Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup trophy is presented each year to the champions in the National Hockey League playoffs. The large silver cup was donated by Frederick Arthur Stanley, governor general of Canada, in March 1892 for the best team in Canadian amateur ice hockey. Originally called the Dominion Challenge Trophy, it was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, which won it the following year in the first contest for the trophy, against Ottawa. Eventually known as the Stanley Cup, in 1909 it was won for the first time by a professional team, the Ottawa Senators, and is the oldest trophy for which professional athletes in North America compete.