James Norris Memorial Trophy

Background: James Norris

A successful businessman, James Norris grew up in Montreal, where he played for the McGill University and Montreal Amateur Athletic Association hockey teams. In 1932, he purchased a struggling American hockey team, the Detroit Falcons, and renamed them the Detroit Red Wings. The team’s new logo, a wing protruding from a wheel, was adapted from the logo of the old Montreal Hockey Club, which had been nicknamed the “Winged Wheelers.”

The Red Wings won five Stanley Cups under Norris, who died in 1952. Following his death, tributes poured in, with Toronto Maple Leafs president Conn Smythe describing Norris as “one of the great Canadians of all time.” NHL president Clarence Campbell also lamented Norris’s death, stating that “It would be impossible to overestimate the tremendous contribution which he has made to the welfare of hockey in general and to the NHL in particular... hockey has suffered a very great loss in his passing.”

After James Norris died in 1952, he was replaced as president of the club by his daughter, Marguerite Norris, who became the first female team president in the NHL.

Did You Know?
Only 25 years old at the time of her appointment, Marguerite Norris had trained in business and was an “avid sports fan,” according to Detroit’s general manager, Jack Adams. In her column, “Sports Reel” for the Globe and Mail in February 1953, Bobbie Rosenfeld reported meeting the new president. “It is an unusual day, indeed, when a person has the chance to meet the first boss-lady the National Hockey League has ever had … I found [her] a plain, but pleasant lady, touched with the pride of ownership and hockey enthusiasm which is bound to keep the sport in the Detroit organization healthy as long as Miss Norris is around.” Indeed, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup twice during Marguerite’s term as president, which lasted until 1955 (when she reluctantly gave up her position to brother Bruce.

James Norris Memorial Trophy

Shortly after Marguerite took the helm in Detroit, she and her two brothers presented the NHL with a trophy in honour of their father. The James Norris Memorial Trophy would thereafter be presented to the league’s best all-round defenceman during the regular season. The winner was chosen through a poll of sportswriters and broadcasters from cities with NHL teams.

Notable Winners

The trophy was first awarded in 1954 to Detroit’s Red Kelly, who also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy that year as the league’s most gentlemanly player. The following year, Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens was named best defenceman. Harvey won the Norris Trophy seven times in total between 1955 and 1962. His record was equalled in 1974 by Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. “Ho hum—guess who wins Norris again,” remarked the Globe and Mail. The following year, Orr received his eighth consecutive Norris trophy, a record that still stands.

In 2011, Nicklas Lidström won his seventh James Norris Memorial Trophy as best defenceman in the league, tying Harvey. Ray Bourque won the trophy five times during his NHL career, while Pierre Pilote, Denis Potvin, Paul Coffey, Chris Chelios and Erik Karlsson each won three times.

James Norris Memorial Trophy Winners