Champions Corner: The Trophy Case

Boston sports championship trophies at Fenway Park

The top 5 hardest United States professional team sports trophies to win:

5. The Philip F. Anschutz Trophy

The Philip F. Anschutz Trophy is awarded to the winner of the MLS Cup. The MLS Cup is the post season championship in the Major League of Soccer. Anschutz is the co-founder of the MLS and owned multiple teams. The original trophy is given to the winning team for the off-season while a replica is made for the club. The trophy is the heaviest in the United States made of 43 pounds of sterling silver.

The MLS was founded in 1996, but has failed to gain a large following in the United States. Americans are overwhelmed by other professional sports that have been around in the U.S. for a lot longer. Additionally, international soccer is a lot more competitive and U.S. soccer fans can watch those games with the NBC sports weekly coverage of Premier League games. The MLS has not been able to expand like the other professional sports making this trophy the easiest and maybe even least desirable trophy to win in professional sports.

4. The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy

The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is the championship trophy awarded to the winner of The Finals in the National Basketball Association. Larry O’Brien is a former NBA commissioner who retired in 1984. The trophy was given its current name that same year. The trophy weighs 14.5 pounds and replicates a basketball on the rim of the net.

The NBA is the most imbalanced league in U.S. professional sports. The domination of certain teams makes this trophy the 4^th hardest trophy to win. There have been several periods in the history of the NBA that certain teams consistently won The Finals. In the past, teams like the Celtics and Lakers went on to dominate the NBA with some of the greatest basketball players of all time. More recently, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have created teams built around one star player. In the playoffs, 7 and 8 seeds do not even have a chance of winning the Larry O’Brien trophy. Predicting the outcome of playoff series does not come easier than it does in the NBA.

3. The Commissioner’s Trophy

The Commissioner’s Trophy is awarded to the World Series champion in the Major League of Baseball each Fall. The trophy got its name because the Commissioner of the MLB awards the trophy to the winning team during an on-field presentation. The trophy is the third heaviest in U.S. professional sports at 30 pounds. The unique design of the trophy features a circle of 30 flags, one for each team in the league, and a silver baseball in the middle. The trophy costs about $2,500 and was originally created in 1967.

The length of the MLB season is what lands The Commissioner’s Trophy in the #3 spot. The 162 regular season games are over a 6-month period. The lengthy season can be extremely hard on pitcher’s arms. Additionally, batting in the MLB requires players to react to a ball coming to the plate at 100 miles per hour from 60’ 6” away. A “good” batting average is typically around .300 (3 hits for every 10 at bats.) The demand that this sport puts on its players require them to consistently be “game-ready.” There is no time for slumps especially when October rolls around.

2. The Vince Lombardi Trophy

The Vince Lombardi Trophy is awarded every year to the winner of the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the largest and most popular championship in American professional sports. The trophy gets it’s name from Vince Lombardi, a Fordham University graduate, who became one of the greatest football coaches of all time. Each year, Tiffany & Co. produce a new Lombardi Trophy with the Roman numeral of the Super Bowl that is being played.

The Lombardi Trophy falls in second place for the hardest trophy to win in professional sports. The NFL is widely competitive across most teams, but does have some teams that enter each season as a “building year.” This means they hope to get the best draft pick for next year because they feel like they have no hope to make the playoffs. This mentality has become extremely popular in some professional sports leagues. However, the top teams in each conference fight in some of coldest and most brutal weather conditions throughout the winter in hope of winning the Super Bowl. As a Patriots fan, I don’t think the trophy is that hard to win recently, but most NFL fans would beg to differ.

1. The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is awarded every year to the championship winning team in the National Hockey League. Commissioned in 1892, the Stanley Cup is the oldest active trophy awarded to a professional sports team. The trophy is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, a former Governor General of Canada. The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in the United States that is not recreated every year. Each winning team gets the trophy for a full year until it has to be returned to the league during the next year’s playoffs. Since 1924, every player who has won the Stanley Cup has had his name engraved on one of the rings around the trophy. The Stanley Cup is the second heaviest trophy in the United States weighing almost 35 pounds.

The Stanley Cup is recognized as the hardest trophy to win in the United States professional leagues because of the brutally physical 82 game regular season that is followed by a minimum of 16 required games to win the playoffs. However, many series require 6 or 7 games to decide a winner because of extremely narrow margin of skill between the #1 seeded team and the #8 seeded team in each conference. Any team that makes the playoffs has a chance at lifting the Stanley Cup. The brutal increase in physicality and speed that takes place in the playoffs often leads to bumps, bruises, stitches, and broken bones. NHL players leave it all on the ice for the hope of attaining Lord Stanley’s Mug.