Image: The PWHL
There is now a second trophy to mark supremacy in professional hockey in North America.
The Walter Cup joins the Stanley Cup.
The Walter Cup is the championship trophy for the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
In its inaugural season, the six-team league named the trophy after the Walter family in honour of their philanthropic efforts.
A leader in philanthropy and business, the Walters were a driving force that provided the foundational support that launched the PWHL. Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, the PWHL's primary financial backer, launched the league by buying out the rival Premier Hockey Federation in June 2023.
The Walter Cup was created in partnership with global luxury jeweler, Tiffany & Co.
The sterling silver trophy features an angular design inspired by ice, weighing about 35 pounds, standing 24 inches tall and over 13 inches wide, with a removable base for the engraved name of each year's winning team.
The naming of the Walter Cup was proposed by sports icon and PWHL Advisory Board Member Billie Jean King.
The naming is but part of a season of firsts for the league. It was organized on a short deadline - so much so that teams have no name other than the place they come from. Yet the accomplishments have been many and impressive - from attendance records to a full schedule of games, first class training and travel and more. It has brought on a strong, robust, diverse and loyal following with much to look forward to.
Interstingly, unlike the men’s trophy the Walter Cup was created specifically for this entity - a professional hockey league spanning North America.
By contrast, the Stanley Cup, considered to be the oldest trophy competed for by professional teams in North America came from different intentions.
Back in 1892, the Lord Stanley of Preston (Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby) Lord Stanely, as he had been decsribed, came to Canada in 1888 upon his appointment by Queen Victoria to become the Governor General of Canada
Stanley was first exposed to hockey in 1889 at the Montreal winter Carnival. He and his family quickly became enthusiastic and important boosters of the game.
In fact, two of his sons came to play for a new team in Ottawa and they persuaded their day to donate a trophy to be awared to the top team (at that time only Montreal and Ottawa had anything resembling leagues).
Their persuausion efforts worked, as they convinced their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the hockey championship". It was within this context that on March 18, 1892, Stanley sent a message of greetings, and congratulations at Ottawa's Russell House Hotel for the three-time champion Ottawa Hockey Club. It also was insightful historically for providing his rational and intention in donating a trophy:
“I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion [of Canada].”
Soon thereafter, Stanley purchased what is frequently described as a decorative punch bowl, but which silver expert John Culme identified as a rose bowl, made in Sheffield, England, and sold by London silvermsith G. R. Collis and Company (now Boodle and Dunthorne Jewellers), for ten guineas, equal to ten and a half pounds sterling, US$48.67, which is equal to $1,650 in 2023 dollars. He had the words "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on one side of the outside rim, and "From Stanley of Preston" on the other side. The name "Stanley Cup" was given to it as early as May 1, 1893, when an Ottawa Journal article used the name as a title
Originally, Stanley intended that the Cup should be awarded to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, to be decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team.
Lord Stanley never saw a Stanley Cup championship game, nor did he ever present the Cup. Although his term as Governor General ended in September 1893, he was forced to return to England on July 15. In April of that year, his older brother Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby died, and Stanley succeeded him as the 16th Earl of Derby.
Then eventually, though, that challenge cup came to be competed for by pro players from various corners of the Dominion.
At first there was no formal process to determine who would represent an entity, grouping or league. The result was chaos and controversy. Over time, regulations started to guide a process that determined who would challenge for the cup.
In the early 20th century there were a number of leagues that sent representative clubs to vie for the Cup.
But over time, an evolution in professinal hockey brought many changes. Over the next two decades, other leagues and clubs occasionally issued challenges, but none were deemed “acceptable” accepted by the Cup's trustees.
Since 1926, no non-NHL team has played for the Cup, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL.
In addition, with no major professional hockey league left to challenge it, the NHL began calling its league champions the world champions, notwithstanding the lack of any interleague championship. In doing so, the NHL copied a policy that had been adopted by the then still-fledgling National Football Leaguefrom its start in 1920 (and which the National Basketvall Association also asserted upon its founding in 1946). Moreover, by following the lead of those two American professional sports leagues, the NHL, with League offices in Montreal, was clearly showing that it, with four of six teams based in the U.S., was looking past Canada
Formally, such decisions were entrusted to trustees, led by James Cooper Smeaton (July 22, 1890 – October 3, 1978) , a one time player, coach and referee in the National Hockey League. He served as referee-in-chief of the NHL from 1917 until 1937, and then as a Stanley Cup trustee from 1946 until his death in 1978.
In reality, the power was in the hands of the NHL, especially after 1947, when the NHL reached an agreement with trustee Smeaton to grant control of the Cup to the NHL, allowing the league to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup.
The trophy intended for the Dominion of Canada had become one of a professional entity in the business of hockey.
This 1947 “agreement” was amended on November 22, 1961, substituting the Governors of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario with the Committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario as the group to name the two Canadian trustees, if need be.
In the 1970’s, the World Hockey Association sought to challenge for the Cup. By this time, all Cup trustees were longtime NHL loyalists, and under the direction of NHL president Clarence Campbell the WHA's challenge for the Cup was blocked. However, notwithstanding the aforementioned legal obligation, the NHL (considering not only the WHA's presence but also the rising caliber of European ice hockey leagues) quietly stopped calling its champions the world champions.
Today the cup that was donated in recognition of the top team in Canada has not been won by a team in Canada for 30 years.
Instead, its winners have included places such as Florida, Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Anaheim, Tampa Bay and Washington,DC.
This Spring, fans in Canada were disappointed when the first PWHL Finals involved two Ametrican-based teams who had upset the favored Canadian teams.
The disappointment stems only partially from the hockey. Rather, folks in Canada were looking forward to a cup win, as their traditional Cup had quietly but decisively been secured from their midst to lands beyond (while the Stanely Cup continued to list Canada, Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, as its home).