Ever since I did some research on when the 2016 Clarkson Cup would take place (March 11-13) and where (Ottawa, Canadian Tire Centre) I was fascinated as to how this trophy came about. So here’s a brief history and primer on the Clarkson Cup.
The Clarkson cup (pictured above) is named after Adrienne Clarkson, the 26th Governor General of Canada, like the Stanley Cup was named after Frederick Stanley, the 6th Governor General of Canada.
This is Adrienne Clarkson.
The idea for the Clarkson Cup came about in February 2005, during the NHL lockout. Adrienne Clarkson suggested that since Stanley Cup was supposed to be given to the best hockey team of the year, it should be given to a women’s team, since they were still playing. This was brought to the attention of Susan Fennell, the commissioner of the National Women’s Hockey League (1999–2007), and the Mayor of Brampton. She said that the Stanley Cup belonged to men’s hockey and that women’s hockey did have a trophy, it just didn’t have a name.
She suggested that since a previous Governor General of Canada had lent his name to the men’s trophy, Clarkson could do the same for the women’s trophy. Needless to say, Clarkson loved this idea and on September 14, 2005, Clarkson announced the creation of the new trophy.
Beth Biggs, the Senior Instructor of the Fine Arts and Crafts Program of Nunavut Arctic College was commission to make the trophy, along with talented artists Okpik Pitesolak, Pootoogook Qiatsuk and Therese Ukaliannuk. For more on the actual creation of the cup, check out this.
The cup itself features the Crest of the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, and Sedna the Inuit Goddess of the Ocean.
“The Clarkson Cup bears Adrienne Clarkson’s coat of arms on one side and on the other the image of the Inuit goddess Sedna who is the mother of all creatures of the sea and has dominion over all the creatures in the sea. Sedna is the most powerful spirit of the ocean with her home on the ocean floor. She has the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish. On the Cup Sedna is portrayed holding a hockey stick in one hand and a puck in the other, lending her strength to the power of women’s hockey.” From the CWHL website
It also has Arctic animals, ancient masks and the flowers of the Canadian territories and provinces.
So, it was made and then awarded to the Canadian national women’s hockey team on July 10, 2006.
And it wasn’t awarded for three years.
Unfortunately, there were some problems with the rights of the cup (the artists wanted to collect royalties and Clarkson wanted to give it to Hockey Canada).
This was over in March 2009, and the Clarkson Cup was presented to the Montreal Stars (now Les Canadiennes de Montreal) by Clarkson herself.
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