.

Kilcoursie explained that Stanley’s former military secretary, Captain Charles Colville of the Grenadier Guards, would order the cup while in England. The seven-by-eleven-inch silver punch bowl he chose was made in Sheffield, England and purchased from G.R. Collis and Company for 10 guineas (over $50 then and about $1,385 today). The rim was engraved with “Dominion Hockey Challenge Trophy” and “From Stanley of Preston.”

After more toasts and introductions to all the champion players, “Lord Kilcoursie sang an original ditty about the doings of the team, referring in turn to each man, and winding up with a rousing chorus.” The song, “The Hockey Men,” was written in the team’s honor. The first three verses included the lyrics:

There is a game called hockey

There is no finer game

For though some call it 'knockey'

Yet we love it all the same.

This played in His Dominion

Well played both near and far

There's only one opinion

How 'tis played in Ottawa.

Then give three cheers for Russell

The captain of the boys.

However tough the tussle

His position he enjoys.

And then for all the others

Let's shout as loud we may

O-T-T-A-W-A!

The banquet ended with everyone drinking to the health of the OAAC and renditions of “God Save the Queen” and “Auld Lang Syne.”

Later, once the cup was obtained, Ottawa Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross served as trustees to award the trophy. They named it the Stanley Cup in Lord Stanley’s honor, and it was ready as of May 1, 1893. Although it was specifically meant to reward challengers, the very first recipients were controversial for the lack of a true challenge. The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association received the trophy as the champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC). Although they had been defeated by this Montreal team during the season, Ottawa took issue with not being allowed to challenge for the Stanley Cup. They finally would do so the following March but failed to take the Cup from Montreal. However, the Ottawa team went on to win many challenges and eventually became known as the Senators. They were members of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and its successor, the NHL, until they were moved to St. Louis in 1934.

Meanwhile, in July 1893, Lord Stanley returned to England to take over as the 16th Earl of Derby. He never presented his own cup nor even saw a challenge game for the honor. Still, for his role in promoting the sport of ice hockey, Stanley was one of the original Hockey Hall of Fame inductees.

The Stanley Cup remained a challenge cup until 1914, when it became the award for the interleague champions. Since 1926, the Cup has become solely the trophy of the NHL playoff champs.