The Stanley Cup: 100 Years of Hockey

Dave Jenkinson is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education at the
University of Manitoba.

Duplacey, a sports writer and former curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame,
has produced a breezy, souvenir-type publication as part of the official
celebrations connected with the centennial of the Stanley Cup, the
oldest trophy in North America. Despite the subtitle, “100 Years of
Hockey,” the book focuses not on the sport, but on the Stanley Cup
itself. The slim work’s 32 pages are generously illustrated with color
and black-and-white “playoff-game-action” photos, plus team and
individual “portraits,” while the brief, readable text combines
factual information concerning the Cup’s history with various bits of
trivia and player “testimonies” about what playing/not playing,
winning/losing the Stanley Cup has meant/means to them.

Obviously directed more to individual purchasers than to the
institutional market, this book still belongs in libraries, both public
and school, where young hockey fans, especially reluctant readers
attracted by its attractive, colorful format, will readily browse its
modest contents. Institutional purchasers, however, face the difficult
task of deciding who gets to remove and keep the official commemorative
Stanley Cup cloth crest that is framed by the book’s peekaboo-style
cover.