My son recently won a trophy for playing soccer.
Thats great ! Trophies are often awarded for sporting events from youth to professional .   
Where do you suppose the giving of trophies originated?  I figure it has something to do with war.
Originally the word trophy was derived from the Greek.
That makes sense.  They originated the Olympic Games, after all.
From my research another fact is that the word trophy coined in English in 1550 such a long time ago.
I figure the giving of a trophy has to be tied to war somehow.  Remember the old adage "to the victor go the spoils"?  I figure trophy has to be related to spoils of war.
I did find that in modern warefare trophy taking is discouraged but not much information on the previous wars