SUTHERLAND CUP – HISTORY
First awarded in 1934, the Sutherland Cup is emblematic of Junior ‘B’ supremacy in the Ontario Hockey Association.
The 26 teams in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League now compete for this trophy.
The Waterloo Siskins have won the most Sutherland Cup championships with 11, with their first coming in 1940 and their most recent in 1994.
JAMES T. SUTHERLAND
The Sutherland Cup is named after Captain James T. Sutherland. He was a hockey pioneer who was instrumental in the promotion of the Ontario Hockey Association at every opportunity. He became President of the OHA in 1915 and, one year later, first held the same office for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. He was known as the main source for hockey information, as a coach, and as a referee.
He introduced preseason conditioning exercises and a coaching system. In 1919 on his discharge from the army, one of his first accomplishments was to recommend a trophy as a memorial to the young men who died in the European conflict. From this came the creation of the Memorial Cup, emblematic of the Canadian Junior Championship, first awarded to the University of Toronto in 1919.
He dedicated his life to helping Canadians recognize and preserve the heritage of their winter sport. To his death on September 15th, 1955, he insisted that events in the town of Kingston in 1888 made that location the actual birth place of organized hockey.
James Thomas Sutherland is known simply as the father of hockey in Ontario.