Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledged to donate a silver challenge cup as an award for the best hockey team in Canada on March 18, 1892. It was later named after him as the Stanley Cup.
Sweetland and Ross first presented the Stanley Cup trophy in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association on behalf of the affiliated Montreal Hockey Club, the champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) on March 17, 1893.ย