The Memorial Cup won’t be presented this season, but its history in Kingston will

Earlier this week, the Canadian Hockey League cancelled playoffs in all three of its leagues, as well as the Memorial Cup.

Believe it or not, that marks the first time in the 102-year history of the trophy that it won’t be presented. But did you know the idea for the memorial came out of Kingston?

Mark Potter is a hockey historian as well as pase president of the original Hockey Hall of Fame.

“It’s been awarded annually since 1919, and you think about what we’ve gone through over the years in over 100 years — many, many different crisis situations — so it’s quite remarkable that the Memorial Cup for the first time ever is being postponed.”

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The idea behind the Memorial Cup, the holy grail of major junior hockey, happened in the Limestone City over a century ago. Potter says it was all thanks to a Kingston native.

“It was Capt. James Sutherland who was overseas in World War One and there were two local Kingston hockey stars that were over there with him, Scotty Davidson and George Richardson, who were both killed in the line of duty,” Potter said.

“It was Capt. Sutherland who proposed the idea of establishing a Memorial Cup.”

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Truly a hometown story. A Kingston team has yet to win the Memorial Cup.