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The Hockey Hall of Fame is the “Cathedral of Hockey”, a place where fans and followers pay their respects to the “Holy Grail”, one of the most beautiful and storied trophies in North American professional sports – the Stanley Cup.

Since 1993, the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) has resided in an old Bank of Montreal building at the northwest corner of Front Street and Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Canada. To the uninitiated observer, it might be easy to dismiss the Hall of Fame as no more than a bunch of keepsakes collecting dust in an old building.

The HHOF is more, so much more.

Fulfilling dreams in hockey’s cathedral

For hockey, this place houses beautiful trophies, valued memories, and childhood dreams. Dreams of …

Street hockey …
Roller hockey …
Inline hockey …
Junior hockey …
Women’s hockey …
World hockey …
Tournament hockey …
Olympic hockey …

Hockey history with players and builders inducted into the Hall of Fame.

For hockey in North America, the annual National Hockey League (NHL) competition provides one of the most historical trophies in professional sports: the Stanley Cup. For many, it’s being able to lift the trophy on high, while skating around the ice as champions.

The Stanley Cup is named after Frederick Stanley (Earl of Derby), known also as Lord Stanley of Preston, who served as Canada’s sixth Governor-General between 1888 and 1893. Lord Stanley wrote:

“I have for some time been thinking, that it would be a good thing if there were a Challenge Cup, which should be held from year to year by the leading hockey club of the Dominion. There does not appear to be any such outward and visible sign of a championship at present, and considering the interest the hockey matches now elicit and the importance of having the games fairly played under generally recognised rules, I am willing to give a Cup that shall be annually held by the winning club.” (18 March 1892)

In England at the time, Stanley’s aide, Captain Colville, purchased a gold-lined silver bowl on an ebony base, which eventually became The Stanley Cup. In recognition of the championship trophy, Lord Stanley was inducted in 1945 into the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame in the “Builders” category.

Any one who visits the HHOF is likely to think the same thing, when childhood memories return, of dreaming about hockey, and about winning the Stanley Cup.

I found myself back in Toronto in April 2012 as part of my around-the-world journey. Since leaving in late-2001, I hadn’t been back to Toronto, a city I’d lived for 7 years. As much of a fan I was of hockey, I knew I was going back to visit the HHOF again.

The Hockey Hall of Fame is just steps away from Union Station, which provides connections to TTC metro-rail and GO Transit suburban and intercity train and additional bus services.

I made the photos on 9 April 2012 with a Canon EOS450D (XSi) and a 4th-generation iPodTouch. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-207.