What happened to the Paterson Cup?

As the Patrick brothers prepared for the launch of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, they sought a trophy “to be presented by some prominent man” to the league champion.

“Lester reckons that in time such a trophy would be as famous as the Stanley Cup,” the Victoria Times of Dec. 13, 1911 reported.

They found their prominent man in BC Lt.-Gov. Thomas W. Paterson, a hockey fan who a week later presented a trophy known as the Paterson Cup. Fortunately, a few photographs of it survive. One shows that it was engraved “The Paterson Cup/Presented by Lieut Gov. T.W. Paterson/to/Pacific Coast Hockey Association/1912.”

(City of Vancouver Archives CVA AM54-S4)

Another photo, in which the engraving is not visible (so perhaps it hadn’t been added yet), appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Nov. 23, 1912, as seen below. 

The Paterson Cup was awarded to league champion New Westminster in 1912 and to Victoria at a banquet in the Westholme Hotel in 1913. Victoria repeated as champion in 1914, followed by Vancouver in 1915, Portland in 1916, and Seattle in 1917.

The final mention of the cup was in the Vancouver Daily World of June 4, 1917 when William F. Scott, manager of the Portland Rosebuds, brought the cup to Seattle and turned it over to Curtis Lester of the Metropolitans.

After that, it was never heard of again. Why not? Perhaps its prestige was dimmed once PCHA teams began playing for the Stanley Cup. (Vancouver won it in 1915 and Seattle went on to win it in 1917.) But that doesn’t explain why it wouldn’t continue to be presented to the PCHA champion.

Or maybe it was awarded, and just somehow failed to be noted in the newspapers. The cup was mentioned frequently through 1915, but not at all in 1916.

A bizarre cartoon by Phil Drew in the Vancouver Daily Province of March 9, 1912.

After 1917, what became of the cup? I don’t know, but I wonder if it might have been a casualty of either the November 1929 fire that destroyed the Victoria arena or the 1936 fire that burned the Denman Arena in Vancouver.

Of the two, the former seems a little more likely, insofar as we know that the PCHA’s records and photographs were also lost, to the everlasting dismay of hockey historians. According to the Victoria Times of Nov. 12, 1929:

Arrayed on the walls of the dressing room of the Arena were pictures of some of the finest hockey teams ever assembled … Some of the oldest date back to the days of the old Victoria Aristocrats in 1912. They included pictures of not only Pacific Coast teams but also of clubs from the east who have played in the west in Stanley Cup series.

This wall album was considered a hall of fame and one of the last pictures to be placed there was of the famous Victoria Cougars of 1925, who captured the Stanley Cup …

Most of the valuable records kept by Lester Patrick were destroyed. These included the activities of Pacific Coast League teams since the days of 1911 which cannot be replaced. It could not be learned today whether Lester’s famous scrapbook was lost.

There was no follow up story on the scrapbook. At least one of Lester’s photo albums did survive, however.

Updated on Jan. 22, 2025 to add the cartoon.