Memorial Cup
Encyclopedia
The Memorial Cup is a junior ice hockey
club championship trophy awarded annually to the Canadian Hockey League
(CHL) champion. It is awarded following a four-team, round robin tournament between a host team and the champions of the CHL's three member leagues: the Ontario Hockey League
(OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
(QMJHL) and Western Hockey League
(WHL). Fifty-nine teams are eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup, representing nine provinces and four American states. The Saint John Sea Dogs
are the current champions, defeating the hosting Mississauga St. Michael's Majors
3-1 in the 2011 championship final on May 29, 2011.
The trophy was originally known as the OHA Memorial Cup and was donated by the Ontario Hockey Association
(OHA) in 1919 to be awarded to the junior champion of Canada. From its inception until 1971, the Memorial Cup was open to all Junior A teams in the country and was awarded following a series of league, provincial and regional playoffs culminating in an east-west championship. The three-league tournament format began in 1972 when the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
divided the Junior A rank into two tiers, naming the Memorial Cup as the championship of the Major Junior level.
The Memorial Cup was proposed by Captain James T. Sutherland
during World War I, who wanted to create a trophy as a memorial to remember the OHA's players who died during the war. When the trophy was created, it was dedicated in honour of the soldiers who died fighting for Canada in the war. It was rededicated to honour all soldiers who died fighting for Canada in any conflict during the 2010 tournament.
The Ontario Hockey Association’s annual meeting was unanimous that a fitting memorial be established to members of the OHA who had fallen on the field of war.
"Past President Capt. J.T. Sutherland, now in France, spoke of the splendid work done by Canadian boys in France and suggested the erection of a suitable memorial to hockey players who have fallen."
--The Globe, Toronto, Ontario, Dec. 9, 1918.
"The (Memorial) cup, coveted prize of Canadian junior hockey, was the brainchild of Capt. Jim (Sutherland) when he was overseas in the Great War (1914–18) and at the time, President of the Ontario Hockey Association (1915–17). He wrote suggesting the trophy in memory of the boys who were killed in the war and no doubt a big part of the idea was instigated by his devotion to his beloved (Alan) Scotty Davidson*, who fell (June 6, 1915) with many other hockey players in the world conflict (including Capt. George T. Richardson*, who died in France, Feb. 9, 1916. (*Both are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.) --William J. Walshe, Comments on Sport, The Kingston Whig-Standard, Jan. 6, 1939.
It started as an East-versus-West format, where the George Richardson Memorial Trophy
champions from the East would play the Abbott Cup
champions from the West.
From 1919 to 1928, the Memorial Cup Final was a two-game total goals affair between a champion from Eastern Canada and a champion from Western Canada, both of which were determined through a series of playdowns under the auspices of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
. In 1929, the Memorial Cup Final became a best-of-three series.
In 1934, when the junior hockey teams were further divided between Junior 'A' and Junior 'B', the Memorial Cup served as the Junior 'A' championship trophy, and the Sutherland Cup
became the Junior 'B' trophy. From 1937 the Memorial Cup was a best-of-five series, and in 1943 reverted back to a best-of-seven series.
For the 1971–1972 season
, the Junior 'A' rank was further split into the Major Junior rank and a second-tier rank (referred nowadays as Junior 'A'), with the Memorial Cup serving as the Major Junior championship trophy, and the Manitoba Centennial Trophy, and later the Royal Bank Cup
, serving as the second tier championship trophy.
In 1972, the Memorial Cup was contested between three teams: the champions of the three leagues
of the Canadian Hockey League
: the President's Cup Champs (WHL)
, J. Ross Robertson Cup Champs (OHL)
, and the President's Cup Champs (QMJHL)
. From 1972 to 1973 these three teams played a single round-robin
(two games each), with the top two teams advancing to a single-game final. A semi-final game was added in 1974. In 1977 the tournament was expanded to a double round-robin (four games each), with no semi-final. The tournament was held at a pre-determined site which was rotated among the three leagues.
The 1983 Memorial Cup tournament saw the inclusion of a fourth team, the team hosting the event, which was done to boost tournament attendance. The first tournament under this format was held in Portland, Oregon
, and marked the first time that an American
city hosted the Memorial Cup. The host Winter Hawks
also won the Cup that year, becoming the first American team to win the Memorial Cup. The four teams played a single round-robin (three games each). If two teams are tied for third place, then a tie-breaker game is played on Thursday, followed by a semi-final game between the second and third-place teams and a final between the first-place team and the semi-final winner. The site of the tournament continued to be rotated between the three leagues. This is the format that continues to be used today.
If the host team also wins its respective league championship, the Memorial Cup berth reserved for the league champion is instead awarded to that league's runner-up. This was the case in 2006, when the Quebec Remparts
lost to the Moncton Wildcats
in the QMJHL Finals. However, since Moncton was hosting the Memorial Cup that year, Quebec was awarded the QMJHL berth to the Memorial Cup tournament. The Remparts went on to win the Memorial Cup that season, the first time that a team has won the tournament without qualifying as the tournament host or as the champions of their respective league.
In the history of the cup, there has only been one major mishap with the cup itself. A replica trophy, which is the one teams are presented with on the ice after the game, broke apart while Spokane Chiefs
captain Chris Bruton tried to hand it off to a teammate after being presented the cup on the ice at the 2008 tournament. The crowd started heckling after the replica cup broke apart, while the Spokane Chiefs took apart the trophy and shared it around with teammates. The official cup is currently held at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
It is considered one of the hardest trophies to win in sports, as there are currently 59 teams competing each year to make the tournament, and a player has a maximum of five years to win it due to age restrictions.
Junior ice hockey
Junior hockey is a catch-all term used to describe various levels of ice hockey competition for players generally between 16 and 20 years of age...
club championship trophy awarded annually to the Canadian Hockey League
Canadian Hockey League
The Canadian Hockey League is an umbrella organization that represents the three Canadian-based major junior ice hockey leagues for players 16 to 20 years of age. The CHL was founded in 1975 as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, and is composed of its three member leagues, the Western Hockey...
(CHL) champion. It is awarded following a four-team, round robin tournament between a host team and the champions of the CHL's three member leagues: the Ontario Hockey League
Ontario Hockey League
The Ontario Hockey League is one of the three Major Junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 15-20.The OHL also operates under the Ontario Hockey Federation of Hockey Canada....
(OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League...
(QMJHL) and Western Hockey League
Western Hockey League
The Western Hockey League is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada...
(WHL). Fifty-nine teams are eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup, representing nine provinces and four American states. The Saint John Sea Dogs
Saint John Sea Dogs
The Saint John Sea Dogs are a major junior ice hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, entering the league as an expansion team in 2005. The Sea Dogs play at Harbour Station, Saint John, New Brunswick, with a capacity of 6,488...
are the current champions, defeating the hosting Mississauga St. Michael's Majors
Mississauga St. Michael's Majors
The Mississauga St. Michael's Majors are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League, based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The team was originally known as the Toronto St. Michael's Majors, whose hockey program was founded and operated by St. Michael's College School in 1906...
3-1 in the 2011 championship final on May 29, 2011.
The trophy was originally known as the OHA Memorial Cup and was donated by the Ontario Hockey Association
Ontario Hockey Association
The Ontario Hockey Association is the governing body for the majority of Junior and Senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Other Ontario sanctioning bodies along with the...
(OHA) in 1919 to be awarded to the junior champion of Canada. From its inception until 1971, the Memorial Cup was open to all Junior A teams in the country and was awarded following a series of league, provincial and regional playoffs culminating in an east-west championship. The three-league tournament format began in 1972 when the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
Hockey Canada
Hockey Canada, formally known as the Canadian Hockey Association, is the national governing body of ice hockey in Canada and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Hockey Canada controls a vast majority of ice hockey in Canada, with a few exceptions...
divided the Junior A rank into two tiers, naming the Memorial Cup as the championship of the Major Junior level.
The Memorial Cup was proposed by Captain James T. Sutherland
James T. Sutherland
James Thomas Sutherland was a Canadian ice hockey player, coach, administrator, and developer. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame....
during World War I, who wanted to create a trophy as a memorial to remember the OHA's players who died during the war. When the trophy was created, it was dedicated in honour of the soldiers who died fighting for Canada in the war. It was rededicated to honour all soldiers who died fighting for Canada in any conflict during the 2010 tournament.
History
Often referred to as the ‘Father of Hockey’, Captain James T. Sutherland is the man responsible for the Memorial Cup. The well-traveled Kingston shoe salesman was a great hockey booster and administrator, championing his hometown of Kingston as the birthplace of hockey. Two of his former players and two of Kingston’s greatest hockey stars died in World War I; Alan (Scotty) Davidson was lost in battle in 1915 just one year after he helped the Toronto Blueshirts win the Stanley Cup and another Kingston hockey great, Capt. George T. Richardson, was killed in action in 1916. Capt. Sutherland, who was also overseas, was President of the Ontario Hockey Association and he brought forward the idea to present a trophy to honour all the young Canadian hockey players who died in battle and have it awarded to the best junior hockey team in Canada. The idea for the Memorial Cup was born:The Ontario Hockey Association’s annual meeting was unanimous that a fitting memorial be established to members of the OHA who had fallen on the field of war.
"Past President Capt. J.T. Sutherland, now in France, spoke of the splendid work done by Canadian boys in France and suggested the erection of a suitable memorial to hockey players who have fallen."
--The Globe, Toronto, Ontario, Dec. 9, 1918.
"The (Memorial) cup, coveted prize of Canadian junior hockey, was the brainchild of Capt. Jim (Sutherland) when he was overseas in the Great War (1914–18) and at the time, President of the Ontario Hockey Association (1915–17). He wrote suggesting the trophy in memory of the boys who were killed in the war and no doubt a big part of the idea was instigated by his devotion to his beloved (Alan) Scotty Davidson*, who fell (June 6, 1915) with many other hockey players in the world conflict (including Capt. George T. Richardson*, who died in France, Feb. 9, 1916. (*Both are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.) --William J. Walshe, Comments on Sport, The Kingston Whig-Standard, Jan. 6, 1939.
It started as an East-versus-West format, where the George Richardson Memorial Trophy
George Richardson Memorial Trophy
The George T. Richardson Memorial Trophy was presented annually from 1932 until 1972 by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to the Eastern Canadian Junior "A" Champions. The trophy is named in honour of George T. Richardson, an Allan Cup winner with Queen’s University in 1909...
champions from the East would play the Abbott Cup
Abbott Cup
The Abbott Memorial Cup, commonly referred to as the Abbott Cup, was awarded annually from 1919 through 1999 to the Junior "A" ice hockey Champion for Western Canada....
champions from the West.
From 1919 to 1928, the Memorial Cup Final was a two-game total goals affair between a champion from Eastern Canada and a champion from Western Canada, both of which were determined through a series of playdowns under the auspices of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey play in Canada from 1914 until 1994 when it merged with the Canadian Hockey Association or Hockey Canada....
. In 1929, the Memorial Cup Final became a best-of-three series.
In 1934, when the junior hockey teams were further divided between Junior 'A' and Junior 'B', the Memorial Cup served as the Junior 'A' championship trophy, and the Sutherland Cup
Sutherland Cup
The Sutherland Cup is the ice hockey Ontario Junior "B" Provincial Championship trophy. The Sutherland Cup is now the championship trophy of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Until 2007, the Cup served as an interleague provincial championship...
became the Junior 'B' trophy. From 1937 the Memorial Cup was a best-of-five series, and in 1943 reverted back to a best-of-seven series.
For the 1971–1972 season
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...
, the Junior 'A' rank was further split into the Major Junior rank and a second-tier rank (referred nowadays as Junior 'A'), with the Memorial Cup serving as the Major Junior championship trophy, and the Manitoba Centennial Trophy, and later the Royal Bank Cup
Royal Bank Cup
The Royal Bank Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament held to determine the Canadian Junior A champion. The winner of the tournament wins the Royal Bank Cup...
, serving as the second tier championship trophy.
In 1972, the Memorial Cup was contested between three teams: the champions of the three leagues
Sports league
League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...
of the Canadian Hockey League
Canadian Hockey League
The Canadian Hockey League is an umbrella organization that represents the three Canadian-based major junior ice hockey leagues for players 16 to 20 years of age. The CHL was founded in 1975 as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, and is composed of its three member leagues, the Western Hockey...
: the President's Cup Champs (WHL)
President's Cup (WHL)
The Ed Chynoweth Cup is an ice hockey club championship trophy awarded to the playoff champion of the Western Hockey League . Originally called the President's Cup when the league was founded in 1966, the trophy was renamed in 2007 to honour Ed Chynoweth's long service to junior hockey in Canada...
, J. Ross Robertson Cup Champs (OHL)
J. Ross Robertson Cup
The J. Ross Robertson Cup is an ice hockey trophy awarded annually to the winner of the Ontario Hockey League playoff championship. It was presented by and named for John Ross Robertson, the president of the Ontario Hockey Association who served from 1899 to 1905.Originally it was awarded to the...
, and the President's Cup Champs (QMJHL)
President's Cup (QMJHL)
The President's Cup is awarded annually by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to the league's playoffs champion.--Winners—Teams that went on to win the Memorial Cup are listed in bold font.-External links:* List of trophy winners....
. From 1972 to 1973 these three teams played a single round-robin
Round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...
(two games each), with the top two teams advancing to a single-game final. A semi-final game was added in 1974. In 1977 the tournament was expanded to a double round-robin (four games each), with no semi-final. The tournament was held at a pre-determined site which was rotated among the three leagues.
The 1983 Memorial Cup tournament saw the inclusion of a fourth team, the team hosting the event, which was done to boost tournament attendance. The first tournament under this format was held in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, and marked the first time that an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
city hosted the Memorial Cup. The host Winter Hawks
Portland Winter Hawks
The Portland Winterhawks are a major junior ice hockey team based in Portland, Oregon, playing in the Western Hockey League, a member league in the Canadian Hockey League. They play their home games at the Memorial Coliseum, though typically a few games each season are also played in the...
also won the Cup that year, becoming the first American team to win the Memorial Cup. The four teams played a single round-robin (three games each). If two teams are tied for third place, then a tie-breaker game is played on Thursday, followed by a semi-final game between the second and third-place teams and a final between the first-place team and the semi-final winner. The site of the tournament continued to be rotated between the three leagues. This is the format that continues to be used today.
If the host team also wins its respective league championship, the Memorial Cup berth reserved for the league champion is instead awarded to that league's runner-up. This was the case in 2006, when the Quebec Remparts
Québec Remparts
There have been two junior ice hockey franchises known as the Quebec Remparts that played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The first franchise played from 1969 to 1985; the current franchise has played since 1997. Both franchises were based out of Quebec City, Quebec...
lost to the Moncton Wildcats
Moncton Wildcats
The Moncton Wildcats are a junior ice hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. They play at the Moncton Coliseum in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada....
in the QMJHL Finals. However, since Moncton was hosting the Memorial Cup that year, Quebec was awarded the QMJHL berth to the Memorial Cup tournament. The Remparts went on to win the Memorial Cup that season, the first time that a team has won the tournament without qualifying as the tournament host or as the champions of their respective league.
In the history of the cup, there has only been one major mishap with the cup itself. A replica trophy, which is the one teams are presented with on the ice after the game, broke apart while Spokane Chiefs
Spokane Chiefs
The Spokane Chiefs are a major junior ice hockey team that plays in the Western Hockey League based out of Spokane, Washington. The team plays its home games at the Spokane Arena. Their uniforms are similar to those of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. Spokane consistently ranks in the top 10 in the...
captain Chris Bruton tried to hand it off to a teammate after being presented the cup on the ice at the 2008 tournament. The crowd started heckling after the replica cup broke apart, while the Spokane Chiefs took apart the trophy and shared it around with teammates. The official cup is currently held at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
It is considered one of the hardest trophies to win in sports, as there are currently 59 teams competing each year to make the tournament, and a player has a maximum of five years to win it due to age restrictions.
Memorial Cup Tournament awards
- Stafford Smythe Memorial TrophyStafford Smythe Memorial TrophyThe Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy is a Canadian Hockey League trophy, awarded to the most valuable player in the annual Memorial Cup Tournament...
- (MVP) - George Parsons TrophyGeorge Parsons TrophyThe George Parsons Trophy is awarded annually to the player judged to be the most sportsmanlike at the Memorial Cup ice hockey tournament. It was first awarded in 1973. The trophy is named for George Parsons, a former OHA and NHL player whose career was ended prematurely in 1939 by an eye...
- (Sportsmanship) - Hap Emms Memorial TrophyHap Emms Memorial TrophyThe Hap Emms Memorial Trophy is awarded to the outstanding goaltender at the Memorial Cup of the Canadian Hockey League.The award is named after Leighton "Hap" Emms, who led four teams to championship victories at the Memorial Cup in the 1950s and 1960s....
- (Outstanding Goaltender) - Ed Chynoweth TrophyEd Chynoweth TrophyThe Ed Chynoweth Trophy is awarded to the leading scorer at the Memorial Cup tournament. It was first awarded in 1996. In the case of a tie in points, the award is given to the player with the fewest games played. If they have played the same number of games, the award goes to the player with the...
- (Leading scorer) - Memorial Cup All-Star Team