There are few objects in sports activities that encourage such reverence and awe because the Stanley Cup. The simplicity and class of the trophy that bears the names of all of its recipients places championship awards from different sports activities to disgrace.
However do you know that on a chilly day in December greater than 50 years in the past, the Stanley Cup was nearly misplaced ceaselessly? Let’s take a journey again to December 5, 1970: the day the Stanley Cup was stolen.
A Stanley Cup Caper
Following the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup championship in 1962 (one in every of 4 the Maple Leafs would win that decade), the unique bowl and trophy collar of the Cup have been retired and enshrined on show within the Hockey Corridor of Fame. It appeared probably the most logical and most secure place for such vital items of historical past.
However, in a bit of the NHL’s lesser-known historical past, thieves stole the Stanley Cup, together with the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Invoice Masterton Trophy, only a few years later.
The Conn Smythe and Masterton Trophies have been shortly recovered by police; nonetheless, the unique Stanley Cup collar would stay lacking for for much longer. Although it’s nearly too surreal to be believed, the unique collar remained at massive for a complete seven years! One of many thieves even reportedly threatened to toss the Stanley Cup into Lake Ontario if her calls for weren’t met.
However that’s the place the story begins to get clouded. Officers recovered the Cup seven years later, however there are a number of tales as to how. The preferred narrative is that the police obtained an nameless tip. The caller informed them {that a} vital piece of historical past may very well be discovered within the again storage room of a Toronto cleansing retailer.
The police arrived not figuring out what to anticipate. What they discovered was an irreplaceable artifact: the Stanley Cup that had been stolen in 1970. Nobody knew precisely who had taken it or the place it had been for the previous seven years, but it surely was lastly again in protected palms.
As fashionable as that narrative is, there are two different fashionable tales: the primary states that the Cup reappeared when it was deserted in a police officer’s driveway. The opposite means that the actual Stanley Cup was protected in a financial institution vault all alongside and that the stolen object was merely a show piece for the Corridor of Fame.
No matter the actual story, there’s no query that the true Stanley Cup was again in protected palms as soon as once more. And there it might keep for the next 40-plus years…
Or wouldn’t it?
Lord Stanley Stolen Once more?
Seemingly protected after its theft, the Stanley Cup was nearly stolen as soon as once more, this time in 1977. The story goes that seven males approached the Cup within the Corridor of Fame with a big fitness center bag. Nonetheless, an alert worker observed the boys and chased them out of the constructing. Of their automobile, police discovered copies of the Hockey Corridor of Fame ground plan and lists of the gear essential to steal Lord Stanley’s Cup. It had nearly been misplaced once more.
Luckily, regardless of all of its well-documented travels in newer historical past, the Stanley Cup has managed to stay protected, whether or not it’s within the palms of gamers, executives, or on show within the Hockey Corridor of Fame.
The Best Trophy in Sports activities
Bought in 1892 by Lord Stanley himself, governor-general of Canada, the silver punch bowl which grew to become the Stanley Cup price Stanley roughly $48, or what quantities to somewhat over $1,000 right now. It was a superb funding. Although estimates fluctuate, specialists unanimously agree the Cup is probably the most useful trophy in American sports activities, and one estimate suggests a worth of over $23,000.
Clearly, the Stanley Cup has a considerable financial worth, but its historical past and symbolic significance in hockey historical past are what make Lord Stanley’s Cup a useful, priceless object. Fortunately its safety has improved as a result of the best trophy within the sporting world is irreplaceable.
Join our NHL Historical past Substack e-newsletter
