The oldest trophy in North American sports is not in baseball, football or basketball -- it's the Stanley Cup in hockey, which dates back to a leader called Lord Stanley in 19th century Canada. For the past 80 years, it has been awarded to the top team in the National Hockey League (NHL) , which in my childhood, consisted of six teams: the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Detroit Red Wings, the Boston Bruins, the New York Rangers, and the Chicago Blackhawks.
Now there are teams coast to coast in both Canada and the U.S., and it has become incresaingly rare for one of the old franchises to snag the Cup -- with the exception of my father's family favorite Red Wings. Tonight they won their fourth Stanley Cup in the past 11 years, and their 11th in 80 seasons. (They've made it to the finals 12 other times, or 23 (almost 30%) of all the seasons the NHL has held playoffs to determine who wins the Cup.
That makes this Detroit team one of the most successful in all of professional sports.
My father would have loved this night. We, his descendants, sure did. As I ponder that thought, I realize that his parents were born in Ontario right around the time Lord Stanley established the Cup...some 40 years after the first Weir (James) immigrated there from Ireland, in the midst of the Grreat Potato Famine.
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