The Herder Memorial Trophy, colloquially known as the Herder, is the championship trophy awarded annually to the senior ice hockey champions of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The original cast silver trophy was donated in 1935 by The Evening Telegram newspaper, on behalf of the Herder family, as a memorial to five brothers who played hockey in St. John's.
First presented in 1935, the Herder Memorial Trophy has been awarded 86 times. The Herder was not awarded in 1942, 1943, 1991, 2020 and 2021. The first winner of the Herder trophy was a team from Corner Brook that won the inaugural all-Newfoundland ice hockey championship on March 22, 1935. The record of most Herder wins belongs to the teams from St. John's that won the trophy a total of 20 times. The 2025 Herder was awarded on April 5, 2025 to the Deer Lake Red Wings.
The idea of a new competition to decide the ice hockey champions of Newfoundland gained momentum in early 1935 as organized hockey spread across the island and hockey teams started to travel and compete in regional championships. During a meeting of the St. John's Hockey League on March 5, 1935, it was announced that a trophy, for a championship competition, was to be donated by The Evening Telegram newspaper to be perpetually awarded to Newfoundland's best hockey team. The Herder would become emblematic of ice hockey supremacy in Newfoundland and Labrador.The Evening Telegram was published by a member of the Herder family since the founding of the paper in 1879 up until the retirement of Stephen Herder in 1993. The Telegram has played an integral role in the promotion and sponsorship of the Herder Championships.
The inaugural all-Newfoundland championships took place in St. John's at the Prince of Wales Rink on March 21 and 22, 1935 between Corner Brook, the western hockey champions, and the Guards from the St. John's Senior League that won the Avalon hockey championship. This was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Newfoundland hockey.
The St. John's Guards earned the right to represent the Avalon Peninsula by first defeating St. Bon's in a 2-game series to become St. John's city champions, and then by toppling the Bay Roberts Rovers in a 2-game, total goal series. The All-Newfoundland championship match-up was then set; the Guards of St. John's would play host to the Corner Brook All-Star Team. Fans in St. John's eagerly awaited the arrival of the Corner Brook team. Tickets to the 2 games were sold out quickly. Corner Brook edged the Guards 1âÂÂ0 in Game 1, and was victorious in Game 2 by a 4âÂÂ2 margin to become the island's top team, and first Herder Memorial Trophy Champions.
The Herder trophy was the brainchild of Ralph Herder, then president of The Evening Telegram, as a memorial to his five late brothers. Ralph's brothers Arthur, William, Douglas, Augustus and Hubert were all avid hockey players in the St. John's Hockey league.
Originally donated in memory of five Herder brothers, the trophy now honors the memory of seven brothers, including Ralph and his youngest brother James. In 2009, the name of Ralph's son Stephen was added to the trophy. All seven Herder brothers were fine hockey players and often played together, with four of them sometimes playing together on a championship team. James Herder coached the 1935 Guards team that lost the inaugural Herder championship to Corner Brook in March 1935.
The Herders were a very prominent family in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. William James Herder, born in Old Perlican, was the founder of Newfoundland's first daily newspaper, The Evening Telegram. Ralph, one of William's seven sons, became publisher of the Telegram in 1934 after the death of Augustus (Gus), who was the fifth brother to pass away. Ralph donated the Trophy on behalf of the Herder Family as a memorial to his five late brothers (Douglas, Arthur, Hubert, Herbert Augustus (Gus) and William Jr.). Later the names of Ralph, his youngest brother James, and Ralph's son Stephen were added to the trophy.
The trophy is now a memorial to the following Herder family members:
An announcement was made on March 5, 1935 at a meeting of the St. John's Hockey League that the Evening Telegram, on behalf of the Herder family, will donate a trophy to be awarded to the winners of an all-Newfoundland hockey championship. The trophy would not be available for the 1935 championship but arrived in St. John's from the manufacturer six months later, and was sent to Corner Brook in October of that year. The trophy was formally presented to the winning team at the Corner Brook Sports Club's annual meeting in November 1935.
The Herder consisted of a cast-silver hockey player mounted on an ebony base. St. Bon's star Edward "Key" Kennedy (1911-1955) was the model for the hockey player that stands atop the original trophy. Trophy-donor Ralph Herder brought a photo of Kennedy in a hockey pose to New York where the model was made and a figure was cast in silver.
Beginning in 1947, metal shields inscribed with the name of each winning team were fixed to the base. In 1952 a second wooden tier was added and, in 1960, third and fourth tiers were added. Two more tiers were subsequently added before the original trophy was retired in 2007. The original Herder was retired in 2007 and is now on display in the Newfoundland & Labrador Hockey Hall of Fame which is located at the Corner Brook Civic Centre. Since 2007 a replica has been awarded to the championship teams.
in 1935, the Herder family attached eight conditions to the donation of the Herder Memorial Trophy to govern competition for the all-Newfoundland amateur hockey championship:
From 1935 though 1941 the All-Newfoundland finals were played at the former Prince's Rink in St. John's (renamed The Arena in 1937). Subsequent to the destruction of the Arena by fire on November 28, 1941, the Herder championships were cancelled in 1942 and 1943 due to depleted rosters of senior hockey teams with men serving overseas during the Second World War. After the Arena burned down in November 1941, St. John's did not have a suitable venue until the opening of Memorial Stadium in December 1954. In 1944, the Herder finals were held outside St. John's for the first time when Bell Island and Corner Brook played the all-Newfoundland final series at the Corner Brook rink. The NAHA was granted permission by Ralph Herder to hold the Herder finals outside the capital city for the first time. Since 1944 condition #2 has not been enforced and the Herder Finals location has been decided by NAHA and typically held in the arenas of the competing teams.
In recent years, the Herder finals series was held at Mile One Centre (and before it was built, at Memorial Stadium) in St. John's and frequently sold out the 6,000 seat building. Games were also held in the Pepsi Centre in the city of Corner Brook, on the west coast of the island, when teams from that area were playing for the cup.
Since 2013 the Herder finalists have the right to decide the location of their home games.
In 1957 the first exception to condition #4 occurred when the Grand Falls Andcos were awarded the Herder by default. No other senior "A" hockey teams registered for the Herder playoffs that year.
Engraved plates with the names of the winning teams have been affixed to the base of the Herder Trophy since the late 1940s. Beginning in 1952, additional layers have been added to the trophy base as required to accommodate successive Herder Champion nameplates.
Over the history of the championship series, NAHA has dictated a number of series formats that included the winners of divisional, local league or island-wide league playoffs. The original series featured the eastern champions versus western champions. This format continued until 1962 when an island-wide Newfoundland Senior Hockey league was formed. The champions of the provincial league were awarded the Herder trophy until 1989 when the league was disbanded. Eastern league champions played for the Herder in 1990 and in 1991 there was no Herder Championship.
Between 1991 and 2011, the format of the Herder finals reverted to a competition between the champions of local leagues. The eastern league champions played a western or central league champion in a finals series to decide the top provincial team who were awarded the Herder Trophy.
On February 25, 2015, Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador approved a request by the Central West Senior Hockey League in which they asked to play for the historic Herder Trophy because it was the only operating Senior A hockey league registered in the province.
Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador announced on March 10, 2022, that they will be awarding the Herder Memorial Trophy to the winner of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League finals.
For 2023, Hockey NL announced that the champion of the Avalon East Senior Hockey League will face-off against the champion of the West Coast Senior Hockey League in a seven-game series for the Herder Memorial Championship.
Beginning in 2024, Hockey NL announced that the Avalon East Senior Hockey League champions would meet the Central West Senior Hockey League champions in a seven-game Herder Championship series
This is a list of Herder championship series formats since 1935.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Note: After 1947 all series results are listed as games won. Most championship series before 1948 were decided on total Goals. (TG = total goals in the series)
At the conclusion of the final game, in an on-ice ceremony, the Herder Memorial Trophy is presented to the captain of the winning team. Traditionally the presenter has been a representative of the trophy donor, from the Herder family or The Evening Telegram, and/or a representative from Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador. (TG = Total-goals series)
Note: In the "Years of appearance" column, bold years indicates winning the Herder Finals.
A. In 1957 the Herder Finals series was not played. Two teams entered the Section 'A' playoffs in 1957 but after Bell Island withdrew before the finals started, NAHA decided to award the Herder Trophy to the Grand Falls Andcos by default.
In 2005 Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador established the Cliff Gorman Memorial Award to be presented annually to the most valuable player (MVP) for his team during the Herder finals series. A native of Prince Edward Island, Cliff was instrumental in promoting hockey in Corner Brook and in Newfoundland and Labrador since moving there in 1955. Cliff Gorman was inducted into the Newfoundland & Labrador Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996 in the builder category.
The first island-wide live broadcast of a Herder championship game was on the VONF (Voice of Newfoundland) radio station on Saturday night March 23, 1935. NL Hockey Hall of Famer John (Jack) Tobin provided the play-by-play of the final game of the first all-Newfoundland hockey championships between Corner Brook and the Guards live from the Prince's Rink in St. John's.
In 1947, from Gander Gardens (in Hangar 12 at the airport), all Newfoundland radio stations participated in an island-wide broadcast of the Herder finals between St. Bon's and Grand Falls sponsored by Coca-Cola. Don Jamieson provided the play-by-play commentary. The broadcast was carried by the stations VONF, VONH (VONF remote relay), VOCM (St. John's), VOWN (Corner Brook) and VORG (Gander).
Don Jamieson hosted the island-wide broadcast of the 1949 All-Newfoundland Finals from the Corner Brook Rink. This was made possible courtesy of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.
The 1950 all-Newfoundland finals was broadcast live from Grand Falls stadium over station CBN. The play-by-play commentary for the two finals games between Buchans and St. Bon's was provided by Don Jamieson. The broadcast was sponsored by Jockey Club Brewing Ltd.
In March 1953 the Herder finals was broadcast on an island-wide hook-up, on CBC stations and CJON, with Don Jamieson and Frank "Toe" Byrne providing the commentary live from Grand Falls Stadium.
22-year-old Bob Cole broadcast the 1956 Herder finals on VOCM live from Grand Falls Stadium. Jack Forsey of Corner Brook provided the play-by-play for CBC.
In 2007 and 2008, Rogers Cable broadcast the Herder finals province-wide using the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly Channel.
Games three through five of the 2009 finals were streamed online at thesportspage.ca.
In 2016 all Herder finals games were webcast by Hockey NL's partner Bell Aliant TV One.
Grand Falls-Windsor Broadcaster George Scott provided the play-by-play on a live webcast of the Herder Finals from 2011 to 2019.
Since 2022, all Herder finals games were live streamed for a fee on AO Live, an Atlantic Canadian-based company recognized as a leader in live webcasting and video productions. The play-by-play commentary for the 2025 Herder finals was provided by George Scott and the live video courtesy of Mike Goulding.