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The Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy was the trophy awarded to the champions of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) from
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...
through
1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
. The trophy was named after Ed Thorp, a noted
referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...
, rules expert, sporting goods dealer, and friend to many of the early NFL owners. Thorp died in June 1934, and a large, traveling trophy was made later that year. It was to be passed along from champion to champion each season with each championship team's name inscribed on it. Unlike the modern day Lombardi trophies, the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy did not become the possession of the winning team, but instead spent a year with the winning team before being passed on to the next year’s champion, much like the
Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
in the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...
or the
Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...
in the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...
. For a brief period in the 1930s, teams winning the league championship were awarded a smaller replica of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy, which they were allowed to keep, in addition to the year spent with the larger traveling trophy. In 2015, it was found the trophy was in possession of the
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
, along with two other copies of it. How the trophy came to be in the possession of the Hall of Fame, rather than the team itself, was eventually solved in June, 2018, by Packers historian Cliff Christl. Some of the trophies, such as the two replicas the
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the t ...
won in
1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
and
1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...
, have Thorp misspelled as Thorpe, showing that the name Ed Thorp was not a household name at the time.


Disappearance

The original theory of what happened was that the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...
, who were thought to be the last to win the Trophy in 1969, somehow lost it when the league switched over to the Lombardi Trophy the following year. The Vikings after winning the Thorp Trophy went on to face the
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
champion the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...
in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game (which is more commonly referred to as
Super Bowl IV Super Bowl IV was an American football game played on January 11, 1970 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the fourth and final AFL–NFL World Championship Game in professional football prior to the AFL–NFL merger taking e ...
). The spirit of Ed Thorp was rumored to have cursed the Vikings, since they lost the trophy that was named in his honor. To date, the team has lost all four Super Bowls, and the last six NFC Championships they have played in. A similar incident occurred to the first trophy that was awarded to the NFL Champions, the
Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup was a silver trophy donated to the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922) by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, Tire Division. History According to the Septemb ...
. In 1920, after the
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were awarded the league championship, that trophy also went missing (like the Thorp trophy, it too was initially to be passed down to each successive champion). The
Washington Commanders The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) E ...
replica of the Thorp Trophy is on display at
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.


Rediscovery

In 2015, the Thorp Trophy was found to have been in the possession of the
Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
instead of with the Vikings. Initially, the Packers and the NFL didn't know how it got there and many theories on how it got there were proposed. Also, the trophy only included the engraved names of the winners from the 1934 New York Giants to the 1951 Los Angeles Rams, adding to the mystery. The trophy was put on display at the Packers Hall of Fame. After some research by various teams, it was discovered that, contrary to original belief, there had been only six of the individual trophies awarded to teams for their victories, with five of them coming during
Joseph Carr Joseph Francis Carr (October 22, 1879 – May 20, 1939) was an American sports executive in American football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939. He was also one of ...
's-then president of the league-life, and a sixth not long after his death: Those of the
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...
and 1938 New York Giants, the 1935 Detroit Lions, the 1937 Washington Redskins, and the
1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
and 1939 Green Bay Packers, along with one trophy given out to the 1961 Green Bay Packers that was first not thought to be part of the original pattern, being differently shaped than the ones originally presented. In 2018, a ''
Green Bay Press-Gazette The ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'' is a newspaper whose primary coverage is of northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. It was founded as the ''Green Bay Gazette'' in 1866 as a weekly paper, becoming a daily newspaper in 1871. The ''Green Ba ...
'' photo from 1962 was donated from a fan, and a trophy base from the Packers Hall of Fame Inc. was found at the bottom of a cardboard box. With this, it was discovered that: the trophy on display since 2015 was not fully displayed, with there being names of the winners engraved on the rediscovered base from the 1952 Detroit Lions to the 1967 Green Bay Packers (with the exception of the 1960 Philadelphia Eagles) and that the trophy was the same one that had been given to the Packers in 1961, which was confirmed to be the traveling Ed Thorp Trophy. After the base was discovered, it was reattached to the trophy, thus fully listing the winners from 1934 through 1967 (except 1960) and the complete trophy is now on display at the Packers Hall of Fame. The 1960 Philadelphia Eagles are not found engraved anywhere on the trophy, being the only team from 1934 through 1967 to not be engraved, although there is a space left for them. It had previously been assumed that the 1968 and 1969 champions, the
Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...
and
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...
(both of whom had lost their respective
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s), had been awarded the trophy, but no engravings are present honoring either one (though that could be because there was no room left to engrave them). In August 2020, an independent online reality show called "Skol Searching", created by Justin Lawrence of Tampa, Florida, revealed The Minnesota Vikings 1969 Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy. The trophy seems to be a replica as it includes the 1960, 1968 and 1969 winners in its engravings, but it's also the first created specifically for the Vikings & 1969. After a handful of corresponding emails between August–September 2020, for reasons unknown, the Vikings have turned down the donation of the replica. They stated they have no plans at this time to accept nor create their own replica. This may come as a surprise to many since the franchise's museum currently has no trophies on display. The 1969 Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy was the only championship trophy earned by the franchise since their creation in 1961. The trophy’s indefinite home is now in Maple Grove, Minnesota. It’s displayed on game day by a VWO rmy Divisionrun club called ‘Skol Bar’ inside of Maple Tavern. The club plans on aiding in finding it a permanent home.


List of Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy winners

* 1934 New York Giants * 1935 Detroit Lions * 1936 Green Bay Packers * 1937 Washington Redskins * 1938 New York Giants * 1939 Green Bay Packers * 1940 Chicago Bears * 1941 Chicago Bears * 1942 Washington Redskins * 1943 Chicago Bears * 1944 Green Bay Packers * 1945 Cleveland Rams * 1946 Chicago Bears * 1947 Chicago Cardinals * 1948 Philadelphia Eagles * 1949 Philadelphia Eagles * 1950 Cleveland Browns * 1951 Los Angeles Rams * 1952 Detroit Lions * 1953 Detroit Lions * 1954 Cleveland Browns * 1955 Cleveland Browns * 1956 New York Giants * 1957 Detroit Lions * 1958 Baltimore Colts * 1959 Baltimore Colts * 1960 Philadelphia Eagles * 1961 Green Bay Packers * 1962 Green Bay Packers * 1963 Chicago Bears * 1964 Cleveland Browns * 1965 Green Bay Packers * 1966 Green Bay Packers * 1967 Green Bay Packers * 1968 Baltimore Colts * 1969 Minnesota Vikings


Total trophies won

Non-winners (5):
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
,
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's Nationa ...
,
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
,
Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcon ...
,
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...


See also

*
Vince Lombardi Trophy The Vince Lombardi Trophy is the trophy awarded each year to the winning team of the National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl. The trophy is named in honor of NFL coach Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to vi ...
*
NFC Championship Game The NFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the National Football Conference (NFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world ...
*
Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup was a silver trophy donated to the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922) by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, Tire Division. History According to the Septemb ...
* List of National Football League awards


References

{{Minnesota Vikings National Football League trophies and awards Awards established in 1934 1934 establishments in the United States