Here at Spike’s Trophies, we like to commemorate people when they do noteworthy things. Everybody deserves an award at some point in their lives, from “Nobel Laureate Astronaut” to “Longest Shower Taker,” bringing home a trophy is special. We thought we could take an opportunity to share some of our biggest heartbreaks at The Oscars, one of the biggest award ceremonies of the year. Being in business since 1929 we’ve seen more than a few of them.

• Leonardo Dicaprio- We’ll start off with the obvious choice. Leo wasn’t even nominated for his breakout performance in “Titanic”, one of the most memorable films of the 90’s. It’s become something of a joke in film that despite so many prestigious roles such as: “Catch Me if You Can,” ”Shutter Island”, “Inception”, “Django Unchained” and “The Wolf of Wall Street”, he’s never received an Academy Award. This year he’s nominated for his starring role in “The Revenant”. We’re rooting for you Leo!

• Alfred Hitchcock- Ask any burgeoning film student about their top 5 favorite directors and most of them are bound to mention Hitchcock. Seminal films like “Vertigo”, “North by Northwest”, “Psycho”, “Rear Window” and “Strangers on a Train” never took home the gold. Hitchcock received one Oscar when “Rebecca” won best picture in 1940.
• Jamie Foxx- Ok, so he won an Academy Award for playing Ray Charles in “Ray” but he wasn’t even nominated as the title character in “Django Unchained”. Both Christoph Waltz and Leonardo Dicaprio were nominated for their work in that film, it was even up for best picture, but somehow Foxx was snubbed for his role.
• Martin Scorsese- A master director, Scorsese’s films are both box office hits and critical darlings, he didn’t even receive a nod for the 1976 classic “Taxi Driver”. His films “Goodfellas”, “Casino”, “The Aviator”, and “Raging Bull” never won, but the curse was lifted in 2006 when he finally received an award for “The Departed”

• Stanley Kubrick- You read that name right, he never received an Oscar for his work as a director, producer or writer. His landmark film “2001: A Space Odyssey” received an Oscar for best visuals, a shameful concession. Kubrick was responsible for an entire course load of study in film: “Dr.Strangelove”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “The Shining”, “Spartacus” and “Full Metal Jacket”

Well, there you have it, our picks for the most glaring examples of academy snubbery. We think that everybody deserves to be commemorated when they do something exemplary. That’s why this year we’re saying it, if Leo doesn’t get an Oscar this year, he can stop by Spike’s Trophies and we’ll give him an award.

The Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the team that wins the Super Bowl each year, is one of the most iconic championship awards in North America. Getting its name from Vince Lombardi, The trophy is simple in design, depicting a regulation size football atop a three sided stand. This year is special because it will be the 50^th time the trophy is awarded

Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers in their back-to-back victories in the first two Super Bowls, at that time the award was known as the AFL-NFL Championship trophy. In 1971 the trophy was rechristened as the Vince Lombardi trophy, following the untimely passing of Coach Lombardi, when he lost his battle with cancer.

The first time the trophy was awarded under its present name was to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V. Strangely, this is the only Super Bowl Trophy not owned by the original team that won it. Baltimore retained the rights to the first official Lombardi Trophy following an extended legal battle with the Colts when the franchise moved to Indianapolis.

The Lombardi Trophy stands 22 inches high and weighs about 7 pounds.  The trophy is crafted entirely of Sterling Silver and is manufactured by Tiffany & Co. Each year, the award is hand-crafted in a painstaking process, two are produced, in case something happens to the original trophy during the celebrations. The trophy awarded to the winning team is not the final version of the award, however. The Lombardi Trophy is sent back to the factory where it was produced following the game to have the final score, date, location and the two teams that played inscribed on it.  The trophy then makes its way back to the team. The owner decides where to house the award. Famously, Jerry Jones, owner of The Dallas Cowboys keeps all five of the franchise’s trophies in his office.

We hope you enjoyed our brief history of the Lombardi Trophy. If you need a trophy for a champion, overachiever or anyone else who deserves it, contact Spike’s Trophies to see what a nationally recognized team can do.