Avco World Trophy

Today the Avco World Trophy is in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto

The Avco World Trophy was the championship cup of the North American Ice Hockey League World Hockey Association (between 1972 and 1979). The naming rights of the cup were sold to the Avco Corporation . The trophy was influenced by pre-existing ice hockey trophies and was more or less a copy of them. It never achieved the meaning or emotion that the National Hockey League counterpart was associated with, and certainly not the decades of history and prestige of the Stanley Cup .

The cup achieved fame at best through his abstinence. So it was not finished at the end of the first season in 1973 and the players of the newly crowned New England Whalers had to celebrate their championship without a trophy.

In 1972, Avco Corporation donated the WHA trophy along with an estimated $ 500,000. The WHA thus became the only major sports league in North America whose trophy was named after a private company. There are three Avco World Trophies. In addition to the one on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame , there are two more in Nova Scotia and Winnipeg . After the end of the WHA 1979 no further trophy was awarded. Ice hockey legend Bobby Hull led his Winnipeg Jets to three championships, Gordie Howe , one of the greatest players of all time, the Houston Eros to two titles.

The cup was designed by Frank Bonnerkopf of Boise, who was commissioned to design it after setting up the house of the Avco board of directors.

Avco World Trophy winner

year	team
1979	Winnipeg Jets
1978	Winnipeg Jets
1977	Nordiques de Québec
1976	Winnipeg Jets
1975	Houston Eros
1974	Houston Eros
1973	New England Whalers