The Cup was first created in 1892, well before the NHL was even considered. Lord Stanley paid fifty dollars for its creation. Lord Stanley was at the time, the Governor-General of Canada, a title given to the Queen’s representative. It was, and still is, a ceremonial appointment with no actual power.
The actual price paid was not in loonies all, but rather was then 10 guineas, and was so paid to a London silversmith for what has become hockey’s most famous hardware.
The trophy, of course, was not intended for an award to professionals at all, perhaps influenced by the fact that none then existed.
Indeed, the terms of the award of the silver were strictly national in origin and limited to the best amateur team in “The Dominion”, and I am pretty sure he did not mean the grocery store.
He then appointed two trustees, Philip Dansken Ross and Sheriff John Sweetland, to administer the trust. The trophy was first awarded to the AHAC champion Montreal Hockey Club and thereafter to the champions of the same league or to any pre-approved team on a challenge basis.
Lord Stanley intended in his words, that this would be a “challenge cup“, open to those who met its criteria, which were rather clearly set out as follows:
I have for some time been thinking it would be a good idea if there were a challenge cup which would be held from year to year by the leading hockey club in Canada. There does not appear to be any outward sign of the championship at present. Considering the interest that hockey matches now elicit and the importance of having the games fairly played under generally recognized rules, I am willing to give a cup that shall be held annually by the winning club.
These terms were straightforward. The hardware was to be given to the best team…slow down right here..in Canada and guess what else..it was ( and I cannot recall him ever changing this one before he set sail for the land of cricket and soccer, the latter in England still being in effect, kinda sorta, a challenge system ) a challenge cup.
The name of the award engraved on its very self smacks home all these points – The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup – surely these words alone say it all.
Such was indeed the case for the first years of the Cup’s existence.
The actual terms of the trust stated as follows:
1. The winners shall return the Cup in good order when required by the trustees so that it may be handed over to any other team which may win it.
2. Each winning team, at its own expense, may have the club name and year engraved on a silver ring fitted on the Cup.
3. The Cup shall remain a challenge cup, and should not become the property of one team, even if won more than once.
4. The trustees shall maintain absolute authority in all situations or disputes over the winner of the Cup.
5. If one of the existing trustees resigns, the remaining trustee shall nominate a substitute.
The two trustees then developed the following rules;
- The Cup is automatically awarded to the team that wins the title of the previous Cup champion’s league, without the need for any other special extra contest.
- Challengers for the Cup must be from senior hockey associations, and must have won their league championship. Challengers will be recognized in the order in which their request is received.
- The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) are to be decided either in a one-game affair, a two-game total goals affair, or a best of three series, to the benefit of both teams involved. All matches would take place on the home ice of the champions, although specific dates and times would have to be approved by the trustees.
- Ticket receipts from the challenge games are to be split equally between both teams.
- If the two competing clubs cannot agree to a referee, the trustees will appoint one, and the two teams shall cover the expenses equally. If the two competing clubs cannot agree on other officials, the referee will appoint them, and the two clubs shall also pay the expenses equally
- A league could not challenge for the Cup twice in one season.
Sheriff Sweetland died in 1907. He was replaced by William Foran who died in 1945. Upon Foran’s death, Ross, one of the two original trustees, appointed Cooper Smeaton, the NHL’s first Referee-in-Chief in 1917, as his co-trustee.
Smeaton had been an active referee until 1937. He was also a coach of an NHL team for one year, the Philadelphia Quakers. His selection as an unbiased neutral may be questioned.
In 1915, the two trustees decided that as the Cup had gained international recognition, American teams would be allowed to compete. This decision was clearly contrary to the terms of the original trust grant which had determined that the Cup was intended to be awarded to the Canadian champion. It would not be the last such violation.
in 1931 a challenge was issued by the American Hockey League to play the winner of the NHL. The trustees accepted the challenge but the NHL refused to participate. The president of the NHL, Calder, declared the AHL to be a “rogue” league. Certainly in 1931, the NHL had no legal right to make this determination. One of the trustees, Foran, was terminated from his position of president of the Ottawa Senators due to his participation in this decision.
In 1947, the surviving trustees executed an agreement to allow the NHL the right to award the Stanley Cup. Ross signed this document in 1947 in his ninetieth year.
This agreement violated the terms of the trust. Indeed the entire premise of the NHL being the custodian of the Stanley Cup is no doubt contrary to the spirit and the original terms of the trust.
The 1947 agreement threw out the terms of the original trust and caved to the NHL. This document dramatically revised the terms of the initial grant. It allowed the league to reject challenges from other leagues. It notably used this as authority to reject a challenge from the World Hockey Association to compete for the Cup.
This was the nasty trick used by the trustees to avoid the terms of the original trust. It is clearly illegal.
These newly amended terms read as follows:
- 1. The Trustees hereby delegate to the League full authority to determine and amend from time to time the conditions for competition of the Stanley Cup, including the qualifications of challengers, the appointment of officials, the apportionment and distribution of all gate receipts, provided always that the winners of this trophy shall be the acknowledged World’s Professional Hockey Champions.
- 2. The Trustees agree that during the currency of this agreement they will not acknowledge or accept any challenge for the Stanley Cup unless such a challenge is in conformity with the condition specified in paragraph one (1) thereof.
- 3. The League undertakes the responsibility for the care and safe custody of the Stanley Cup including all necessary repairs and alterations to the cup and sub-structure as may be required from time to time, and further undertakes to insure the Stanley Cup for its full insurable value.
- 4. The League hereby acknowledges itself to be bound to the Trustees in the sum of One Thousand Dollars, which bond is conditioned upon the safe return of the Stanley Cup to the Trustees in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, and it is agreed that the League shall have the right to return the trophy to the Trustees at any time.
- 5. This agreement shall remain in force so long as the League continues to be the world’s leading professional hockey league as determined by its playing caliber, and in the event of dissolution or other termination of the National Hockey League, the Stanley Cup shall revert to the custody of the trustees.
- 5. In the event of default in the appointment of a new trustee by the surviving trustee, the “Trustees” hereby delegate and appoint the Governors of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario, to name two Canadian trustees to carry on under the terms of the original trust, and in conformity with this Agreement.
- 6. And it is further mutually agreed that any disputes arising as to the interpretation of this Agreement or the facts upon which such interpretation is made, shall be settled by an Arbitration Board of three, one member to be appointed by each of the parties, and the third to be selected by the two appointees. The decision of the Arbitration Board shall be final.
It is ironic that this championship trophy is founded in such clearly illegal activity.
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