The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoff champion. Commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, it is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the governor general of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top amateur ice hockey club. It is the oldest existing trophy awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America. The first Cup was presented in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club. Professional teams became eligible to challenge for it in 1906, and beginning in 1915 the NHA and PCHA champions met annually to determine its winner.