MacNaughton Cup The MacNaughton Cup has been awarded to the Regular Season Champion of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association from 1960 to 1961 , 1966 to 1981 and since 1985 . From 1962 to 1965 , the Cup was awarded to the WCHA Tournament Champion . From 1982 to 1984 , the Cup was awarded to the Regular Season Champion of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association . Michigan Tech is the MacNaughton Cup trustee . Origins . James MacNaughton , superintendent of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in Michigan ' s Upper Peninsula , was an avid supporter of amateur hockey during the early part of the 20th century . In 1913 , MacNaughton spent $ 2 , 000 to fund and purchase a trophy for the American Hockey Association ' s championship team . The original cup , still in use today , was made of pure silver and weighed almost 40 pounds , standing nearly three feet high . It was first won by the Cleveland Athletic Club in Ohio and remained with the American Hockey Association from 1914 to 1932 as an American amateur version of the Stanley Cup . Beginning in 1933 and lasting through 1942 , the Cup was awarded only to teams from the the Upper Peninsula . There was an eight year span between 1942 and 1950 where the Cup was not challenged for . The WIHL . The Western Intercollegiate Hockey League was formed in 1951 as the premier college hockey conference in the west . MacNaughton ' s daughter and son - in - law arranged for the trophy to be awarded to the Regular Season Champion of the new WIHL . Colorado College would become the first college team to raise the MacNaughton Cup after winning the 1951 - 52 season . In all , five of the seven WIHL teams would win at least a share of the Cup at least once during the WIHL ' s short lifetime . When the league disbanded in March 1958 , the Cup was unclaimed . The WCHA . The same teams that had previously made up the WIHL banded together again in 1959 to form the WCHA . Denver became the first WCHA champions in 1960 , winning the first two MacNaughton Cups in the WCHA before the Cup was awarded to the Tournament Champion instead , beginning in 1962 . When the league chose to end the practice of determining a single tournament champion in 1965 , the league returned to awarding the trophy to the winners of the regular season . The CCHA . In 1981 , the Michigan Tech Huskies left the WCHA and joined the CCHA , and as trustees of the MacNaughton Cup , brought the renowned trophy to their new home to be awarded to the CCHA Regular Season Champion . Michigan Tech stayed in the CCHA for three seasons before requesting and being approved for readmission into the WCHA . The only team to win the MacNaughton Cup in the CCHA were the Bowling Green Falcons , who won the prize three straight times - the first time in the award ' s history that it was successfully defended twice . The Cup Returns . Upon Michigan Tech ' s return to the WCHA , the MacNaughton Cup once again became the trophy for the league ' s Regular Season Champion , displacing the newly created Broadmoor Trophy . Since the Cup ' s return in time for the 1985 season , Bowling Green ' s feat of three straight titles has been achieved twice - by Colorado College from 1994 to 1996 , and by North Dakota from 1997 to 1999 ( shared once ) . In all , the Cup has been shared five times since its debut in college hockey , most recently in 2005 when Colorado College and Denver tied atop the WCHA standings . Winners . The MacNaughton Cup has been awarded to college teams every year since 1952 , with the exception of 1959 .