The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

trophy. It is awarded annually in

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

to the champion of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; ) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League, alongside the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. The league is for players ag ...

playoffs. It was donated by John Ross Robertson to the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the province of Ontario. Founded in 1890, the OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern ...

in 1910, and is the third of three similarly named trophies he established. His other eponymous trophies for the OHA include, the

J. Ross Robertson Cup The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian ice hockey trophy. It is awarded annually in junior ice hockey to the champion of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. It was donated by John Ross Robertson to the Ontario Hockey Association in 1910, an ...

awarded to the annual champions of

Allan Cup Hockey Allan Cup Hockey (ACH), also known as the OHA Senior “AAA” Hockey League, is a senior ice hockey league with three teams in Southern Ontario. The league was founded in 1990 as the Southwestern Senior "A" Hockey League. It is governed by th ...

, and the

which was awarded to the annual champions of the discontinued intermediate division. The J. Ross Robertson Cup has continuously been awarded as the playoffs championship trophy for the top tier of junior hockey in Ontario. The cup transitioned from the Ontario Hockey Association to the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League in 1974, and has been the championship trophy of the Ontario Hockey League since 1980. The winner of the J. Ross Robertson Cup has been eligible to compete for the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a consortium of three Junior ice hockey, major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tou ...

as the junior hockey champion of Canada since 1919.

History

The J. Ross Robertson Cup was donated by John Ross Robertson on November 19, 1910, to be awarded annually to the champion of the

division in the

(OHA). Robertson served as president of the OHA from 1899 to 1905, had founded the '' Toronto Evening Telegram'' in 1876, helped establish

The Hospital for Sick Children ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

, and was a member of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

for Toronto East. He was against professionalism in sports, and felt that "sport should be pursued for its own sake, for when professionalism begins, true sport ends". The OHA first established a junior hockey division for the 1892–93 season, and the J. Ross Robertson Cup was first awarded during the 1910–11 season. The cup is a sterling silver bowl tall, engraved with a hockey-playing scene and interlaced maple leaves in bas-relief. The cup is the third of three similarly named trophies Robertson donated to the OHA, which included the

for the annual champions of the senior division, and the

for the annual champions of intermediate division. The

was founded in 1919, which gave the opportunity for each season's J. Ross Robertson Cup winner to partake in national playoffs arranged by the

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; ) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction included senior ice hockey leagues and the Allan Cup, ...

for the junior hockey championship of Canada.Podnieks, Andrew (2005), pp. 26–27 The national playoffs culminated in an east-versus-west final, and the Eastern Canada junior champion was also awarded the George Richardson Memorial Trophy from 1932 to 1971. In 1972, the Memorial Cup format changed to a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

and the J. Ross Robertson Cup winner received an automatic berth in the tournament along with the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL; , LHJMQ), formerly the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). The league includes teams in Quebec ...

and

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hocke ...

champions. The OHA split junior hockey into A and B levels for the 1933–34 season. The junior-A level competed for the J. Ross Robertson Cup, and the junior-B level competed for the newly established

Sutherland Cup The Sutherland Cup is the ice hockey Ontario Junior "B" Provincial Championship trophy. The trophy was first awarded in 1934, and named in honour of former OHA and CAHA president, James T. Sutherland. The Sutherland Cup is now the championshi ...

. The J. Ross Robertson Cup remained the playoffs championship trophy for the top tier of junior hockey in the OHA. The cup was awarded to the OHA Major Junior A Series champion from 1972 to 1974, the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League champion from 1974 to 1980, and has been the championship trophy of the

since 1980. The Ontario Hockey League established the Bobby Orr Trophy and the

Wayne Gretzky Trophy The Wayne Gretzky Trophy is awarded annually to the champion of the Western conference playoffs in the Ontario Hockey League. It was first awarded in 1999. The winning team competes for the J. Ross Robertson Cup in the OHL finals versus the Bobb ...

in 1999, for the respective Eastern Conference and Western Conference champions which compete for the J. Ross Robertson Cup. The

Wayne Gretzky 99 Award The Wayne Gretzky 99 Award is awarded annually to the most valuable player in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. It was first awarded in 1999, and is named for Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canad ...

was established in 1999, and is given to the

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs at the conclusion of the J. Ross Robertson Cup finals.

List of cup winners

1911 to 1932

1910-11 Kingston Frontenacs juniors and the J

The OHA's J. Ross Robertson Cup champion was determined by a total-goals series from 1911 to 1932. The number of games played varied by season from one to three games.Ontario Hockey Association (2006), p. W-13Lapp & Macaulay (1997), p. 11 List of winning teams and finalists from 1911 to 1932.

1933 to present

Since 1933, the J. Ross Robertson Cup champion has been determined by either the most wins in total-games series, or the most

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

earned in a series. List of OHA (to 1979) / OHL (since 1980) winning teams and runner-up finalists since 1933.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Ontario Hockey League
{{OHL trophies 1910 establishments in Ontario Awards established in 1910 Ontario Hockey Association Ontario Hockey League trophies and awards