It’s hard to not cover the world’s most famous sporting trophies without looking Stateside.
Stanley Cup (Ice Hockey)
The Stanley Cup is unique in many ways, it isn’t reproduced each year, and winning National Hockey League playoff champion players, coaches and staff get their names engraved on it (including spelling mistakes and scratched-out names).
Commissioned in 1892 by the NHL, it’s passed from champion to champion, earning legendary status in North America as it keeps growing as additional bands are added to accommodate the newest winner. This means it now stands at 89.5 centimetres (35+1⁄4 inches) tall and weighs 15+1⁄2 kilograms (34+1⁄2 lb).
Originally called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, it was renamed to honour the Governor-General of Canada, Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, who donated the original silver cup.
In the NHL there are also impressive looking famous trophies for individual player awards:
- The Hart Memorial Trophy – MVP (most valuable player to his team) in the National Hockey League.
- The Calder Memorial Trophy – “most proficient in his first season”
- The Vezina Trophy – Best goalie.
- The James Norris Memorial Trophy – Best defender,
- The Art Ross Trophy – Most points at the end of the regular season
Not inspiring the same awe, there is also the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Trophy (an international tournament outside NHL).
Vince Lombardi Trophy (NFL)
Crafted by Tiffany & Co., this trophy is awarded to Super Bowl champions in American Football. Each year a new one is made, and the cup is named after famed coach Vince Lombardi, with the sterling silver iconic trophy features a football in a kicking position.
Individual winners also get a Super Bowl ring with the winning team’s name, logo, and a Lombardi Trophy outline. Famous winners include the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers who have both won 6 times.
Commissioner’s Trophy (MLB) | The World Series Trophy
Awarded to the World Series champions has been an icon of Major League Baseball lore since 1967. Proud previous holders have included the New York Yankees (7), St. Louis Cardinals (4), and Boston Red Sox (4).
It’s also unique in that it’s not named after a person (the only championship trophy of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada in North America)
The current design was created by Tiffany & Co. Crafted from sterling silver, the trophy stands 24 inches (61 cm) tall (excluding the base), measures 11 inches (28 cm) in diameter, and weighs approximately 30 pounds (14 kg).
Encircling the silver structure are 30 gold-plated flags, each representing one of the MLB teams. These rise above a silver baseball engraved with latitude and longitude lines, symbolising the global reach of the sport, and detailed with 24-karat gold vermeil stitching. The base of the trophy bears the Commissioner’s signature and the inscription: “Presented by the Commissioner of Baseball.”
The original trophy, introduced in 1967 and designed by Balfour Jewellers of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was modelled on Wrigley Field and initially cost $2,500 (approximately $23,575 in today’s terms). It featured 20 gold-plated flags to represent the MLB clubs at the time, with more added as the league expanded. At its centre stood a golden ring and a golden baseball, while the competing World Series teams were denoted by press pins mounted on the base.
Outside of the USA is the WBSC World Baseball Classic Trophy which is like the World Cup for baseball Global teams (Japan, Korea, USA, Cuba).
Larry O’Brien Trophy (NBA)
This elegant trophy is the championship trophy awarded annually by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to the winner of the NBA Finals.
The design by artist Victor Solomon is a life-sized basketball over a hoop and basket first awarded in 1977 as the Walter A. Brown Trophy, but changed name in 1984 to honour former NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien who served from 1975 to 1984.
It’s another trophy made by Tiffany & Co, and stands two feet tall, made from 15.5 pounds of sterling silver and vermeil with a 24 karat gold overlay.
In Basketball there is also the EuroLeague Trophy (the top basketball competition in Europe) and the FIBA World Cup Trophy, an International basketball equivalent of the FIFA World Cup.
The America’s Cup
The America’s Cup deserves a mention as the sailing competition is the oldest international sporting trophy, dating back to 1851. It’s also got a fascinating backstory.
The cup itself was manufactured in 1848 by Garrard & Co and was then the “RYS £100 Cup”, also called the Auld Mug and is an ornate sterling silver bottomless ewer. It was bought for winner of the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 1851 Annual Regatta around the Isle of Wight, which was watched by Queen Victoria who lived there at Osborne house.
The New York Yacht Club’s schooner America won, hence the name now (although sometimes called the Queens Cup as she presented it), and in 1857 they donated the cup to the New York Yacht Club via the Deed of Gift of the America’s Cup which contains rules of how the race should work. It was filed with the New York Supreme Court to ensure propensity of the sportsmanship and conduct involved.
The Deed states that the cup “is donated upon the condition that it shall be preserved as a perpetual challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries” and “distinctly understood that the cup is to be the property of the club [that has most recently won a match for the cup], subject to the provisions of this deed, and not the property of the owner or owners of any vessel winning a match”.
It’s a great one on one format too. The previous champion (known as the defender) take on a challenger to retain their crown. There is no fixed day/time/year. Just when it’s manageable by both parties.
The original format was competed 20 times up until 1967. But in 1970, multiple challengers created a need for a Challenger Selection Series, to find the most worthy, which remains the format today.
What is more remarkable is the NYYC successfully defended the trophy 24 times in a row, so held the trophy 1851 to 1983 making a 132 year winning streak. You can just imagine the devastation when they finally lost to Australia II of the Royal Perth Yacht Club.
The current holders are Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, who successful defended their title in the 2024 America’s Cup.
Each of the winning yachts is inscribed which has seen additional matching bases to accommodate more names, along with an early engraving incorrectly calling it the 100 Guinea Cup instead of sovereigns.
