M’CHIGEENG—The new National Lacrosse League (NLL) Cup presented to the NLL champion Buffalo Bandits in May was designed and created by an artist on Manitoulin Island.
“To create a trophy for a professional league is pretty special,” stated Kathryn Corbiere, of One Kwe. “This is a well-established league in the US and Canada.”
“And it was pretty neat that I had a chance (along with father Ray) to watch the final series game two (which the Buffalo Bandits won) and I got to go out on the pitch to help present the trophy to the winning team.”
The Buffalo team won the NLL championship on May 18, said Ms. Corbiere. She explained the NLL had a third-party contact “reach out to me over a year ago” about designing and creating a new cup. Darren Sudman (a corporate social responsibility consultant with the NLL) contacted Ms. Corbiere. Several months later he asked for a concept design, “so it took a while to actually get a concept to him and a description.”
“By last fall I had a concept for the trophy for them to look over,” said Ms. Corbiere. Late this winter and early spring a final design was selected and work on creating the trophy began.
It took a few weeks to make the trophy, said Ms. Corbiere. She explained the main structure of the Cup was made out of one solid piece of stainless steel, seven inches thick. She worked with Island machinist Pierre Masbou, who has a lathe large enough to handle that size of circumference. She did the drawings for Mr. Masbou to create the cup on the bottom and hollow out some of the top and the bottom to eliminate the weight. The stainless steel piece was 240 pounds at the beginning. When it was completed it was just under 24 pounds.
Ms. Corbiere then created the base and the handles, the latter are wing-like, that were attached to the top of the trophy. As soon as she understood that the winning team would want to drink out of the cup, she knew it had to be in a circle.
A story published on the new trophy by the NLL noted, “The new NLL Cup trophy design integrates the legendary history lacrosse-North America’s original pastime created as highly revered cultural events by Indigenous peoples throughout the US and Canada, with a bold and modern look fitting for the NLL, ‘The Next Major League.’”
“The new design also symbolizes the celebration and thanksgiving the players and their communities gave to the Creator during these gatherings that started generations ago, inviting everyone to welcome the sacred, spiritual, and communitarian aspects of the sport, and to honour not only the winners, but all players, the spectators and the history of the game,” the NLL story said.
This is the first trophy/cup that Ms. Corbiere has designed.
