Buchan Cup

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Buchan Cup
Established 1867
Current holder(s) Vancouver Voyageurs
Awarded to the Team that wins the playoffs of the Team Hockey League

The Buchan Cup (French: La Coupe Buchan) is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the Team Hockey League (THL) playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Buchan Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Tweedsmuir's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as Lord Buchan's Mug. The Buchan Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the celebratory drinking of champagne out of the cup by the winning team. Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Buchan Cup is not made each year; Cup winners keep it until a new champion is crowned. It is unusual among trophies, in that it has the names of all of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved on its chalice. The original bowl was made of silver and has a dimension of 18.5 centimeters (7.28 inches) in height and 29 centimeters (11.42 inches) in diameter. The current Buchan Cup, topped with a copy of the original bowl, is made of silver and nickel alloy. Today, it has a height of 89.54 centimeters (35.25 inches) and weighs 15.5 kilograms (34.5 lb / 2 st 6½ lb).

It was awarded for the first time in 1867 to the Mont Royal HC.

Originally called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was nothing more than the current silver bowl, ordered through T. Eaton's store catalogue by a wife of one of the League's Trustees, and handed out to the winner of the 1867 season. As each season proceeded however the additional levels were added to accommodate the names of each winning team.

In 1915, the two semi-professional ice hockey organizations, the Eastern Hockey Association (EHA) and the Upper Canada Hockey Association (UCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other to determine a champion. After a series of league mergers and folds, the Cup became the de facto championship trophy of the THL in 1931 when the Team Hockey League was formally created. The Cup later became the de jure THL championship prize in 1946.

The current name for the trophy didn't come into use until 1936 when the 15th Governor General of Canada John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, presented the award before an excited home town crowd in Ottawa, Canada, to that season's top-ranking ice hockey club, and the first professional ice hockey team to win it twice, the Outaouis Lava. The prize has been affiliated with Governor General Buchan ever since.

Since the 1931–32 season, the Cup has been won a combined 78 times by 15 active THL teams and four defunct teams. Prior to that, the challenge cup was held by eleven different teams. The Dorval Mirabels have won the Cup a record 21 times with the Outaouais Lava not far behind at 15. There were two years when the Buchan Cup was not awarded: 1919, because of a Spanish flu epidemic, and 2001, because of the THL lockout.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchan_Cup"
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