Schmalz Cup Trophy

 

The Clarence “Tubby” Schmalz Cup is the Ontario Hockey Association's Junior C hockey championship and championship trophy for the Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL). The PJHL was formed in 2016 when the former 8 Provincial Junior C leagues merged to form one league.

The Schmalz Cup was first awarded in 1938 to the OHA Junior C Provincial Champions from Orangeville.  It was awarded every year, with the exception of the 1943-1945 war years, to the Junior C Champions until the formation of the PJHL.

The trophy was named in honour of Clarence (Tubby) Schmalz (1915-1981), a long time hockey administrator who first got involved with organized sports in his adopted hometown of Walkerton, Ontario. He and his brother, his partner in a Walkerton hotel called the Hartley House, sponsored an intermediate softball team that won four consecutive Provincial championships in the 1950s. Tubby Schmalz also operated a hockey team called the Capitols, who competed in the OHA Intermediate B ranks. He became an OHA director in 1956 and remained an active member of the organization for the next 22 years.

Schmalz served as OHA president from 1969 to 1972. In 1974 the Major Junior A program began operating independently of the association as the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League; Schmalz became the league's first commissioner, a post he held until 1978.

The OHA presented Schmalz with a Gold Stick award in 1977 in recognition of his contributions to the association, and a year later made him a life member. In 1979 he received a meritorious service award from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (now known as Hockey Canada). That same year, he was elected vice-chairman of the CAHA's board of directors, and was elected chairman in May 1981.

Less than seven months later, on the morning of Dec. 7, 1981, he died suddenly of a heart attack, 12 days before his 65th birthday.

OHA directors formed an honour guard at his funeral two days later at Sacred Heart Church in Walkerton. The association renamed the OHA Junior C Cup in his memory a year later, and then collaborated with Schmalz's family in the creation of a commemorative trophy case in the lobby of the Walkerton Community Centre.

---