Stanley Cup keeper talks about traveling with trophy

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the San Jose Sharks hope to stave off elimination in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday. They trail the Penguins 3-1.

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We found the keeper of the Stanley Cup at the arena just beyond the shadow of Mario Lemieux. He was sanswering emails from around the world. "I don't know if anyone can get used this," Phil Pritchard said

For Pritchard, it's the time of year when everyone wants to talk. From TV networks to average people and all because of what he carries around in the trunk of his car, on airplanes and sleeps with in hotel rooms. Yes, the Stanley Cup. And it's all documented on social media.

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As any hockey fan will tell you, this is the holy grail of their sport. When a team wins the Stanley Cup, every player has his name engraved on it.

And now, every player gets the Stanley Cup to do with as he pleases for one precious day, wherever he lives, anywhere in the world.

For 28 years, Pritchard from the Hockey Hall of Fame has served as the Stanley Cup's chaperone in 25 countries.

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When asked how many miles, Pritchard said: "My passport has been full a few times on that and we have been east to west, north to south, but we've never south of the equator."

In its illustrious history, the Stanley Cup has been hoisted, paraded, drunk from, swum with, dropped in a river and twice had babies baptized in it. Pritchard has a Twitter feed, the hockey hall of fame keeps a journal. The Stanley Cup may be the most broadly traveled object and photographed in human history.

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When asked if the Stanley Cup takes Pritchard or if he takes the Stanley Cup, he said: "I mean, hey, we participate in the greatest sport in the world, and to hang out with the Cup it's OK, I'll go anywhere the Cup goes," Pritchard said.

Which could still conceivably be San Jose.

In all those years, only one fan has attempted to steal the Stanley Cup in 1962 in Chicago while the Stanley Cup was on display. The fan allegedly picked it up, tried walking out the door with it. Then he was stopped by police and told them, he was taking the Stanley Cup to Montreal where it belongs, which clearly he had never hear of San Jose.

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