The NHL Stanley Cup--It's History

The Stanley cup is one of the most prestigious and hotly contested awards in professional sports.It's history goes back a long way and is most interesting and in fact dates as far back as the year 1892.In that year Lord Stanley who was then the Governor General Of Canada came up with the idea that a challenge cup should be awarded yearly to the champion hockey team in Canada.This would be a trophy which would not be held permanently by any team but would be returned annually by the winning team so that it could be awarded to the next winner.There was no trophy to be played for at that time so Lord Stanley commissioned the making of a silver cup which was 7 i/2 inches high and 11 1/2 inches wide.The cost of the cup was about $50 which was a fair bit of money at that time.The cup had room on the base for the attachment of rings which would have the winning team names engraved on them annually.Lord stanley named two trustees to administer the award and safekeeping of the cup.these were Philip D. Ross and Sheriff John Sweetland of Ottawa,Ontario. Stanley also set up a set of rules and conditions for the annual competition.The winning champions every year must return the stanley Cup to the trustees so that it could be awarded to the next winnimng team.The winner every year would have the date and team name engraved on the silver ring which was fitted to the cup.No team could ever own the cup it was simply a trophy which must always be available for the annual competition.When the trustees resigned or died they would be replaced by new trustees who would carry on the caretaking of the cup.Lord Stanley actually never watched a playoff game and was never there to present the Stanley Cup to the winning team. He had returned to his English estate.However the competition for the Stanley cup has become ever more fierce over the years and what was once a national trophy presented to only a Canadian winning team has now become an international trophy with National Hockey League teams from the United states joining in the competition.Now more than 100 years later the Stanley Cup is one of the most coveted awards in professional sports.The regular season NHL games are watched on TV by millions of fans.When the playoff season comes around fan interest is particularly intense and the competition is followed even more intensely. Relatively few hockey fans know that they can watch the playoffs and the regular season games on their computer screen.They are usually astonished to find out that they can in fact watch thousands of TV channels from all over the world on their computer.This phenomenon known as Satellite TV For PC is absolutely yhe best way to watch professional sports.whether it be hockey,baseball,football,soccer or any other sport you can find just the game you wanted to watch and view it on your monitor.All that is required is to download a simple program from the internet and you are all set to watch any kind of satellite TV program from thousands of channels.It's amazing but true and the cost is so low compared to cable TV that it is a no brainer.Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/dfh9mg