CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: The Stanley Cup History And Traditions

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In 1892, Lord Stanley of Preston, then Governor General of Canada, bought a decorative silver bowl in London for about ten guineas, or roughly fifty dollars at the time. Stanley and his children had become keen hockey fans after watching games in Montreal and Ottawa, and he wanted a prize for the best amateur club in the country. The first winners, in 1893, were the Montreal Hockey Club. Ironically, Lord Stanley never attended a championship game for his own trophy, having returned to England before the first presentation. For its early years the cup was a challenge trophy: any recognized team could challenge the holders, which sometimes meant several series in a single winter.

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The rise of professional hockey changed everything. As paid players came to dominate the sport, the trustees opened the competition to professional teams, and by 1926 the trophy had come under the control of the National Hockey League. Since then it has been awarded only to the NHL champion, although it is still technically held in trust rather than owned by the league. The small bowl has also grown. Because the names of winning players, coaches and staff are engraved on it, bands have been added to the base over the decades, and the cup now stands about 90 centimetres tall. When the bands are full, the oldest one is removed and displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, so no team’s name stays on the cup forever.

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Many traditions have grown up around the trophy. After the final game, the winning captain is usually the first to raise the cup, and he then hands it to a teammate, who skates a lap before passing it on. Many players refuse even to touch the conference championship trophies awarded earlier in the playoffs, believing that only the Stanley Cup is worth lifting. Since 1995, every member of the winning team has been allowed to spend a day with the cup. Players have carried it to their hometowns, children’s hospitals and lakeside cottages, eaten breakfast cereal out of it, and even used it to baptize their babies.

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Such adventures have not always gone smoothly. According to a well-known legend, members of the Ottawa Silver Seven kicked the cup onto the frozen Rideau Canal in 1905 and returned the next day to recover it. It has also been left at the side of a road, forgotten in a photographer’s studio and dented more than once. Today, a staff member from the Hall of Fame known as the “Keeper of the Cup” accompanies it wherever it goes and wears white gloves when handling it. The engraving is not perfect either; several names are misspelled. The fragile original bowl was retired in the late 1960s, and the one presented today is a copy.