The Memorial Cup is a junior ice hockey club championship trophy awarded annually to the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) champion. Each year the champions from three CHL member leagues—the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), along with a host team—compete in the Memorial Cup tournament. Sixty teams across the CHL's three member leagues are eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup, representing nine provinces in Canada and four American states.^[1] The OHL's Saginaw Spirit are the defending champions.^[2]

Known originally as the OHA Memorial Cup, it was donated in 1919 by the Ontario Hockey Association in honour of the soldiers who died fighting for Canada in World War I. In 2010, the trophy was rededicated to honour all soldiers who died for Canada in any conflict.^[3] From its donation in 1919 until 1971, the Memorial Cup was awarded via a series of playoffs to the junior hockey champion of Canada.^[3] The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association moved to a three-team round-robin tournament format in 1972 when it divided Junior A hockey into two tiers, naming the Memorial Cup as the championship of the Major Junior rank. The tournament involved just the respective champions from the three CHL major junior leagues.^[3][4] The tournament expanded to the current four-team format including the host city in 1983.^[4]

The Western Hockey League has won the title 19 times since the adoption of the three league tournament format in 1972. The Ontario Hockey League has 18 titles, and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League has 14.^[3] Since the creation of the Memorial Cup, the Toronto Marlboros have won the most titles with seven.^[5] Among currently active teams, the Oshawa Generals lead with five titles, the latest one in 2015.^[4]

The Memorial Cup was presented to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) in 1919 by the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) in remembrance of the soldiers who died fighting for Canada in World War I.^[7] It was to be awarded to the junior hockey champions of Canada in an east versus west format. Over its first 53 years of competition, the Eastern Canada champion, who from 1932 won the George Richardson Memorial Trophy, met the Western Canada champion, winners of the Abbott Cup.^[8] The first championship featured the University of Toronto Schools against the Regina Patricia (now the Pats) in a two-game, total-goals series. The University of Toronto Schools won the title easily, defeating Regina by scores of 14–3 and 15–5 to win the series with a total score of 29–8.^[6] Through this initial 53 years, the eastern representative won 33 Memorial Cups, while the western representative won 20 Memorial Cups.

The host of the Memorial Cup predominately fell on Toronto, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba in earlier years, with additional sites in Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa, Ontario among them being used. Toronto was used due to the dominance of the teams in its vicinity, but Winnipeg had the only arena capable of creating artificial ice between Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, and became the western site chosen by the CAHA to hold the tournament in its early years.^[9] Beginning in the post-World War II era, cities and towns of the competing teams began hosting the Memorial Cup, such as Brandon and Flin Flon, Manitoba, Regina, Saskatchewan and Quebec City, Quebec.^[10]

The head-to-head competition for the Memorial Cup has changed formats several times. The CAHA moved to a best-of-three format in 1925 as the first team to win two games was declared the champion.^[11] In 1938, the series was increased to best-of-five,^[12] and to best-of-seven in 1943.^[13] There were two exceptions to these formats. The 1949 final between the Montreal Royals and the Brandon Wheat Kings required an eighth game after the third game ended in a tie.^[14]

The 1971 final between the Quebec Remparts and the Edmonton Oil Kings was nearly canceled outright in the wake of controversy surrounding the inclusion of the previously outlawed Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) as the western league was allowed to use more over-age players and received a larger travel allowance from the CAHA. The differences were resolved, and an abbreviated best-of-three series was held in Quebec City.^[15]

While the Memorial Cup was not intended to be a challenge trophy, a team has twice challenged the defending champion for the cup. After the Toronto Canoe Club defeated the Selkirk Fishermen in 1920, they were met with a challenge by the Fort William Beavers for the trophy. Toronto agreed, and easily defeated Fort William 11–1 in a single game playoff.^[16] The second challenge occurred a half-century later, in 1970. The WCHL's Flin Flon Bombers challenged the Montreal Junior Canadiens. Considered an outlaw league by the CAHA, WCHL teams were not permitted to participate in the Memorial Cup playoffs. The Junior Canadiens declined the challenge.^[17]

TG = total goals, with the team scoring the most goals in two games winning the championship. From 1925 onward, the total represents the number of games won.

In 1970, the CAHA divided the Junior A ranks into two levels, creating a Major–Junior tier that consisted of three leagues: the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA, now the OHL) and the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL, now WHL). It was decided that the Memorial Cup would be the championship trophy of the Major Junior leagues, while the Manitoba Centennial Trophy was created as the Junior A championship.^[6] The CAHA decided that beginning in 1972, the Memorial Cup would be determined via a double round-robin tournament (four games each) between the champions of the three leagues, featuring a single game championship involving the top two finishers in the tournament.^[19] The creation of the WHL's Portland Winter Hawks in 1976 opened the competition up to non-Canadian teams for the first time, and in 1982, the Winter Hawks became the first American team in Memorial Cup history to compete for the trophy (and, in 1983, the first American Memorial Cup champion – see next section).^[20]

The Memorial Cup tournament was expanded to four teams in 1983; a pre-determined host team was added in place of holding the tournament in a neutral host city. The first such host team was the Portland Winter Hawks, who set numerous firsts in the 1983 tournament. It represented the first time Memorial Cup games were held outside Canada, and by virtue of winning the tournament, the Winter Hawks became the first American team to win the Cup. The Winter Hawks also became the first team in Memorial Cup history to win the championship despite failing to win its own league title—they had been defeated by the Lethbridge Broncos in the WHL playoffs.^[21]

The four-team format remains in use, and the host team cycles evenly between all three leagues, with cities submitting bids to their respective leagues, which ultimately choose the host.^[22] In 1987, however, only three teams competed for the Memorial Cup. To determine the host team for that tournament, the OHL held a "super series" between its two regular season division winners before the start of the playoffs. The tournament was won by the Oshawa Generals, who went on to win the OHL championship. As a result, the OHL chose to send only Oshawa to the Memorial Cup.^[23] Since then, the league runner up is regularly chosen to replace teams either as hosts or if the champion of the league is also hosting. Situations where this arose include in 1988 when Chicoutimi, Quebec and their team, the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, were the hosts, but lost in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs and were replaced as the "host team" by the Drummondville Voltigeurs, which were league runner-ups.^[24] The Hamilton Dukes were hosting the tournament in Hamilton, Ontario in 1990, but were a poor team, and were replaced by OHL runner-ups Kitchener Rangers in the tournament.^[25] In 1991 the Quebec Remparts were a poor team and despite Quebec City hosting the tournament, they were replaced by QMJHL runner-ups Chicoutimi Saguenéens.^[26] In 1995, the Kamloops Blazers qualified as both hosts and WHL champions, and were replaced as the WHL representative by the runner-up Brandon Wheat Kings.^[27]

Since the current format was adopted, the Memorial Cup has been won by each league (as of 2024):^[4][2]

• Western Hockey League (WHL): 16 times
• Ontario Hockey League (OHL): 13 times
• Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL): 11 times

• Lapp, Richard; Macaulay, Alec (1997). The Memorial Cup. Harbour Publishing. ISBN 1-55017-170-4.
• "Memorial Cup History". Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
• Podnieks, Andrew (2005). Silverware. Hockey Hall of Fame. Bolton, Ontario: Fenn Publishing. ISBN 1-55168-296-6.

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