What is the Stanley Cup?

0:00 Welcome to History's Not Boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. A huge hockey hello to Jackson in North Vancouver, Lyndon and Arthur in Colorado, Robbie in Ontario, and Brooks and Olsen in Alberta.

0:16 Plus Jade, Jack, Hattie and Hayes in Minnesota, Lucas in Massachusetts, and a happy sixth birthday to Jack in Adina, Minnesota.

0:26 And a huge happy belated ninth birthday to Grace, listening with her brother Billy. We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Grace. With hockey season heating up, you all asked about the Stanley Cup, and this one is for all of you.

0:40 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:46 Did you know that the most famous trophy in sports started out as a tiny silver bowl that cost about 50 bucks but grew into a 34-pound silver tower?

0:56 Wait, trophies can grow? Like a plant.

1:00 Sort of. Today we're diving into the freezing, fast-paced story of Lord Stanley, a giant silver cup left in a snowbank, and the wild history of ice hockey's ultimate prize.

1:12 Okay, so if the Stanley Cup is a hockey trophy, who exactly was Stanley? Was he a famous goalie or something?

1:20 Actually, he didn't even play. Lord Stanley of Preston was born into a very wealthy and powerful family in England in 1841. In 1888, Queen Victoria selected him to be her representative in Canada.

1:36 Whoa, so he was like the Queen's boss representative for the whole country.

1:41 Exactly. He was the Governor General. Lord Stanley was 47 years old when he arrived, and he brought his family with him. Back in England, he liked traditional sports like cricket and horse racing. But Canada in the winter is absolutely freezing cold.

1:59 So how did a cricket fan discover ice hockey?

2:02 It happened on February 4, 1889. Lord Stanley and his family were invited to the Montreal Winter Carnival. They walked into the Victoria Skating Rink right in the middle of a hockey match between the Montreal Victorias and the Montreal Hockey Club. Wait, did they stop the game when he walked in? They actually did.

2:24 The players literally stopped skating on the ice. The band started playing God Save the Queen to welcome him because he was practically royalty. But as soon as the game restarted, Lord Stanley was absolutely mesmerised. Did his kids like the game too? Oh, they were obsessed. His sons Edward and Arthur and his daughter Isabel all started playing.

2:48 Lord Stanley even built an outdoor ice rink right next to their giant house in Ottawa.

2:53 That is the ultimate backyard setup. Wait, you said his daughter played too?

2:58 Yep. In March 1889, Isabel played in what is believed to be the first ever women's hockey match. Okay, so they love hockey.

3:08 But where does the giant silver cup come in?

3:11 Well, by 1892, Lord Stanley realised there was a huge problem. Hockey was exploding in popularity. Canada had all these great teams, but there was no central championship trophy to prove who was the absolute best team in the land. So he just decided to go out and buy one for them. Exactly! On March 18, 1892, Lord Stanley sent a letter announcing he would donate a challenge cup.

3:38 Soon after, he bought a silver bowl from a shop in London.

3:42 A bowl? Like for serving juice or soup at a fancy dinner party.

3:47 Yes, exactly like that. It was a silver punch bowl. And get this, it only cost 10 guineas, which was about $50 in 1892 money. Today, that's worth about $1,300.

4:02 $50 originally? Trophies today can cost tens of thousands of dollars. How big was this bowl exactly?

4:09 It was tiny compared to today. The original bowl was only 7.28 inches tall and about 11.42 inches wide in diameter. It really just looked like a fancy, shiny salad bowl.

4:23 Wait, I'm so confused. I have seen pictures of the Stanley Cup. It is absolutely huge. It is almost as tall as me. How on earth did a tiny 7-inch salad bowl turn into a massive trophy?

4:37 It's all because of a special tradition. Lord Stanley had the words Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup engraved on the side. The very first winner was the Montreal Hockey Club in 1893. But they started a tradition where, whenever a team won, they got to literally carve their team's name right into the silver.

4:57 Oh, so as more and more teams won year after year, did they just run out of room on the little bowl?

5:03 Exactly. By 1924, it became an official tradition to engrave not just the team name, but the names of every single player, coach, and manager of the winning team onto the cup. There was no space left on the bowl, so they had to attach giant silver rings to the bottom of it to make more space. So every year, they just added a new silver layer.

5:25 How big is it now? Today, thanks to all those extra rings, the Stanley Cup is 35.25 inches tall, which is almost three feet, and it weighs exactly 34.5 pounds. That is as heavy as a solid cinder block or a medium-sized dog.

5:45 Wait, so when they win, they are lifting a cinder block over their heads while balancing on sharp ice skates. That sounds dangerous.

5:54 It's incredibly heavy, but players dream their whole lives of getting to lift it. And get this: there are over 3,400 names engraved on the cup throughout its history. When the bottom ring gets full, they take off the oldest ring and lock it away in the Hockey Hall of Fame to make room for a new one.

6:15 That is so cool. It's like a living history book. Wait, what happens after they lift it on the ice? Do they just hand it back and put it in a boring glass case?

6:27 Nope. This is the absolute best and craziest part of the Stanley Cup. It's the only professional sports trophy where the winning team gets to keep it for the entire summer. Every single player gets to take the cup home for one whole day to do whatever they want with it.

6:45 Uh-oh. I feel like giving a giant heavy silver bowl to a bunch of celebrating hockey players could lead to some seriously wild adventures.

6:54 You have no idea. Let's travel back in time to 1905. A team called the Ottawa Silver Seven had just won the cup. They were having a massive celebration party, and one player bet his teammates that he could drop-kick the cup all the way across the frozen Rideau Canal.

7:12 Are you serious? Did he actually kick a silver trophy like a football? Did he make it across?

7:18 Haha, not even close. He kicked it, and the cup landed right in the middle of the frozen ice on the canal. And the craziest part? They just left it there overnight in the freezing cold. They had to go back the next morning in the daylight to rescue it from a snowbank. Oh, it gets so much crazier. Let's jump to 1924.

7:41 The Montreal Canadians were driving the cup to a victory party at their owner's house. But on the way, their car got a flat tyre. So they took the cup out of the trunk, set it gently on a snowbank on the side of the road, and went to work changing the tyre.

7:58unknown Ha!

7:58 Let me guess. They finished fixing the tyre, drove away, and completely forgot the most important trophy in sports on the side of the road.

8:08 Yup. They drove all the way to the party, walked in empty-handed, realised they forgot the cup, and had to race back down the road in a total panic. Luckily, it was still sitting right there in the snow where they left it.

8:23 Wow! People in the past were so irresponsible. Have there been any modern disasters?

8:29 Oh, definitely. In 1991, hockey superstar Mario Lemur decided to see if the cup could float, so he tossed it straight into his fancy swimming pool. Spoiler alert, a 34-pound solid silver and nickel trophy does not float. It sank straight to the bottom like an anchor.

8:51 Haha, that's hilarious. What is the absolute weirdest thing someone has done with it?

8:56 Players have eaten giant bowls of cereal out of it, fed their dogs out of it, and in 1996, a player named Sylvan Lefebvre actually used the Stanley Cup at a church to baptise his baby daughter Jade.

9:11 Wait, Jade? Like Jade in Minnesota from our listener shout-outs.

9:16 Exactly! Maybe our listener Jade was named after that legendary hockey moment. But because the cup goes on so many crazy adventures, today it has a full-time bodyguard to protect it from being kicked onto frozen rivers. A professional bodyguard for a cup? Does he wear a suit and sunglasses? He does wear a suit.

9:38 His name is Phil Pritchard, and his official job title is Keeper of the Cup. He wears fancy spotless white gloves whenever he touches it, and he travels with the cup over 300 days a year. He even sleeps in the same hotel as the cup to make sure it stays perfectly safe. Alright then, time for the quiz!

9:59 Are you ready?

10:00 Okay, I'm ready. Bring on the Hockey Trivia!

10:04 First question. Who donated the famous Hockey Challenge Cup in 1892? Next one. What kind of object was the cup originally bought as before it became a trophy? Question 3. How heavy is the modern Stanley Cup today? Here's number 4. What frozen waterway in Ottawa did a player try to dropkick the cup across in 1905?

10:42 Last question. What is the official job title of the person who guards and travels with the cup today? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is it was Lord Stanley of Preston. For question two, it was originally bought as a silver punch bowl. Number three, the answer is it weighs 34.5 pounds.

11:10 Question 4. It was the Rideau Canal. And the final answer is, they are called the Keeper of the Cup.

11:18 That is wild! I can't believe a $50 punch bowl became the coolest trophy in the entire world.

11:26 I know, and just thinking about all the names carved into it makes it feel so special. It's truly living history.

11:34 Hey, if you love learning about the Stanley Cup today, will you leave us a five-star review? Just scroll down and tap the stars.

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12:02 See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye. Bye, everyone.