From the Inside Flap
There is the Stanley Cup - symbolic of hockey supremacy - and then there is everything else. No other trophy in the world is as beautiful, as recognizable, as representative of success, as Lord Stanley's gift to Canada. It is just the right height, the right weight, the right proportion to the hands and arms that lift it high every spring. Its history is writ in the sweat and blood and skill and exhaustion of the thousands of players who have battled for it and endured beyond what they could reasonably expect of themselves on the ice to try to win it. Its story is the story of an Englishman who came to Canada as Governor General in 1888 and left five years later leaving behind a gift to the country for the emerging sport of hockey. Its story is in the hearts of every player who had devoted his life to the winning of it, many falling precariously short, a precious few experiencing that pinnacle of victory. To touch the Cup, to drink from its bowl, is to become a part of its history and to perpetuate the legacy of acheivement that no other trophy or award in hockey can offer. This is the story of that trophy, from the obscure, unknown tale of a noble family in England that dates to the 14th century, to the most rescent winners of the Cup, hockey players and team personnel who are, in modern times, allowed one special day with the trophy during their summer victory. It is a story told often, but told here fully and completely for the first time.
About the Author
Andrew Podnieks is best-selling of more than 20 books on hockey, most recently The Flames: Celebrating Calgary's Dream Season 2003-04; Players: The Ultimate A-Z Guide of Everyone Who Has Ever Played in the NHL; Honoured Members of the Hockey Hall of Fame; and, The Goal: Bobby Orr and the Most Famous Goal in Stanley Cup History. He has also written Canda's Olympic Hockey Teams: The Complete Hsitory, 1920-1998 (1997); Portraits of the Game: Classic Photography from the Turofsky Collection at the Hockey Hall of Fame (1997); A Day in the Life of the Maple Leafs (2002); and, Canadian Gold 2002: Making Hockey History (2002). Podnieks lives in Tornoto.