1st Period - Amateur Hockey - Cups & Tournaments

The Allan Cup

The oldest Amateur hockey trophy still being competed for is the Allan Cup, which was introduced shortly after the Stanley Cup became a professional trophy. The trophy's namesake, Sir H. Montague Allan, the honourary president of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, offered to donate a trophy for the senior Amateur championship in Canada. The Stanley Cup, was originally intended to be a trophy strictly for Amateurs; however, early on, money was being used to entice players to join rosters of allegedly "Amateur" teams, so the trophy's original intent had become corrupted and it was soon recognized as a professional trophy. The idea was that the Allan Cup would represent what the Stanley Cup used to. The Allan Cup was to be a challenge trophy open to any senior club having won the championship of its league that year. The "challenge" format was revised shortly after, however, because as the Allan Cup's profile grew, the number of challenge championship teams fielded became too numerous.

When the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association was formed in 1914, among those organizing this new entity were the trustees of the Allan Cup. Their involvement meant that the Allan Cup would be linked with the new CAHA and, in 1928, the Cup was donated outright to the association. For years the Allan Cup rivalled the Stanley Cup in terms of interest and importance for Canadian hockey fans. With professional, minor league and junior franchises all over Canada, the profile of senior hockey has decreased considerably in the last three decades, though it has enjoyed a recent upswing and the Cup is still competed for annually.

Governor-General Earl Grey, a Big follower of hockey, offered to donate a trophy to be competed for by Amateur clubs of the Dominion of Canada. At the same time, Sir H. Montague Allan also offered to donate a trophy. Clearly there could not be two trophies for the same purpose, so it was agreed that the senior Amateur champions would win the Allan Cup and the trophy donated by the Governor-General would be awarded for football. The Grey Cup has gone on to become the coveted symbol of supremacy in Canadian professional football.