Today's Stanley Cup stands an imposing 35.25 inches tall and weighs 34.5 pounds—a gleaming tower of silver that champions hoist overhead. But when Lord Stanley of Preston commissioned the trophy in 1892, it was just a modest 7.5-inch silver bowl, small enough to hold in two hands like a cereal dish.

The governor general of Canada paid 10 guineas (about $50) for the original bowl-shaped trophy, which measured roughly 18.5 centimeters high and 29 centimeters in diameter. He intended it as an award for "the champion hockey team in the Dominion of Canada." The Montreal Hockey Club claimed the first Cup in 1893, though they probably didn't have to clear much shelf space.

How a Bowl Became a Tower

The Cup's transformation began out of necessity. Early championship teams wanted their victories recorded, so they started adding engraved bands around the original bowl. As more teams won and demanded space for their players' names, the trophy kept growing—band after band, ring after ring.

By the early 1900s, teams were literally stacking metal rings on top of the bowl like a vertical accordion. No one coordinated this expansion; teams just kept adding sections whenever they won. The result was an increasingly unwieldy trophy that eventually required its own architectural support.

Today's Cup features five barrel-shaped bands below the original bowl, with the oldest band removed when a new one gets added. The retired bands go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, preserving over a century of hockey history. That tiny bowl Lord Stanley bought still sits at the top—the only part that connects today's champions to those first Montreal players in 1893.

The Only Trophy That Travels

Unlike other major sports trophies that stay locked in league offices, the Stanley Cup goes home with the champions. Each player on the winning team gets 24 hours alone with the Cup, leading to legendary adventures: it's been to the bottom of swimming pools, served as a champagne cooler at weddings, held birthday cakes, and even baptized babies.

It's traveled to remote Russian villages and tropical beaches
It has its own full-time bodyguard (the "Keeper of the Cup")
Players have slept with it, eaten cereal from it, and let their pets drink from it

From a 7.5-inch bowl to a 35-inch monument, the Stanley Cup grew organically alongside hockey itself—each addition telling the story of champions who refused to be forgotten.

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