It's hockey's biggest prize, and strange things have been done to it over the years. Including learning that, as Guy Carbonneau once said, "the Stanley Cup does not float."
This Podcast Is... Uncalled For
Weird Stuff to Happen to the Stanley Cup
Hi, I'm Mike Czerniewski and you are listening to this podcast is "Uncalled for." [MUSIC] Welcome everyone, I hope everyone is having a great day and I want to thank Heather for inspiring today's episode, I actually wanted to talk about all sorts of sports stuff and I've not talked down to but make it a little more understandable for people and what's a very way to start something like that than to talk about all the weird stuff that has been done to or associated with the Stanley Cup. No, I'm not talking about the trendy coffee and the thermos things that have been popping up lately. No, I'm talking about the championship trophy for the National Hockey League, Lord Stanley's Cup. A few things about it before we get into some of the stories is that this is just one cup. All right, one big trophy that they win it every single year in National Hockey League but don't get to keep it, don't prep a new one every single year, no, it is one trophy. Team wins it, the players get a day with it, it has body yards all over the place, so yeah. And it is at the time of this recording, it might not be the case by the time this releases but the time this is recorded, is currently held by the Vegas Golden Knights, I kid Junat, for context, the NHL fairly recently expanded, adding teams in Las Vegas of all places and Seattle. Well, the Vegas team has actually done pretty well for themselves, not only winning the Stanley Cup, but their first year of existence, they got to the Cup Finals, losing to Washington, which is pretty cool. So let's turn our attention to the Wikipedia page traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup. There are many traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of the National Hockey League, kind of later for two as simply the Cup, the Grail, Lord Stanley's Cup, Lord Stanley's Mug, unlike the trophy's award to the other three major professional sports in the U.S. and Canada, NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, excuse me, we're talking about the NHL trophy. A new Stanley Cup is not made annually, the Champions Keeps the Cup until a new Champions Crown. It's also one of two trophies in professional North American sports, which has the name of the winning players, teams, management and club staff engraved on it, the other being the Canadian Football League's great cup, is at the center of several legends and superstitions. Maybe the anecdotes include the Stanley Cup being mistreated in some way, is the most traveled championship trophy in the world. And traditions include drinking avant, so it is a cup at the end of the day, it is just a giant bowl, of course one of the great traditions is to drink champagne out of it and that was started in 1896. There's an all-nice presentation of the cup every year, the captain of the winning team will usually be the first to lift it, which is pretty darn cool, they're darks and chances of this. Another superstition with the cup, that you're not supposed to touch it, if you're a player, until you've actually won it. And the players don't touch other trophies, I like the conference trophies. No touching, there's always money in the banana stands. No touching, so yeah, so for the next part let's go to our goal on MentalFloss.com by Sean Hutchinson, Hutchinson, excuse me, Hutchinson, tiled 22 things you might not know about the Stanley Cup. One, the Stanley Cup is named after Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, who was the Governor General of Canada in the late 1800s, it's during the century, so Governor General is still a position that exists in Canada, they're basically the sovereigns, oh yeah, Canada is still part of the Commonwealth of Nations, so they answer to English royalty. There are actually three Stanley Cups, so the one we associate with now is the first one. This original cup from 1892, was awarded until 1970, is now on display in the vaults room at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. In 1963, NHL President Clarence Campbell believed the original cup had become too brittle to get its temperature seen, so the presentation cup was created, and it's the well-known trophy awarded today. Skeptics can authenticate the presentation cup by noting the Hockey Hall of Fame Seal on the bottom, and the final cup is a replica of the presentation cup, which was created in 1993 by Montreal Suversmith Luis Sant-Jacques, and he says a stand-in at the Hall of Fame when the presentation cup isn't available, like what Joe said, it's one of a kind, so they don't make a new one every single year, unlike Lombardi, Trophies or the Larry O'Brien and it's always changing because one of the things they do do is the team that wins it, they get their roster and keep herself stamped into the physical cup. Four more teams wanted to be immortalized, so the decision was made to put a separate single ring below the original cup that each new winning roster could be etched on it. Between 1927 and 1947, a new, more streamlined and vertical incarnation of the cup was used. Thanks to the cylindrical shape, it was nicknamed the Stovepipe Cup, but by 1948 the trophy had become too tall, too old, or beyond display, so the shape was changed to the tiered version used today, and those rings are, in fact, detachable. This 1958, five bands of championship names aren't engraved around the base of the cup. When the cup becomes, when the rings become full, the oldest band is removed and preserved in Lord Stanley's faults at the great SO Hall in the Hockey Hall of Fame. A blank replacement band is then put in its place to be filled with the next champions. If all the rings in the archive were added to the current Stanley Cup, it would be six feet tall, six foot three, which is taller than me, actually six one. The NHL has official engravers put each name into the cup, so that's pretty cool, and it's not always perfect because they do screw up from time to time, and we're all human. So they give a few examples of names being misspelled on the cup, like the 1988 one New York Islanders, spelled on the cup, I-L-A-N-D-E-R-S, missing an S, the 1971-72 Boston Bruins, with Boston being spelled B-Q-S-T-Q-N, right? And the corrections have been made from time to time, when the '96 champion car, I find Adam Deadmarsh, one of my favorite players, spelled Deadmarsh, and it should be D-A-D-M-A-R-S-H, it was spelled D-A-D-A-D-M-A-R-C-H on the cup. It was stamped down correctly after he publicly stated how hard-working it was about the year, and sometimes the winning teams don't play it by the rules, the NHL will allow no more than 52 names on each year's winning teams being engraved with the assumption that the people included are affiliated with, or have played with that club during the finals. But Peter Pocklington, the former Edmonton Oilers, Euler owner, perhaps best known for trading away Wayne Gretzky, insisted his father be one of the names listed on the A-384 Oilers, despite the fact that his father isn't officially affiliated with the team. The league had the engraver strike at the father's name with a bunch of x's. There can be extenuating circumstances, so when the Detroit Red Wings won in '98, the team asked that Vladimir Konstantinov had his name being engraved even though he didn't play the year, and the reason is pretty tragic for those who don't know before that season he got into a pretty serious car wreck and was paralyzed. There are also a couple instances where no names were inscribed at all, like when the cup wasn't awarded in 1919 due to the flu pandemic or in 2005 because the entire season was locked out. Some people make multiple appearances on the Stanley Cup, which makes sense if you're putting new names on it every single year. One fan tried to steal the cup, but not for the reason you'd expect, so Montreal fans are so possessive of the cup that during the 1962 playoffs, when the cup was on display at Chicago Stadium for the defending champion, Black Hawks, Habs fan, Ken Kylinder attempted to take the cup and walk right at the door with it, when the police officer con question of Kylinder responded, "I want to take it back where it belongs to Montreal," which brings up a great request, which team has won the Stanley Cup the most, it is in fact Montreal 24 times. Stanley Cup is in only four men, so that's Q, and some people are superstitious about it, so we talked about this just a minute ago, various players are wary of the cup that they haven't won it yet, and steer clear if there's still contention, in fact some players from the conference championship teams wanted to touch the respective Western and Eastern conference trophies, so they don't jinx their team's chances at winning Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup has a chaperone. The Stanley Cup is always associated by at least one representative of the hockey hall of fame, dubbed the Keeper of the Cup. The current keeper has held the position since 1991, and even maintains a Twitter account. To update followers on where the cup goes from day to day, way back when the cup was donated, it's by Lord Stanley. He mandated that two trustees must always be appointed to care for the cup and sure it was kept in proper condition. A tradition that still holds this day, so that's pretty cool. The cup belongs to the players for one day. I now are starting to get into some weird stuff, so the NHL allows each championship team a hundred off season days with the cup, accompanied by the Keeper of course, to do with it as they wish it was the 9495 New Jersey Devils, who formalized the tradition by giving each player one personal day with the cup during the off season. In fact, since the '03 season, the Hall of Fame has been keeping journals of the cup's travels with each winning team. The Sump players used their day with the trophy for peaceful reflection, others have gone a bit wild. Now we're getting into some of the good stuff, so the Stanley Cup has gone swimming at least three times. Found the '91 victory over the Minnesota North Stars, the Pittsburgh Penguins legend Mario Lemieux, hosted the team at his house when Lemie wasn't looking. Penguins winger Phil Bork decided he wanted to see if the cup could float and threw the trophy into the swimming pool. It didn't float and immediately sink straight to the bottom. Two years later, the cup was also found in the bottom of Montreal Canadiens, Gold Tower, Patrick Wasp, pool, and 2002 Red Wings, Gold Tender, Dominic Hasek, attempts to swim with the cup, the Keeper and demanded Hasek drive off the trophy, give it back. The Stanley Cup once spent all night in Ottawa Canal, was going 1905 when the Ottawa Hockey Club, now known as the Ottawa Southerners, won the cup in 1905, the members of the Silver Seven, had a little too much fun celebrating, and at a pay, after a team banquet, so not so sober players brought the trophy as they allegedly decided to test their accuracy by kicking the cup into the Redo Canal in Ottawa. Not successful, they went on their drunken way and forgot all about it until their teammates realized the next day the trophy was missing. This cup was retrieved and gave it to a player named Harry Smith, the most responsible man of the team for safekeeping. In 1924, the Montreal Canadiens forgot it on the side of the road. When the members of the 1924 had flat tire on the way to a victory banquet at owner Leo Dendelnacht's house, they had to remove the cup from the truck at the car and go get the spare tire, the players eager to celebrate the wind quickly changed the tire and made their way to the party, but while the traditional time came to drink champagne from the cup, it was nowhere to be found, they had left it on the side of the road. They hopped in the car, sped back to the place where it changed the flat and found the cup in the snowbank, right where they had left. This was not the first time Montreal had forgot the cup. Children had been baptized in the cup, which has started with the Colorado Avalanche 1996, the Defensemen's civilian in the favor, used his personal day with a cup to have his daughter baptized in the cup. A similar thing happened recently in the New Heights podcast with Jason Kelsey putting his youngest child in the Stanley Cup. So that's cool, it's reportedly seen its fair share of vice. The end donors were forced to be recognized in the 80s, between 1994 and 1990, the team won five Stanley Cups and were led by two hockey crates, Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. Judging after their 87 win, Messier brought the cup to an Edmonton strip club, instead of the trophy on the main stage, one of the dancers at the club then reportedly incorporated the cup into her risque routine, this is a new one on me. We won the cup again in 1994 with the New York Rangers, Messier and his teammates brought the trophy to another strip club, it might hold a curse when Messier and the Rangers won in 1994, it ended a record 54 year championship draft for the Rangers. Fans believe that the curse might have been brought on because the Rangers disrespected the cup. Well what explains Toronto's long cup drafts, I think they're about to go as long as not longer unless they win it this year of course, I think no Canadian team has won it since 1994, the last time Montreal won it in the 90s. And the cup has gone to war in 2007 to boost morale for Canadian and American troops serving in the Middle East. The cup was flung into an active war zone in Afghanistan for a meet and greet. So uh, wow, just wow, yeah, adventures. Going back to the Wikipedia, so it gets players to the cup, all that, oh, misadventures, misadventures. So we talked about the cup being kicked into the canal, 1906, weeks after members of the Montreal Wanderers, left at a photographer's studio and the photographer's mother used the cup to plant flowers, and 1907 at Canora Thistle's team manager threatened to throw the cup into the lake of the woods and it disputes over the eligibility of two players. A couple of, the other side of the road, in 1941, the mortgage on Madison Square Garden was paid, the management publicly celebrated by burning the mortgage in the cup. And this is what's caused that a curse that they just talked about in the article. Uh, uh, in 1957, Maurice Wreckett Richard, shipped both his front teeth while drinking from the Stanley Cup, uh, that started the fan, uh, Tristilitz, and 1962, Toronto Maple Leaves, when it's, uh, during a party after the win, the cup was dropped on a bonfire and badly damaged, and it was paired at the team's expense, 1964, uh, Red Kelly of the Toronto Maple Leaves, posed with a photo, for a photo with his son sitting in the cup, so he did the, so this must have been the initial, uh, Jason Kelsey moment. Only to find that the child had urinated, so, so the first instance of the Stanley Cup being used as a toilet, Kelly was quite a years later saying this, had always since made him laugh to see other players drinking out of the cup, um, the presentation trophy we talked about, uh, we have an instance of an Islanders player filling the cup with dog food, uh, we have another Islanders player, I mean, he slept with the cup and others have to, uh, the strip club, the, uh, throwing in the pool, the Stanley Cup did not float, uh, noted a geek, Hermano, a Montreal captain, uh, after the, uh, Montreal Canadiens Cup went in '93, so '93, so last time a Canadian team has won this, members of the team apparently signed their names on the inside of the cup with a sharp object, lovely, uh, all right, oh, this is a good one, after the parade in there on our '94, members of the New York Rangers including Mike Richter took the cup to McSorally's Old Alehouse, locks the doors, and for 45 minutes a lot of the patrons hoisted but their heads and drink McSorally's dark and light out of it, and the New York Post reported that next day at the cup was taken back by the league for repairs to its base, and later several Rangers took the cup to Belmont Park, filled it with oats, and let's Kentucky Derby winner go for gin, eat out of it, so that's pretty cool, um, '99 Del Starz, part of the associate, uh, Craig Ludwig's house, which he shared with Pantera, drummer, Vinnie Paul, um, at the party, Yee Carbon though, we heard him earlier talking about the cup does not float, allegedly they had to throw the cup from the upstairs deck, into the house's crown royal shaped pool, the cup cut the lip of the pool, producing a large dance, one of the keeper's cups said that this had never happened before, what happened, one of the players was posing with it next to the pool and someone pushed him in the water, and went in with him, it was in water maybe two seconds, good part, oh my god, uh, '99 and uh, '03, the cup mates a trip to Joan, new and dikes on the monitor, Cornell, both times, visiting a local college bar, in 2003, Martin Brojure, one of the best goldies of all time, ate popcorn out of the cup, had butter stains and salt damage for the next eight days before Jamie Lingenbrenner cleaned it, '03, the cup was slated to make its first ever visit to Slovakia, was left behind in Canada, it was on the next flat out Toronto, oh my god, and uh, '04, the keeper of the cup boarded a plane for uh, Fort St. John British Columbia, to deliver it to Tampa Bay Lightning's head scout Jake Gertzen, apologies, however, Air Canada, Joel said Vancouver International Airport removed it before take off because of weight restrictions, the cup spent the night in the luggage area, thrown an air for two miles away, it was fun to uh, Fort St. John the next day, uh, '07 a photoshoot on the set of the NBC TV series Heroes and showed a couple actors goofing off with the cup, even worshiping and fogging and liking the cup, oh my god, oh, oh, grey one, right, right here, also in May of '07 the cup made it to the set of ABC's Boston Legal, um, in the episode "Ducking Cara Danny Crane" played by William Shatter, who is himself Canadian, pulled some strange kids' hands on the cup for a day, while on Monday takes up to the office where he decides to integrate his name on it, noting that they'll never notice, it's got so many dings on it all, ready, if they took it to his house office patio where he decides to drink scotch out of it, how did they take George Drake, he had the cup Danny sent on the balcony ledge with preparation, taking photos with that bass telling that he was over, that will leave his attention, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, '07 Anaheim wins it, the captain's got Neater Meyer brides to the set of Jim Rome and when I said one of the producers hoisted in post with the cup, which pissed off a bunch of Canadians, Don Cherry called into the program to defend the producers saying he's believed that he did not disrespect the cup at all, oh, man, 2008, this is a good one, 2008, deaf leopards Joe Elliot placed the cup upside down on a pedestal on stage, turn one there, and he'll face off rocks, same as at the Fox Theater and Detroit, Red Wing's defensemen Chris Chellius claims the musician discretes the cup on purpose, we should point out that deaf leopards is a British band and most of soccer trophies in England, the cup is the cup portions, the bass. That was Elliot's shortly after the incident and our call deaf leopards website appeared with Elliot claiming that every other sports cup he had ever seen below before that was smaller at the base than at the top, so he thought this cup was no difference. Oh man, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I just come here leave you to let in, let's do one more articles, this is Bleacher reports, probably gonna go over the same shit all over again but you're interested Stanley Cup, 16 craziest things ever done with the Stanley Cup by Matthew Fairburn on bleacherreport.com, I'll just summarize, so Messier taken into strip clubs, okay we already touched about that, the stars kind of tossed me out, I just looked at that in a geek, I don't know, this one I didn't touch on but Chris Draper's child uses the cup as a diaper, so another example of the Stanley Cup uses a toilet, this one was actually the guy's daughter taking a shit into the took a shit in the Stanley Cup, yeah we heard that Lemuel Watts took it swimming, it didn't float, Red Kelly, we touched on the first season, Rocket Richard, see the dogs, it's a cup hang overseas, oh this is one, I'm gonna have to read this one, so it's tough to believe that the Stanley Cup did not leave North America until 1996 but took that long before a European-born player used his day with the cup to bring it back home, when the avalanche won it all in 96, Peter Forsberg from Sweden became the first to bring Lord Stanley's hardware overseas, soon he had the baptism, we just talked about the cup here on Boston Lemuel, the cup as a soccer ball we talked about with the 05 Ottawa team, the cup being left behind, a celebratory buffer, the cup goes Hollywood, the Stanley Cup has seen his fair share of Hollywood, Luke Rubittai, took it to the Hollywood sign, his rent a ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, him participating in the Rose Bowl parade in '08 after Anaheim claims hockey's top prize and of course paying off the mortgage as we talked about, so yeah lots of crazy shit has been done to that trophy and I guarantee you that more crazy shit is going to happen to that trophy, just wow, just fucking wow and that's going to do for this edition of the podcast, we'll talk to you next time. This podcast is on call for this host of producing it by myself, Mike Chernevsky, who has never won the Stanley Cup, opening music is Iron Bacon by Kevin MacLaddon, copotec.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution, 4.0 licensed, and our outro music for this episode is break points by Nadia, licensed under creative commons by attribution, 3.0 international license and you can find it at freemusicarchive.org If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call us at 816-832-5160, leave your message or question for us, and if we like it, we will play it on the podcast. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. Go to www.cafepress.com/uncalledforpot. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time. [end] [ Silence ]