The Bob Clarke Trophy is awarded annually to the player who leads the Western Hockey League in points scoring during the regular season. In both years Bob "Bobby" Clarke played in the WHL, he captured the League scoring title. In 1968–69, Clarke's Flin Flon Bombers captured the League Championship. His NHL career spanned 15 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, in which time he captained the team to a pair of Stanley Cups. He was awarded the Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP three times, the Masterton Trophy and the Selke Trophy once each, and was also named an All-Star four times. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.

Originally the Bob Brownridge Trophy (including the two seasons that Clarke was the recipient), and later known as the Bob Brownridge Memorial Trophy. Saskatchewan born Brownridge (1918–1972) was a player with the Eastern Hockey League's New York Rovers (1938–1941), leaving to serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II,^[1] then played post-war with the Western Canada Senior Hockey League's Calgary Stampeders (1945–1949),^[2] winning the 1946 Allan Cup. He retired and became a businessman in Calgary, later the founding owner (1966) of the WHL's Calgary Centennials. In 1971, he secured a founding World Hockey Association (WHA) franchise, to be called the Calgary Broncos.^[3] However, after the February 1972 inaugural WHA draft, and before the October 1972 start of the first WHA season, Brownridge unexpectedly died and the team folded.^[3]