Famous Trophies and Awards

We have researched the history of some of the most famous awards and placed them in this section. If you are curious how some of the most prestigious awards came about or the criteria for winning these awards we have provided the answers below.

The Heisman Trophy • The Oscar • The Nobel Prize • The Stanley Cup

Olympic Medals • NFL Super Trophy • Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame

Kentucky Derby Trophy • Golden Globe Awards

Thus, it was quite appropriate that, in 1935, the Downtown Athletic Club further evidenced its devotion to sports by creating an annual award to the Outstanding College Football Player in the United States. It was decided to make the first award presentation at the close of the 1935 football season. Before that, however, a great deal of preparatory work had to be done.

First, the trophy itself - what should be its style, size and design? The traditional cup or bowl seemed too commonplace, lacked distinction and was in no way emblematic of the athletic talent to be honored and immortalized. The Club Trophy Committee decided after deliberation that the trophy should be the replica, in bronze, of a muscular footballer driving for yardage. To create this trophy, a well-known sculptor and National Academy prize Winner, Frank Eliscu, was engaged. He set to work at once selecting Ed Smith, a leading player on the 1934 New York University football team, as his model. In due course, Eliscu prepared a rough clay model. It was approved by the DAC Committee and sent uptown to Jim Crowley (one of the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame), the Head Football Coach at Fordham, for his inspection. He showed the replica to his players who took various positions on the field to illustrate and verify the sidestep, the forward drive and the strong arm thrust of the right arm. Sculptor Eliscu closely observed these action sequences and modified his clay prototype to correspond. The result was a truly lifelike simulation of player action. It was then converted into a plaster cast, a step preliminary to ultimate production in bronze.

Named For Heisman
Before the time came to select the top collegiate gridiron star for the next year (1936), however, the DAC Trophy was accorded a special dedication and a new name. In 1930, John W. Heisman became the first Athletic Director of the Downtown Athletic Club. He was singularly qualified for this position by virtue of a outstanding athletic career. He played varsity football at Brown and Penn and then moved on to a success and stature in coaching comparable with such immortals as Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Bob Zuppke, Percy Haughton, Clark Shaughnessy, Hurry-Up Yost and Knute Rockne. His coaching career spanned 36 years from 1892 through 1927 and included tours of duty at Auburn, Oberlin, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Akron, Penn, Washington and Jefferson, and Rice

Not only was John Heisman a gifted and winning football coach, but he was an outstanding student and historian of the game, and credited with major innovations.

After seven years as Director of Athletics at the Downtown Athletic Club, John W. Heisman on 3 October 1936 succumbed to bronchial pneumonia. As a fitting tribute to the memory of this distinguished American athlete and inventive football genius, the DAC Trophy was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy and awarded in 1936, and each subsequent year, to the outstanding gridiron star. In 1968, the Heisman Trophy Committee voted to award two trophies each year - to the winner and to the college or university he represents.
It was obviously an excellent idea for the DAC to sponsor an annual trophy presented to a super athlete of national stature, but who should select him? Coaches? No, because they might be prejudiced toward their own teams and might reflect, in the evaluations and voting, traditional or regional bias. Sportswriters on radio and (later) television seemed the most logical choice to make up a nationwide panel of informed and competent judges.

Heisman Balloting - How it works
Accordingly, the DAC established the following rules and balloting procedures by which Heisman winners have been selected, year after year. This method of determination has worked well although changes have been made over the years. The following paragraphs explain how the voting was done in the past:

"The Heisman Memorial Trophy Committee is national in scope, acts on all policies governing the voting and the awarding of the trophy, and supervises the balloting. It is composed of Club members, Sectional Representatives from the press, radio and television media, and a representative from each of the 50 states.

"The Committee has five Sectional Representatives. Don Criqui, now of NBC Sports, New York City, represents the East; Dave Campbell of the Waco Tribune-Herald represents the Southwest; Fred Russell of the Nashville Banner, the South; Maury White of the Des Moines Register and Tribune, the Midwest; and Tom Harmon, Tom Harmon's "Football Today" Los Angeles, California, the Far West.

"The State Representative keeps the file up to date on all eligible electors in his state. In 1976, there were 1,048 sportswriters, sportscasters and telecasters registered, who qualified for ballots. The ballots are mailed about mid-November.

"Each elector must vote for three players. His first choice receives three points; second, two points; and third, one. The player receiving the greatest number of points is the winner. This point system was originated by the Heisman Committee and eliminates sectional favoritism. THE DOWNTOWN ATHLETIC CLUB HAS NO VOICE IN SELECTING THE WINNER."

In 1977, it was decided to alter the ballot completely and change the structure of the Committee. "The East" section was divided into two section, namely, "Northeast" and "Mid-Atlantic", and a new Sectional Representative was appointed for the Mid-Atlantic, Pat Livingston of Pittsburgh; also, the fifty State Representatives were superseded in their duties by the six Sectional Representatives. Each of the six Sectional Representatives appointed 175 electors in his area, for a total of 1,050 voters nationwide.

In 1980, in an effort to maximize the annual Heisman Ballot Vote, State Representatives were reappointed to work in conjunction with the Sectional Representatives in the appointment of Electors and to assist in making certain that all Electors get their ballots in on time and properly executed.

In 1986, the accounting firm who performed the tallying of the ballots was changed from Pannell Kerr Forster to Deloitte & Touche.

In 1988, in view of the number of Electors who did not vote, voted too late, or returned ineligible ballots, the Heisman Committee elected to reduce the number of Electors from 175 to 145 in each of the six sections,. resulting in a total of 870 Electors (media); also to put the past Heisman winners, 51 in number at present, into a separate voting category, making a total of 921 Electors instead of the former total of 1,050 (media and Heisman winners). After much deliberation and study, the Heisman Committee felt that this change in the voting process was necessary in order to strengthen the body of Electors and, in the process, achieve the highest possible vote. In 1988 a new Sectional Representative was appointed for the Midwest, namely, Bob Hammel of the Herald-Telephone, now the Herald-Times, in Bloomington, Indiana to replace Maury White, who retired in January 1988. In 1996, Chuck Benedict of the Glendale News Press, Glendale, California became the Far West Sectional Representative replacing the beloved Steve Bailey who passed away. In 1991, James L. "Jimmie" McDowell replaced Fred Russell as the South Sectional Representative. Fred served in this position since 1953.

The Awarding Ceremonies Past and Present
From 1935 through 1976, early each December, the winning college player (as determined by the balloting outlined above) was brought to New York City along with his coach and dignitaries from his university. There, at a special convocation of past and current football luminaries, and with press, radio and television coverage, he was saluted as the Heisman winner of the year.

A week or so later, the winner was feted at a large formal dinner in New York to which all past Heisman Awardees were invited. At this gala banquet, replete with renowned personalities in sports, entertainment, government, politics, et cetera, the actual award was made to the year's Heisman winner with appropriate remarks by the winner and usually his coach.

Until 1973, this dinner was held at the Downtown Athletic Club. Popularity fully outran facilities in 1973, however, and in that year the Award Dinner was first held in the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton. It was held there in each of the succeeding years until 1986. Even this Grand Ballroom, however, did not begin to accommodate or provide for the myriad of fans who regard the Heisman as the most prestigious and significant award in the whole spectrum of amateur athletics. The Heisman is truly the most coveted individual collegiate award in America, and a Heisman winner becomes an instant hero to 84 million football devotees.

This unique trophy had been, though 1976, a local New York affair and only modestly publicized. In response to hundreds of letters and much urging from DAC members, however, the Officers and Governors of the Downtown Athletic Club, together with its Trophy Committee, decided that this Heisman Award was indeed an event of interest to great numbers of people outside the Club, and that the ceremony and the citation of the Heisman Winner deserved a far wider audience. That is why, in 1977, the President of the DAC and its Heisman Committee decided to present the award as part of an hour-long, prime time television spectacular. The program, designed to enhance the prestige of the Downtown Athletic Club and the Heisman Trophy as well as bring and exciting new sports special to television viewers, was broadcast live on December 8, 1977. In a departure from the previous years, the victor was announced at the dinner along with those other six outstanding players meriting the special DAC Awards.

Reflecting the changes in the realities of college football and recognizing the vital importance of linemen and defensive units, six new DAC Awards were presented in 1977, in addition to the Heisman Trophy. These winners received a distinctive, modern crystal sculpture 9 inches high, created especially for the DAC by Tiffany.

In 1978 we returned to the traditional format for announcing and presenting the Heisman winner. The balloting for the Heisman Trophy and DAC Awards was tallied by Pannell Kerr Forster. The DAC was notified of the results on November 28, and the media were informed of the balloting results at a Press Conference that day, where they talked with the victor; the Heisman Dinner and Presentation was held on December 7.

Providing an element of suspense for the formal Heisman Dinner, though, were the six outstanding players to be recipients of the special DAC Awards. These victors, the press and public were told, wouldn't be known until December 7.

The Heisman Memorial Award, its captor in 1978 - along with the winners of the DAC Awards and past Heisman winners - retained the limelight for themselves in 1978. In 1979, the Heisman Committee decided to discontinue the six special DAC Awards and only give out the Heisman Memorial Trophy.

In 1986, the Heisman Committee decided to make a change in the hotel site for the Heisman Award Dinner and Ceremonies to the New York Marriot Marquis in the Broadway Ballroom.

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Shortly after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was organized in 1927, a dinner was held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to discuss methods of honoring outstanding achievements, thus encouraging higher levels of quality in all facets of motion picture production.

A major item of the business discussed was the creation of a trophy to symbolize the recognition of film achievement. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons took the idea to several Los Angeles artists who submitted designs. Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley was selected to create the statuette - the figure of a knight standing on a reel of film, hands gripping a sword. The Academy's world-renowned statuette was born.

Since the initial awards banquet on May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's Blossom Room, through the 71st Academy Awards Presentation on March 21, 1999, 2,286 statuettes have been presented. Each January, additional golden statuettes are cast, molded, polished and buffed by R. S. Owens and Company, the Chicago awards specialty company retained by the Academy since 1982 to make the statuette.

Initially he was solid bronze; for a while plaster and today gold-plated britannium, a metal alloy. He stands 131/2 inches tall and weighs a robust 81/2 pounds. He hasn't been altered again since his molten birth, except when the design of the pedestal was made higher in 1945. From 1928 to 1945, the base (originally designed by Frederic Hope, assistant to Cedric Gibbons), was Belgian black marble. From 1945 to the present the base has been metal.

Officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is better known by a nickname, Oscar, the origins of which aren't clear. A popular story has been that an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, Margaret Herrick, thought it resembled her Uncle Oscar and said so; and that the Academy staff began referring to it as Oscar.

In any case, by the sixth Awards Presentation in 1934, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in his column in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy itself didn't use the nickname officially until 1939.

The Academy won't know how many statuettes it will actually hand out at the Annual Academy Awards Ceremony until the envelopes are opened on Oscar Night. Although the number of categories and special awards is known prior to the ceremony, the possibility of multiple recipients sharing the prize in some categories makes the exact number of Oscar statuettes awarded unpredictable. As in previous years, any surplus awards will be housed in the Academy's vault until next year's event.

"Casting the Oscar statuettes is our New Year's celebration," says R. S. Owens spokesperson Noreen Prohaska. "It's our first project of the year, and certainly our most prestigious. Though we could probably do it quicker, we take three to four weeks to cast 50 statuettes. It may sound silly, but each one is done to perfection and handled with white gloves. After all, look at the people who will be clutching it on Oscar Night."

Prior to 1949, the statuettes were not numbered. Since that year, starting with a somewhat arbitrary number 501, each Oscar statuette has worn his serial number behind his heels.

The 15 statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of an alloy called Brittanium, which made it easier to give the statuettes their smooth finish. Due to the metals shortage during the World War II years, they were made of plaster. Following the war, all of the awarded plaster figures were redeemed for gold-plated ones.

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, and the Special Achievement Award are all Oscar statuettes. An Oscar statuette also may be presented as an Honorary Award.

Or an Honorary Award may take the form of a Life Membership, a scroll, a medal or any other design chosen by the Board of Governors. For example, a wooden Oscar statuette with a movable jaw was presented to Edgar Bergen during the 1937 [10th] Awards, for his creation of Charlie McCarthy. Walt Disney received an Oscar and seven miniature statuettes in 1938 when he was honored for SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. The Honorary Award presented to Jean Hersholt himself in 1949 for distinguished service to the motion picture industry was an Oscar statuette on a special rectangular base on which were inscribed the signatures of the members of the Academy's Board of Governors.

The Honorary Juvenile Award (no longer presented) was a miniature statuette, the Scientific and Engineering Award is a plaque, and the Technical Achievement Award is a certificate. The John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation is a bronze medallion.

The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is a solid bronze head of Thalberg, resting on a black marble base. It weights 103/4 pounds and is 9 inches tall. The trophy design was supervised by Cedric Gibbons, and was executed by sculptor Bernard Sopher during the Fall and Winter of 1937/38.

But it is the Oscar statuette that is arguably the most recognized award in the world. Its success as a symbol of achievement in filmmaking would doubtless amaze those who attended that dinner 70 years ago, as well as its creators, Cedric Gibbons and George Stanley.

It stands today, as it has since 1929, all 13 1/2 inches, without peer, on the mantels of the greatest filmmakers in history.

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The Nobel Prize

The Nobel Medals and the Medal for the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

By: Birgitta Lemmel

According to the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, given by the King in Council on June 29, 1900, "the prize-awarding bodies shall present to each prize-winner an assignment for the amount of the prize, a diploma, and a gold medal bearing the image of the testator and an appropriate inscription."

The medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature were modeled by the Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg and the Peace medal by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The medal for the Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (established in 1968 in connection with the 300th anniversary of the Bank of Sweden), was designed by Gunvor Svensson-Lundqvist.

The front side of the three "Swedish" medals (Physics and Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) is the same, featuring a portrait of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death in Latin - NAT-MDCCC XXXIII OB-MDCCC XCVI. Alfred Nobel's face on the Peace medal and on the medal for the Economics Prize has different designs. The main inscription on the reverse side of all three "Swedish" Nobel Prize medals is the same: "Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes,"while the ../image vary according to the symbols of the respective prize-awarding institutions. The Peace medal has the inscription "Pro pace et fraternitate gentium" and the Economics medal has no quotation at all on the reverse.

Up to 1980 the "Swedish" medals, each weighing approximately 200 g and with a diameter of 66 mm, were made of 23-karat gold. Since then they have been made of 18-karat green gold plated with 24-karat gold.

Today the "Swedish" medals are cast by Myntverket - the Swedish Mint - in Eskilstuna and the Peace medal by Den Kongelige Mynt - the Royal Mint - in Kongsberg, Norway.

The Nobel medals have had the same design since 1902. Why not since 1901, when the first Prizes were awarded? In early 1901 the young and talented Swedish sculptor and engraver Erik Lindberg - later Professor Erik Lindberg - had been entrusted with the task of creating the three "Swedish" Nobel medals, while the Norwegian medal - the Peace medal - had been entrusted to the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The designs of the reverse sides of the "Swedish" Nobel medals were not finalized in time for the first Award Ceremony in 1901. We gather from Erik Lindberg's correspondence with his father Professor Adolf Lindberg that each of the 1901 Laureates received a "temporary" medal - a medal bearing the portrait of Alfred Nobel, cast in a baser metal - as a memento until the "real" medals were finished. The first of these medals was not completed and cast until September 1902.

During the years 1901-1902 Erik Lindberg was living in Paris. He was influenced by modern French medal engravers of that period, such as the masters Roty, Chaplain, Tasset and Vernon. The portrait on the front of the Swedish medals was completed in time. It was reduced in October 1901 at Janvier's in Paris and the final punching took place in Stockholm. The reason for the delay was that the symbols on the reverse of the medals had to be approved by each Prize-Awarding institution, which was not without controversy. After lengthy discussions by letter, Erik Lindberg decided to return to Stockholm in November 1901 in order to present his ideas in person. His proposals were then all accepted, and he was finally able to produce the plaster casts for the reverse sides, which were then reduced for the final metal-stamping dies.

As Gustav Vigeland was a sculptor and not a medal engraver, Erik Lindberg was asked to make the dies for the Peace medal. His reductions were based on Vigeland's designs.

On all "Swedish" Nobel medals the name of the Laureate is engraved fully visible on a plate on the reverse, whereas the name of the Peace Laureate as well as that of the Winner for the Economics Prize is engraved on the edge of the medal, which is less obvious. For the 1975 Economics Prize winners, the Russian Leonid Kantorovich and the American Tjalling Koopmans, this created problems. Their medals were mixed up in Stockholm, and after the Nobel Week the Prize Winners went back to their respective countries with the wrong medals. As this happened during the Cold War, it took four years of diplomatic efforts to have the medals exchanged to their rightful owners.

On December 10 at the Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm, His Majesty the King hands each Laureate a diploma and a medal. The Peace Prize, i.e. diploma and medal, is presented on the same day in Oslo by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of the King of Norway. The Irish poet William Butler Yeates wrote the following in "The Bounty of Sweden" (The Cuala Press, Dublin, 1925) after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923:

"All is over, and I am able to examine my medal, its charming, decorative, academic design, French in manner, a work of the nineties. It shows a young man listening to a Muse, who stands young and beautiful with a great lyre in her hand, and I think as I examine it, 'I was good-looking once like that young man, but my unpractised verse was full of infirmity, my Muse old as it were; and now I am old and rheumatic, and nothing to look at, but my Muse is young'."

There are many rumors of what happened to the Nobel medals of three Nobel Laureates in Physics during World War II: the medals of the Germans Max von Laue (1914) and James Franck (1925), and of the Dane Niels Bohr (1922). Professor Bohr's Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen had been a refuge for German Jewish physists since 1933. Max von Laue and James Franck had deposited their medals there to keep them from being confiscated by the German authorities. After the occupation of Denmark in April 1940, the medals were Bohr's first concern, according to the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy (also of Jewish origin and a 1943 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry), who worked at the institute. In Hitler's Germany it was almost a capital offense to send gold out of the country. Since the names of the Laureates were engraved on the medals, their discovery by the invading forces would have had very serious consequences. To quote George de Hevesy (Adventures in Radioisotope Research, Vol. 1, p. 27, Pergamon, New York, 1962), who talks about von Laue's medal: "I suggested that we should bury the medal, but Bohr did not like this idea as the medal might be unearthed. I decided to dissolve it. While the invading forces marched in the streets of Copenhagen, I was busy dissolving Laue's and also James Franck's medals. After the war, the gold was recovered and the Nobel Foundation generously presented Laue and Frank with new Nobel medals." de Hevesy wrote to von Laue after the war that the task of dissolving the medals had not been easy, as gold is "exceedingly unreactive and difficult to dissolve." The Nazis occupied Bohr's institute and searched it very carefully but they did not find anything. The medals quietly waited out the war in a solution of aqua regia. de Hevesy did not mention Niels Bohr's own Nobel medal but documents in the Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen show that Niels Bohr's Nobel medal, as well as the Nobel medal of the 1920 Danish Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, August Krogh, had already been donated to an auction held on March 12, 1940 for the benefit of the Fund for Finnish Relief (Finlandshjälpen). The medals were bought by an anonymous buyer and donated to the Danish Historical Museum in Fredriksborg, where they are still kept. Regarding the Nobel medals of von Laue and Franck, the Niels Bohr Archive has a letter from Niels Bohr dated January 24, 1950, about the delivery of gold to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm relating to these two medals. The Nobel medals had been kept in the chemical substance in such a way that the Royal Mint in Stockholm preferred to strike new medals instead of trying to get them out of their wrapping. The proceedings of the Nobel Foundation on February 28, 1952, mention that Professor Franck received his recoined medal at a ceremony at the University of Chicago on January 31, 1952.

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The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup: A History of Abuse and Neglect "One of the great rules of hockey is: On the Stanley Cup, all germs are healthy."
--George Vecsey, The New York Times, June 11, 1999

I got to touch the Stanley Cup. Me. I've ice skated only once in my life, I've never played a real game of hockey, I hadn't even seen a hockey game on television until high school (1990) and I didn't see one in person until January 1999. Still, I touched something that I imagine most serious hockey players don't get to touch their entire lives--the oldest trophy that can be won by professional athletes in North America, the Stanley Cup.

How did this I get to touch the cup? In 1998, the Detroit Red Wings won their second consecutive Cup. Every member of the winning team gets the Cup and its entourage of bodyguards for twenty-four hours in the subsequent summer. One of the Red Wings on that '98 team, Grand Rapids Michigan-native Mike Knuble (actually, he's from the Grand Rapids suburb of Kentwood, but why fret over details?), brought the Cup to his old high school, East Kentwood High School. Though I write these words in Chicago, I'm originally from Grand Rapids, and I happened to be in town the same time as the Cup. Up to 500 fans (four of whom were me, my sister Michelle, and my cousins Adam and Kristy) were, upon paying an admission fee, allowed to touch it and take a snapshot or two with it and spend a grand total of maybe 10 seconds with the Cup.

(Good thing I took the chance when I had it. Three weeks after he came with the Cup, Mike Knuble was traded away from the Wings to the New York Rangers.)

In my few seconds with the Cup, the thing that struck me most about it was that it felt...fragile. The Stanley Cup had a consistency that honestly made me think of tin foil, thin and not the least bit resilient. I know otherwise that it's plenty resilient, but still I couldn't help but be astonished and think that this trophy, probably more than any other trophy in history, went To Hell And Back.

The fact that it has makes its history all the more amazing.

The Stanley behind the Stanley Cup was Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada (the Queen's Representative to the Dominion of Canada), the sixth in the long regal line. If you think that's a mouthful, Stanley's full title was the Monty-Python-esque "Right Honourable Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, Baron Stanley of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, in the Peerage of Great Britain, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath." (inhale)

Stan The Man became interested in hockey during his stint as Governor General from 1888 to 1893. He offered to pay 10 guineas for a trophy to be used as a challenge cup rewarding the best amateur hockey teams in Canada and first awarded for the 1893-94 hockey season. (Depending on the source you look at, that 10 guineas amounts to either $48.33 or $48.67. Canadian cash, remember.)

An Aide to Stanley bought the Cup itself, which (depending on the source) was made by a silversmith or silversmiths (we don't know who they were) from London or Sheffield. The Cup was more like a bowl--a gold-lined silver bowl on an ebony base, measuring seven inches high and 11-1/2-inches in diameter. (One source lists the original height at 7 1/2 inches.) For about 40 years, Lord Stanley's silver bowl was the entire trophy, but players on championship teams began scratching their initials on the bowl. In response, sometime in the 1940s silver bands were added to the bottom of the bowl with all the names on winning teams engraved on them. The trophy grew to its present height of 35-1/4 inches (or 35-1/2 inches, depending on the source or the ruler) with a base 54 inches in circumferences. It weighs 32 pounds, though, in the words of an ESPN sportscaster, "when you win it, it is but a feather."

Though Stanley wanted his Cup to be the domain of amateur hockey players, professional leagues would eventually elbow their way in. (Amateur teams competed for the Cup until 1910, when the professional National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed, which in 1917 became the National Hockey League (NHL), whose teams competed for the Cup against teams from other [mostly western] pro leagues until 1926. By that time, the other leagues had folded, thus making the Stanley Cup the exclusive domain of the NHL.) In fact, Lord Stanley, later Earl of Derby, returned to England ten months before the first Stanley Cup playoff. Ironically, he never saw a Stanley Cup game.

Lord Stanley effectively abandoned his Cup. He wouldn't be the last person to do so.

OTTAWA, 1903. A member of Ottawa's Silver Seven took the Cup home. The teammates found out, a scuffle ensued, and the Cup was tossed into a cemetery.

OTTAWA, 1905. After the Ottawa Silver Seven won the Stanley Cup, one celebrant boasted he could kick it across the frozen-at-the-time Rideau Canal (which links Ottawa on the Ottawa River with Kingston on Lake Ontario). In a day when the Cup was a football-sized bowl and when most hockey players also played rugby, he proceeded to drop kick it into the frozen canal. (Some sources list it as being submerged, however read on.) The partyers proceeded to party elsewhere, leaving the Cup behind. The next morning, the players realized that the Cup was still at the Canal, so they headed to recover the Cup and fortunately found it right where they left it On Colden Pond (or canal).

Abandonment came, abuse (or at least some really weird treatment) followed.

MONTREAL(?), 1906 or 1907. A Montreal club (possibly the Wanderers) wanted its picture taken with the Cup in the studio of photographer Jimmy Rice. After taking the photo, the team left, and the team left behind the Cup. It stayed in the studio for some months until Rice's mother (some sources say it was his wife or his housekeeper or his cleaning lady) used it as a vase, as it held red geraniums in the Studio window.

KENORA (?), ONTARIO, 1907. The Kenora Thistles were forbidden to use two players in the 1907 series. A team official took the Cup and said, "I'm going to throw it in Lake of the Woods." He didn't.

MONTREAL, CIRCA 1910. One of the then-champion Montreal Wanderers operated a St. Catherine Street Bowling Alley, where the Cup was "lodged in a showcase, heaped big with chewing gum to entice prospective buyers."

MONTREAL, 1924. The Montreal Canadiens went to Leo Dandurand's home for a champagne party. The car carrying the Cup had tire blow out, and the car's occupants put it on the side of the road while they stopped for repairs. After the repair, they drove off without the Cup. They realized this when only when they arrived at their destination, and they immediately left to retrace their route to try to find the Cup. They found it a mile and a half away from Dandurand's home--exactly where they left it.

OTTAWA, 1927. The Ottawa Senators won it, and it spent much of the year's summer in King Clancy's living room, where it served as a receptacle for everthing including letters, bills, chewing gum, and cigar butts.

NEW YORK CITY (?), 1940. After the New York Rangers won the cup, Hall of Famer Lynn Patrick and teammates celebrated by urinating in it.

MONTREAL, 1947. With Montreal trailing three games to two in the best-of-seven Cup final, Conn Smythe left the Cup in Montreal after the fifth game of the finals even though game six was slated for Toronto. This would make easier the celebration of a game seven win in Montreal. Problem is, Toronto won game six at Maple Leaf Gardens, thereby winning the Cup which was still in Montreal.

CHICAGO, 1962. When the Montreal Canadiens were losing in the playoff semifinals to the then-defending-Cup-champion Chicago Blackhawks, a Montreal fan went to the the Chicago-Stadium-lobby display case where the Cup was kept, took the Cup and headed for the door. The thief almost reached the street before being stopped by a stadium police officer Later, the fan said "I was taking the Cup back to Montreal, where it belongs."

TORONTO, LATE 1960s and 1970. The Cup was stolen twice from Hockey Hall of Fame in the late 1960s. (On December 5, 1970, Burglars stole the Cup along with the Conn Smythe trophy and the Bill Masterston Memorial Trophy.) Police would recover the trophies each time. One thief threatened to throw the Cup into Lake Ontario unless the charges were dropped.

NEW YORK CITY(?), 1980. Clark Gillies of the 1980 New York Islanders allowed his dog to eat from it. Gillies said, "He's a nice dog." Islander Bryan Trottier took the Cup with him to bed. He said, "I wanted to wake up and find it right beside me. I didn't want to think I'd just dreamed of this happening."

MONTREAL(?), 1986. Chris Nilan of the champion Canadiens photographed the Cup in 1986 with his infant son in it. Nilan said, "His bottom fit right in."

EDMONTON, 1987. The night after the Edmonton Oilers won the Cup, one of them [likely Mark Messier] placed it on stage with an exotic dancer at the Forum Inn, an Edmonton strip joint just across the street from the Northlands Coliseum. Messier took the Cup to various night spots and let fans drink from it.

BOSTON, 1988. During the 1988 finals, two Harvard seniors served as security and guarded the Cup in Boston's Ritz-Carlton hotel.

NEW YORK CITY, 1994. New Yorkers savored the Cup when the Rangers won for the first time in 54 years. As Sports illustrated told it: "Like a loose puck it has been slapped from bar to nightclub to ballpark to ballroom to racetrack to squad car to firehouse to strip joint. Along the way it has been kissed, petted, hugged, massaged, fondled and shaken in exultation by thousands of fans. Many have taken sips from its ample bowl. 'God only knows whose lips have been on that thing,' says Bruce Lifrieri, the Rangers' massage therapist. " The litany of hijinks in New York alone deserves a webpage of its own:

Mark Messier and Brian Leetch brought the Cup on The Late Show with David Letterman and did Stupid Cup Tricks.

Ed Olczyk brought it to Belmont racetrack and let 1994-Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin use it as a feed bag.

Brian Noonan and Nick Kypreos brought the Cup on MTV Prime Time Beach House where it was stuffed with raw clams and oysters. (On the show, Noonan denied he had used the Cup as a rolling pin to make muffins. Kypreos denied playing kick the can with it.)

Messier took the Cup to Scores, an East Side strip joint. Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover said, "It was the first time I'd seen our customers eager to touch something besides our dancers,"

The Cup went to a Ranger victory party at a Manhattan saloon called the Auction House, where it stopped traffic, started parades, and was drunk out of by everyone in sight until the bar was effectively down to backwash (but that probably wouldn't have stopped them).

After a ticker-tape parade up Broadway, and some time at McSorley's bar, a cop named Jim Jones (different guy) strapped a seat belt around the Cup in his squad car and delivered it to another engagement.

The Cup was taken to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium, where it watched the game from George Steinbrenner's luxury box. The Yankee fans at the game cheered "Let's Go Rangers!" (That same day, the Cup visited Brian Bluver, a 13-year-old patient awaiting a heart transplant at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. According to his father, Brian "smiled for the first time in seven weeks". A week and a half later Brian had 11th-hour heart surgery.)

The enthusiasm was so great that Stanley went in to a Montreal silversmith to repair its cracked bowl, loose base, and dented body. (It wasn't the first time--after a rough-and-tumble summer with the Oilers in 1988, the Cup went in to an auto body shop for reconstructive surgery. Messier really knows how to bang up a trophy.) Indeed, in the words of Sport Illustrated's Franz Lidz, "Roughhousing is part of the trophy's tradition."

The Cup was reputedly dismantled (by whom, when, where, how and for how long, I don't know--though it might have been done on numerous occasions).

The Cup was reputedly used as a peanut dish (by whom, when and where, I don't know--though it might have been done on numerous occasions).

In 1991, The Cup was found at the bottom of Pittsburgh Penguin Mario Lemieux's swimming pool. (Lemieux also once brought the Cup with him to bed.) It was reputedly dumped in a snowdrift (by whom, when and where, I don't know--though it might have been done on numerous occasions).

The Cup has starred in its own beer commercial.

The Cup also lay at the bottom of Patrick Roy's pool. Stefan Lefebrve had his son baptized in the Cup.

During the two summers of 1997 and 1998 when the Red Wings won the cup, the Cup went golfing with Darren McCarty, to the shower with Steve Yzerman, bo[wl]ing with Martin Lapointe and visited Moscow with Slava Fetisov, Slava Kozlov, and Igor Larionov.

In the 1990's, the Cup would pay other visits overseas. In 1996, it went to a European player's home for the first time--Ornskoldvik, Sweden, with Colorado player Peter Forsberg. However, the following AP report appeared in the July 27, 1999, New York Times: "For the first time in its history, the Stanley Cup has traveled outside North America or Russia, landing in Prague yesterday. The trophy was taken over for a day by Czech goalie Roman Turek, a member of [the 1999] Stanley Cup-winning Dallas [Asterisks--I mean] Stars. Turek said he would take the cup to to his hometown of Ceske Budejovice, 100 miles south of Prague. The cup, guarded by two National Hockey League bodyguards who arrived with it, will be exhibited at the main square of the town of 100,000."

AND TODAY.... As alluded to above, the Cup now has its own entourage. After the Rangers and their fans had their fun with the cup in 1994, the NHL--angry over the repairs that were required--mandated a round-the-clock security force. They're called the "cup cops", at least one of whom is supposed to accompany the Cup at all times. It appears the "neglect" chapter of the Cup's history is effectively over.

The abuse/roughhousing chapter won't end (Messier might win the Cup again as a coach or something), nor should it out of fear of slighting a vaunted and historic object. Like all of us, it has its own share of imperfections. You can see typos like the New York Ilanders, Toronto Maple Leaes, Bqstqn Bruins, and four versions of Jacques Plante. Moreover, the Cup that I touched and that everyone reboots over isn't even the original Stanley Cup.

You see, sometime in the early-to-mid 1960s (probably 1962), the bowl atop the Cup was replaced with exact duplicate made over several weeks by Montreal silversmith Carl Petersen. For three years, this fact was only known by Peterson and several NHL officials. The original bowl was retired in 1970 and now rests in a vault in the Hockey Hall of Fame, where you can still see it but not touch it.

The rest of the Cup changes too. The rings that comprise the base of the Cup are eventually retired to make room for new teams. Older rings are retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame (before we start calling it The Stanley Missile) where all but one of the original rings remain. (One legend says that that missing ring was stolen by a Canadien who melted it into a trophy for Montreal coach Toe Blake. That ring was supposedly targeted because it had the names of the 1929-30 Boston Bruins.)

The Cup has five rings connected, each with room for 13 teams, so if you're lucky enough to get your name on the Cup, your name will stay on the Cup for 64 years. That is, unless you're the father of Peter Pocklington (the owner of the Edmonton Oilers) who somehow got his name on the Cup and had his name crossed out when NHL officials ruled that he had absolutely nothing to do with the Oilers. Part of the 1984 listing is forever marked with "XXXXXXX".

After more than a century, the Stanley Cup can take whatever people can dish it out. It's maintains a hectic schedule, travelling nearly 300 days a year, including the White House and Red Square, and everywhere in between. Who knew that a 10-guinea investment would turn out to endure so long and captivate so many people? The Stanley Cup is insured for $75,000, but for so many, spending a summer or a day or a moment with arguably the most cherished trophy in sport is, to steal a phrase from a credit card commercial, priceless.

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The 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, are already a distant memory for most people. But the medal-winning athletes who participated have a daily and permanent reminder of their great feats: their Olympic medals.

Even at the first modern Olympiad in 1896, organizers realized the power of a beautiful medal. The first-place winners were given silver medals instead of gold, but they didn't mind--after all, the winners of the second Olympic Games were given pieces of modern art as their prize! That ended quickly at the next Games when the medal presentation was revived, and since then the Olympic medals have been a symbol of international dedication and sportsmanship - on and off the field.

It is impossible to say how many medals have been given out over the years, says Barbara Gresham, senior media coordinator at the U.S. Olympic Committee, because the way the medals are distributed has changed. For instance, today swimmers participating in preliminary qualifying rounds of medal-winning relay teams are awarded a medal even if they don't swim in the final event. Similarly, the entire basketball team now gets medals, whereas only players who actually saw court time in the medal-winning game used to receive them.

The host country is responsible for the design and production of the athlete's medals. As Salt Lake City, Utah, prepares to host the 2002 Winter Games, American firms are gearing up to present their designs to the organizing committee, which generally holds a contest to find the best and most creative medal design. Malcolm Grear Designers, Inc., of Providence, R.I., won the design contest for the last Games held in the U.S., the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The company that actually manufactured the medals was Reed & Barton Silversmiths of Taunton, Mass. And with their experience and knowledge, they are sure to be a front-runner should they decide to bid for the Salt Lake City job. But how exactly did they pull off the production of 1,838 hand-crafted medals back in 1996?

A Pressured Situation

It was a long and very detailed process, says Clark Lofgren, director of design at Reed & Barton. The firm began the actual production in January of 1996 and delivered the medals to Atlanta in May. Sent in the shipment were 604 gold, 604 silver and 630 bronze medals.

The production process began with a three-dimensional clay model of both the front and back of the medal. The front of each medal was the same, but the backs were customized with a pictogram depicting each sport's athlete in action. Thirty-one different models had to be made for the backsides. "It was modeled three times the actual size," says Lofgren. "You can get it a little more accurate when you pantograph it down (that way)."

Plaster-rubber molds were then made with an epoxy that is easily pantographed. To make the dies, the mold was taken to the pantograph machine, where the design was reduced to actual size - 70 millimeters in diameter (2 3/4 inch) and 5 millimeters thick (3/8 inch - and traced into steel. The resulting steel hubs are actually positive replications of the models. The die is then made from the hubs.

To make the medals, the front and back dies are stamped together. "They're not struck so much as they are squeezed," explains Lofgren. The dies come together under 1,000 tons per inch of pressure. "It's an incredible amount of power; each piece had to be resqueezed three times to get the detail up into the die." To ensure a perfect match with the die before being resqueezed, each medal was individually placed and checked by hand as it lay in the die.

Making the gold medal was harder than the others, says Lofgren. There are very strict guidelines for the materials used; the gold medal must be made out of sterling silver and contain at a minimum 6 grams of pure gold. "One of the most difficult things to do technically was the gold medal," says Lofgren. "It's a sandwich of gold with sterling (inside). It had to be centered (and struck) at a specific temperature so the metals would bond." Just gold plating the silver wouldn't have been enough gold, says Lofgren. "It has to be clad and then gold plated because of the silver (edges)."

Each medal was engraved on the edge with the event name. Medals were then polished and drilled for ribbon holes. The ribbon holder was soldered in place, the embroidered ribbon attached and then the medals were placed into special presentation cases.

The Gold (and Silver and Bronze) Standard

The International Olympic Committee has strict guidelines on the production of the Olympic medals. According to the the U.S. Olympic Committee's Gresham, the medals must be at least 60 millimeters in diameter and 3 millimeters thick. The silver in both the gold and silver medals must be at least 925-1000 grade, the gold medal must have at least 6 grams of pure gold and the bronze medal must be pure bronze.

All medal designs must be approved by the games' organizing committee, the country's Olympic committee, and finally the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board. Although the Winter Games haven't had a consistent standard design on either the front or the back, "The summer medals' design has been basically the same since 1928 on the front," says Gresham. "The organizing committee can add a personal design on the rear." This unique design element usually reflects the character of the city and country where the Games are being held.

The medals that Malcolm Grear designed had all the required front elements. The main figure is Lady Victory holding a wreath over her head and carrying palm leaves. The ancient Olympic stadium in Greece is in the background with a horse-drawn chariot in front of it. The front is finished with the image of a Grecian urn and the official Olympic rings. The date and place of the games also appears on the front.

The focus of the medals' rear was a quilt of leaves to symbolize both the host city of Atlanta and the spirit of the Olympic games. Quilt-making is a long-time Southern tradition and quilts are a symbol of unity, a marriage of nations and cultures blended together, a continuing theme of the Olympics. The leaves woven into the quilt both reflect Atlanta - known as the City of Trees - and Olympic history - in the past, a crown of olive leaves went to the victors. The pictograms of athletes on the back were designed to look like ancient Greek urn paintings.

The Post-Medal Life

Reed & Barton also made 60,000 comemorative solid bronze medals, also designed by Malcolm Grear, which were given to all participating athletes, sponsors, officials and others involved in creating the 1996 Summer Games. There were 271 medal events in Atlanta, in contrast to the recent 1998 Nagano Winter Games, in which there were only 68. The U.S. Olympics Committee restricts American athletes from using their medals in advertising; the designers and manufacturers of the medals are similarly restrained. In fact, Reed & Barton says it is not even allowed to mention in advertising that it is the maker of the Olympic medals, says Lofgren.

Luckily for Reed & Barton, they're not in the medal-making business, so advertising doesn't need to mention Olympic medals. Reed & Barton is a actually a manufacturer of sterling silver and stainless steel flatware and hollowware. So how did they end up producing the Olympic medals? "It's a very similar thing," says Lofgren, comparing the manufacturing processes of medals and flatware. "It's almost identical."

The medals for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games won't be identical to Atlanta's striking medals, but one similarity is sure to occur: The medals will bring the same feelings of joy, amazement and pride to the medal-winning athletes and their countries.

© 1998, Awards and Recognition Association

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Super Trophy: The NFL's highest award is a sterling success
by Kellee Van Keuren

It started in 1966 on a cocktail napkin--a humble beginning for the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy, one of the world's most prestigious sports awards. The scene was a luncheon attended by both Pete Rozelle, then-commissioner of the National Football League, and Oscar Riedner, then-vice president of design for Tiffany & Co. in New York, N.Y.

[Riedner] sketched it extremely quickly," says Ed Wawrynek, vice president of Tiffany & Co. and the firm's official historian. "And that sketch became an icon of modern-day sports--the symbol for what no one knew at the time would be one of today's most popular sporting events."

The first Super Bowl, called the AFL/NFL World Championship Game, was played in January following the 1966 football season. At that time, the game was a contest between the champions of the National Football League and the American Football League. Around the third championship game, the media started calling it the Super Bowl, a title coined by Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and founder of the AFL. He thought of the name after seeing his daughter playing with a toy rubber ball called a superball.

After Super Bowl IV, the two leagues merged into one under the NFL name, with teams divided into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The Super Bowl is now a match between the two conference champions.

Test of Time

The actual design of the Super Bowl trophy was nearly identical to Reidner's first sketch. And since the first one was made in 1966, that design hasn't changed one iota, Wawrynek says. "That's one of the secrets of the trophy's success and durability," he adds. "It's always been the same, which makes it instantly recognizable."
It was dubbed the Vince Lombardi Trophy in 1970, just before Super Bowl V. Lombardi--who died of cancer on Sept. 3, 1970, at the age of 57--was a well respected coach who had led the Green Bay Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls.

The trophy is a perfect blend of modern and traditional, Wawrynek says. Made entirely of sterling silver, it depicts a regulation football atop what resembles an elongated kicking tee--a plinth with three tapered, concave sides. "It's a traditional football, modernized by the sculpted triangular base," Wawrynek explains.
At least 72 hours of labor are required each year to manufacture the trophy. "It's done entirely by hand," Wawrynek says. "It's hand spun, hand assembled, hand hammered into the base, hand engraved and hand chased." The work is done at Tiffany & Co.'s workshop in Parsippany, N.J.

Because the trophy uses a heavy gauge of silver that is difficult to bend and shape, the manufacturing process demands great expertise. First a spinner places onto a lathe a wooden chuck carved into the shape of half a football. A thick sheet of silver is placed on the chuck. With forming tools, it's spun until it assumes the shape of the chuck. After both halves are formed, they are soldered together to form the ball. "They are joined so perfectly that there's no evidence of a seam," Wawrynek says. Then a silversmith hand chases the seams and laces onto the ball so that it resembles an actual football.

The base is formed from sheet stock, which is hand hammered and soldered. The football is attached by a silver rod that comes up through the base and is secured by silver nuts and bolts. "It has to be sturdy enough to hold up under handling by those 'little' football players," Wawrynek says.

During the manufacturing process, the trophy must be annealed five or six times because the repeated hammering hardens the surface. The annealing loosens the bonding of the molecules in the silver, allowing it to be shaped.
After the trophy is complete, the NFL symbol and the Super Bowl number are hand engraved into a sheet stock of silver, which is applied to the base. When finished, the Lombardi stands 20-3/4 inches tall and weighs about seven pounds. And while it's officially valued at $10,000, it's a priceless symbol of hard-earned victory for the players and their fans. "The trophies are a great source of pride here," says Ann Dabeck, administrative assistant for the Green Bay Packers, who won trophies from the first two Super Bowls, as well as the 1996 championship.
Taking It Home

Green Bay is one of only 12 teams in the NFL--out of a total of 30--that has earned the title of Super Bowl champion. Of those 12, eight are multiple winners. The Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers tie for the most wins with five apiece. (See accompanying chart.)

Immediately following a Super Bowl victory, the NFL Commissioner presents the winning team with the trophy. "Sometimes it is slightly damaged in the champagne celebration," Wawrynek says. "We always have an extra in case a catastrophe occurs, but so far nothing major has ever happened." The trophy is then returned to Tiffany & Co. for any repairs and the engraving of the team names and the final score onto the base. Then it goes back to the team for permanent possession.

The teams are free to display the trophies where they want, so they end up in a variety of places. Until recently, Green Bay's trophy from Super Bowl I was on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Now the Hall of Fame has a copy of the trophy, while all three of the Packer's awards are housed behind glass in the entrance of its administrative offices, next to its pro shop. The number of fans who come to see the trophies increased greatly after the team's 1996 win, Dabeck says.

The Dallas Cowboys' five Lombardis are on public display only once a year at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. The rest of the year they are kept in the office of Jerry Jones, the team's owner. The 49ers display their five awards in the lobby of the team's administrative offices in Santa Clara, Calif. The team's marketing department occasionally takes the trophies on "field trips" such as luncheons and other promotional events.

Only one championship team doesn't have its original trophy. The Baltimore Colts (who moved to Indianapolis in 1984) had to order a copy of the Lombardi from Tiffany's after Carroll Rosenbloom--who owned the team when it won Super Bowl V--took the trophy with him when he traded the Colts for the Los Angeles Rams. Although the Colts are now in Indianapolis, the team's copy of the trophy is still on display in Baltimore.

Sweet Victory

In addition to the trophy, the individual players on the championship team receive custom-designed rings and a cash award, which currently is $48,000, says Pete Fierle, information services manager for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Each player on the losing team receives $29,000--quite a hike from Super Bowl I in which players from the victorious Green Bay Packers each got $15,000, while the losing Kansas City Chiefs received $7,000 apiece.

But for most players, the monetary awards that accompany a Super Bowl victory are secondary to the thrill of achieving the title of world champion. And after 32 years, the Vince Lombardi Trophy still stands as a sterling testimony to that accomplishment. "It's a wonderful iconographic symbol of sports in modern times," Wawrynek says. "In every way, the trophy is a success."

© 1998, Awards and Recognition Association

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The Beatles. The Beach Boys. Elvis Presley. Simon and Garfunkel. Buddy Holly. Fats Domino. The Supremes. B.B. King. Bob Dylan. Where can you find all of these great artists together in one room? At the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, of course. From Aretha to The Who, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Foundation honors participants in the music industry who have made unique contributions to the "energy and evolution" of rock 'n' roll.

The artists represent a broad spectrum of music, and include early legendary greats as well as artists who are still actively pursuing their careers," says Suzan Evans, executive director of the foundation. "The award represents a person's lifetime achievement as well as their significant contribution to the world of rock."

To help with such an honor, the foundation turned to Chicago-based R.S. Owens & Company, one of the largest manufacturers of upscale awards, to create the unique trophy given to the Hall of Famers."We make most of the high-quality awards," says Owen R. Siegel, owner and CEO, who started the business in 1938. Other awards made by the company include the Emmy, the MTV Music Video Award, the Miss America Award and, of course, the Oscar, given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and arguably the most recognized award in the world.

Located on Chicago's northwest side, R.S. Owens has an 82,000-square-foot full-service manufacturing facility with more than 175 employees. "When it comes to any special award," Siegel says, "we have the talent."

Special Appearance

The company has been making the award since its inception in 1985, says Noreen Prohaska, the R.S. Owens sales representative who handles many of the company's prestige accounts.

To create the trophy, a model was sculpted in clay to match a sketch provided by the Hall of Fame. The form comprises a stylized human figure, its arms reaching over its head to hold a circular disk representing a record. Next, a plaster model was made from the clay design and sent back to the foundation for approval. Once R.S. Owens received the go-ahead nod, the plaster pattern was sent to a Chicago foundry, where hand-finished steel molds were made. "Then you're ready to go into production," Prohaska says of the initial set-up process. The steel dies will last for years - or until a client changes the design.

The award's metal pieces are crafted one at a time by skilled tradespeople, Prohaska says. A 980-degree Fahrenheit zinc alloy is poured into the mold, hardening within seconds. When the form is removed from the mold, its rough edges are sanded down. In preparation for the plating process the award is polished by hand with a buffing wheel to a mirror-like finish so there are no visible seams. As the award heads into preplating, it is degreased in a tank to remove any unwanted coating. Then it's ready to be dipped into four different metal baths: copper, nickel, silver and, finally, black nickel. After a rinse, it's coated with an epoxy lacquer.

The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Award is electroplated in black nickel with a satin finish, complete with a 3x3-1/4-inch gold-plated record. The record disks (which are not cast) are added to the award between the figure's hands and mounted with an adhesive. The figure is then placed on a 3-1/2-inch-square black and white marble base, personalized with a plate that's engraved with the recipient's name. When complete, the trophy stands more than 15 inches high.

Each year, the number of individual trophies R.S. Owens manufactures for the Hall of Famers fluctuates, usually from around 30 to 40, plus some spares, just in case. "The quantity varies depending on the number of people who are inducted each year," Siegel points out. The company also does trophy repair or replacements, if necessary. Siegel recalls one incident early in the award's history when the records held by the trophy figure were made of solid gold. Three heavily celebrating winners managed to misplace the records from their awards during the plane ride home. R.S. Owens replaced the lost discs; now the records are gold-plated.

About six to seven hours of skilled labor go into making each trophy, Prohaska estimates, and along the way the award passes through about eight different departments, ending with shipping. "The greatest thing to me is getting them out the door in time," Prohaska laughs. The finished awards are shipped by truck in a form-fitted shrink-wrapped Styrofoam box. Fully insured, the trophies arrive well before the festivities and are locked in a secured room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where the Hall of Fame ceremony is held. The company takes pride in the entire process and never loses sight of what the award itself represents. "There's a lot of prestige," Prohaska says. "The recipients are Hall of Famers. For us to participate in that is a great honor."

Let the Good Times Roll

Artists are eligible for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame once after 25 years have passed since the release of their first record. Standards have been high, with only a few artists being inducted each year.

Criteria include the influence and significance of the artist's contribution to the development and perpetuation of rock 'n' roll," Evans says. "Similar criteria are used for the nonperformer category, which includes songwriters, producers, disc-jockeys, record company executives, journalists and other industry professionals." Dick Clark, for example, was inducted in that category.

There is also an "early influence" category, which honors artists - like Louis Armstrong and Hank Williams - whose music came before rock 'n' roll but inspired many of rock's leading artists, therefore contributing significantly to the evolution of the industry, Evans says.

Composed of rock 'n' roll historians and musicologists, the foundation's nominating committee chooses five to seven nominees each year in the performer category. Ballots are then sent to an international voting body of about 1,000 "rock experts," who include industry professionals such as producers, performers, journalists and broadcasters. The artists who receive both the highest number and more than 50 percent of the votes are selected for induction. The nominating committee alone selects the honorees in the nonperformer and early influence divisions.

Organized in 1983, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Foundation held its first induction ceremony in 1986. Since then, more than 140 artists have been honored. This year's inductees included The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, the Mamas and the Papas, Lloyd Price, Santana and Gene Vincent. "The end result is honoring someone who made a contribution to society," Prohaska says. "That makes us very proud."

The Hall of Fame has a permanent exhibit at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Opened in September 1995, the museum - a $92 million, 150,000-square-foot facility on the shore of Lake Erie - is designed to serve as the epicenter for preserving rock's history.

Part of that preservation includes being home to such memorabilia as John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper uniform, Chuck Berry's electric guitar and Roy Orbison's sunglasses. And, of course, giving people a place to learn about rock 'n' roll's greatest performers. As Evans says: "It's all about preserving and honoring part of our music history."

© 1998, Awards and Recognition Association

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While the Kentucky Derby may be known as "The Run for the Roses," everyone knows what the racers really want to be holding in their hands at the end of the race: that shiny, gold Kentucky Derby trophy. The most well-known contest in the international horse racing circuit, the Kentucky Derby is held annually on the first Saturday in May. This year marks its 124th year. The legendary Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., is the only track on which the Derby has been run. The Derby is the first in a triumvirate of the sport's most prestigious races - collectively known as the Triple Crown - that also includes the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Although the Belmont Stakes is the oldest race, the Derby is generally considered the most prestigious. "It is the longest continuously run sporting event in America," says Lane Gold of Churchill Downs. Also, since it's the first race in the Triple Crown, it tends to get a lot of attention. This year more than 130,000 people will see the race firsthand with millions more watching on television.

The Kentucky Derby track is 1-1/4 miles and takes about two minutes to run. In fact, there has only been one horse to run the track in less than two minutes: Secretariat, who finished in 1:59 2/5 in 1973. A maximum of 20 entrants is allowed; should there be too many registered, preference would be given to horses who have won higher earnings in the graded sweepstakes races leading up to the Derby. Horses must be 3-year-old thoroughbreds and, says Gold, "You have to be a Triple Crown-nominated horse to run." Generally the owners nominate their own horses to run in the three events.

Churchill Downs and its Derby Days are synonymous with many traditions, such as mint juleps and the wreath of roses draped around the winning horse's neck. But one of the finest - and newest - traditions in the Derby is the presentation of the Kentucky Derby trophy.

Spun Gold

The first Derby trophy was presented in 1924, making it a relative newcomer to the steeped traditions of the blueblood racing crowd. Prior to then, the winners received a silver plate, cup or bowl - there was no set prize. But for the race's 50th anniversary, Churchill Downs' president held a contest to design a 14-karat gold permanent trophy for the winner. Louisville's oldest retail firm, Lemon & Son Jewelers, won the contest with its design of an intricate gold cup and figure. The trophy was designed by George Louis Graff, and Lemon & Son has made the trophy since winning the contest. And just like Southern traditions, not a lot has changed. "It's made the same way it always has been," says Gary Rossenberg, Lemon & Son's general manager. "They use the same original dies that we made in 1924." The only changes to design were for the Derby's 75th and 100th anniversary cups, when jewels were added to the cup. Otherwise the base is the only part of the trophy to change: It used to be made of marble; now it's jade.

The trophy's main body is an 8-inch-diameter covered cup made of 14-karat spun gold. Sitting atop the cup is a horse and jockey. The cup and figure are 17 inches tall and sit on a jade base, bringing the trophy to 22 inches and about 3-1/2 pounds. The manufacturing process begins with a round sheet of 14-karat gold placed in a lathe to create the cup. "The cup is the hardest part to make," Rossenberg says. "It's a process called spinning; the gold is shaped around a series of cones and bowls." The spinning process is a very delicate operation; if the temperature is changed even the slightest during the process, the gold will crack - forcing Lemon & Son to begin anew. This has only happened once, in 1987. But spinning is important because it gives the gold its shiny appearance. "If you were to cast it, you wouldn't get that finish," says Rossenberg.

The trim - which comprises the handles, rim and stem of the cup - is cast in 18-karat gold and hand-fitted to the cup. After the trim is applied, it is hand-engraved to enhance the detail. The top plate where the figure stands is 14-karat green gold, as is the lotus flower on the trophy's base. The horse and jockey are made of solid 18-karat gold with a special hand finish. "It takes about six months to make because of all the different aspects to it," says Rossenberg. He estimates almost 1,000 man hours go into the trophy's manufacturing, the cup demanding the greatest part of that. During the manufacturing process, approximately 40 percent of the original gold is lost through fillings, engraving, polishing and shrinking. When completed, the trophy is given a home in a lined mahogany box, to be engraved after the race is won.

Trophy Travails

Lemon & Son also makes three smaller sterling silver versions of the Derby trophy. These are presented to the jockey, the trainer and the breeder. Many people think that the jockey receives the gold trophy; but it is actually given to the owner of the winning horse. The large trophy is worth about $67,000 this year; the price fluctuates based on the value of gold. The sterling silver trophies are worth about $5,000 each, says Rossenberg.

At such a high value, you can be sure that two security guards follow the trophy wherever it goes. On the day of the Derby, Lemon & Son brings the trophy to Churchill Downs and locks it up - guarded, of course - in the office of Churchill Downs' president. Only when it is time to make the winning presentation does the trophy emerge into the daylight on that first Saturday in May. But even such diligent protection can't prevent mishaps from occurring, says Rossenberg. One year, the governor of Kentucky stepped up to the dais to present the trophy to the winner - and promptly dropped the priceless cup, leaving a big dent. "They gave it back to us and we repaired it," says Rossenberg. The 1937 trophy is on display at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, saved from disgrace after being found in a pawn shop in New Orleans. "They had stripped all the gold off," Rossenberg says. "They even rubbed the winner's name off the plate. The only way we knew who it belonged to is we put a serial number on the cup." Lemon & Son took the naked trophy, fixed it up and gave it to the museum.

A Permanent Award

Luckily, most cups make it to their new owners without a scratch. The horse owners this year will be competing not only for the chance to hold aloft that shiny trophy, but also for a winning purse of $1 million, of which the winner takes $700,000. That's a far cry from the first Derby winnings: $2,850 in 1875. The second-place winner takes $170,000, third place $85,000, and fourth place $45,000. The stakes are high, as is the fee to enter a horse in the Kentucky Derby: $15,000. But it's worth it to thoroughbred owners and jockeys; the Kentucky Derby has always been a place where the "most exciting two minutes in sports" have led to numerous records being broken and history being made. For example, only three fillies have ever won the Derby. And since 1919, only 11 horses have swept the Triple Crown, winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. The legendary Secretariat, a name even nonhorseracing fans will recognize, is one of the 11.

And this year on May 2, with millions watching, one lucky and talented horse will nose across the finish line before any other - and while fresh red roses rain down from the stands, the thankful owner will sidestep the sweet petals as he takes the coveted Kentucky Derby trophy. After all, flowers do wilt - and you can't drink champagne from them.

© 1998, Awards and Recognition Association

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Can you imagine one of the motion picture entertainment industry's most prestigious awards being handed out on a piece of paper? Well, the first Golden Globe awards were not golden globes at all-they were scrolls, and they were presented in just five categories: Best Motion Picture, Best Motion Picture Actress, Best Motion Picture Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor. In an informal ceremony held at production company 20th Century Fox, the best movie award went to "The Song of Bernadette." This was in 1944, a year after a group of foreign correspondents decided to create a nonprofit organization comprised solely of foreign press representatives. They called themselves the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association.

In 1945 the members of the new group held a contest to find the best design for an award trophy that would symbolize the goals of the organization and that could be used to officially recognize the outstanding achievements of industry entertainers. The members chose a creation by Marina Cisternas, the association's president from 1945 to 1946. The final design-a golden globe encircled with a strip of motion picture film and mounted on a pedestal-has remained virtually unchanged since its debut. Only the base has been modified; about eight years ago it was enlarged to give the statue more balance and height.

Changing Times

Some philosophical disagreements among members of the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association resulted in a 1950 split into two different entities. The original group continued to present its Golden Globes, while the separate Foreign Press Association of Hollywood created its own award called the Henrietta, named for the group's president, Henry Gris.

In 1955 the two groups were reunited as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), and the Golden Globe awards prevailed over the lesser-known Henriettas. The year also marked the introduction of Golden Globe awards for achievements in television. The first winners for Best Television Show were "Dinah Shore," "Lucy & Desi," "The American Comedy" and "Davy Crockett."

It wasn't until 1961 that the television award recipients also included specific actors and actresses. Now the awards for television go to winners in 11 different categories. Another increase in the number of awards occurred in 1949 when promising newcomers were first honored, a practice that has since ceased. And in 1951, the association doubled the number of film categories by dividing them into drama and comedy/musical. The following year added the Cecil B. DeMille Award to the list to recognize notable contributions to the entertainment field. DeMille himself, a prominent U.S. producer and director, was the award's first recipient. This year it went to Shirley MacLaine.

The HFPA set the Globes apart from the Academy Awards, which first presented its awards in 1927, in two ways: First, the HFPA distinguishes between drama and comedy/musical; and second, it bestows awards for television as well as film. In the past 18 years, 13 Best Motion Picture Golden Globe winners have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. And 14 of the past 18 winners for both Best Actor and Best Actress in films have also been recipients of the Academy Award. Thus, the Globes have evolved into somewhat of an indicator for the Oscar winners. In the late 1980s, the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony began being televised, thus adding to its popularity and clout.

Globe Makers

About 180 Golden Globe statuettes are produced every three years-creating a three-year supplyÑby ARA member Encore Awards and Marking in Glendora, Calif., a city conveniently located near Los Angeles and the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the glamorous location of the awards ceremony. Encore's history as the Globe manufacturer goes back further than owner Tom Selinske can remember. He and his former partner bought Encore in 1987, but Encore has had the exclusive Globe contract for much longer than that, he says. It was given to them shortly after Encore first opened in Hollywood in 1969. No matter how long the relationship, Selinske says they don't take the account for granted. "We have to earn their business every time," he says.

Encore produces the statue using a combination of metals, which guarantees a long and sturdy life. The globe is made from one mold through a hot metal casting process. Then it's plated with 24-carat gold. If there's a plating problem, Encore can simply replate the statue. The award stands about 10 inches high, with the actual globe measuring 4 inches and the base taking up more of the space at 6 inches high. With a fairly quick process time of 25 or 30 minutes per award, the value of the trophy isn't outrageous-about $250 each. The yellowish, fabricated marble base is subcontracted and then assembled at Encore's facility. Because the Golden Globe winners remain a secret even to Encore, all the engraving takes place after the awards are announced.

Encore is occasionally called upon to make a rush delivery of an extra statue on the day of the awards ceremony. "