Since 1893 when Governor General of Canada Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley donated a silver challenge cup to be held each year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion of Canada, the oldest trophy in professional sports has been passed around, drop kicked, stolen, and accidentally left on the side of the road. What came to be known as the Stanley Cup has held flowers, cereal, and newborn babies.
It’s been through some design changes over the years and since 1926 it has served as the championship trophy of the National Hockey League.
And now for the first time it’s been hoisted by the St. Louis Blues. (Woo Hoo!)
I can’t claim to be a huge fan of the sport of hockey, but the excitement during the playoffs and the Stanley Cup finals has been infectious.
St. Louis is celebrating. I’m celebrating. None of us has slept much. And we’ve all now listened to late season Blues victory anthem “Gloria” covered in 1982 by Laura Branigan, far more than anyone did in 1982 when it topped out at number 2 on the Billboard chart.
I am delighted for the players, the lifelong fans, and the little kids whose loyalty to their favorite hockey team has been forever sealed by an awesome season in which the very worst team in the league at the beginning of January became the very best team by the end. (Woo Hoo!)
And I’m so happy for my city that has had some rough years, but has drawn together in the last few weeks as a community longing for an improbable victory. I think I’m even going to buy a Stanley Cup Championship tee shirt.
Let’s Go Blues!
(I apologize for the little bit of foul language at the beginning of this video and in the linked video above. Everyone’s been a little excited around here.)
Author Sarah Angleton 
They brought the Stanley Cup to Portland one year and my husband (who is obsessed with hockey) is STILL going on about seeing it. I’m just glad he didn’t try to use it as an ice cream dish!
Oh the stories that cup could tell.
Fantastic “nervous” guy at the end of the video!
I’m not greatly into sports, but I do like the fights – it’s always disappointing when the ref. tries to stop them.
Yeah, that’s the almost disturbingly stoic rookie goalie that in many ways made the team’s late season run possible. He’s funny to watch. He did cheer briefly immediately after they won. The fights are my favorite part of hockey. I’m a much bigger baseball fan, but I enjoy a good celebration regardless.
I have family in St. Louis and it looks like they watched the big game at the Cardinals stadium. They posted a lot of fantastic pictures. Congrats! 🙂
That was pretty cool. They opened up the Enterprise Center (where the Blues play) for a watch party and it sold out in something like 30 minutes. So then Busch Stadium opened up, too. They ended up with about 20,000 fans in the stadium on a cool, rainy night. It looked like there were still quite a few fans all over downtown still. I watched from home, but it was a pretty amazing night. My neighbors set off fireworks!
The best part was that both venues sold watch tickets for $20 and all proceeds will be split between both teams’ charities. St. Louis has some problems for sure, but it definitely knows how to celebrate the good, too.