• Job: Keeper of the Cup, Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto

DAVE SANDFORD/Hockey Hall of Fame (ENLARGE)

Phil Pritchard and his travel companion, the Stanley Cup, attend a jersey-retirement celebration for Hall of Famer Mark Messier in Edmonton, Alberta, last February.

• What I do: The Stanley Cup — the championship trophy of the National Hockey League — has come to Atlanta, and Phil Pritchard stays right beside it.

As a Keeper of the Cup, Pritchard is one of four staff members of the Hockey Hall of Fame who travel with the Stanley Cup for official functions and when it visits the hometowns of the players, coaches and officials of the team that won the trophy.

The Cup is displayed at major hockey events, such as today's NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta. In the last year, it's also been traveling around the world to visit members of the Anaheim Ducks, who won the NHL championship in June.

"I travel with it wherever it goes," said Pritchard, 46, whose full job title is vice president of the Resource Centre and curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. "The Cup is always within sight of us."

Unlike other major sports trophies, which are made each year for the champions, there is only one Stanley Cup. The names of the winning team and players are engraved on it, and the Hockey Hall of Fame is its permanent home.

Pritchard said he travels about 150 days a year with the Cup. He and the hardware spend about 24 hours with each player, coach or team official before heading off to the next town. One keeper usually accompanies the Cup in the United States and Canada, but two go with it on overseas trips. Since

Sept. 11, 2001, the Cup — inside a sturdy case — has been checked baggage, although it has had its own seat on the plane in the past.

During those visits, the Cup has been used as a cereal bowl, has been pulled on an inner tube behind a speedboat, has gone fishing and has held many bottles of champagne, beer and vodka.

"There's usually an underlying meaning" to each visit, Pritchard explained. Making the Cup "something that's part of their day means so much to them."

Pritchard remembered Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward saying, after eating Froot Loops from the Cup, "I gotta start my day like every day."

On each visit, the Cup is usually part of a ceremony honoring the team member, Pritchard said. "The players often come from small towns," and a visit by the Stanley Cup is a reason for a parade.

Players also make the Cup part of family times, with many photos of the kids with the Cup, and usually a party. For the players, it creates a lifetime of memories.

"It has to go perfectly," he said. "I make sure it's perfect."

• What got me interested in this: Pritchard said he collected hockey cards and was a fan as a boy in Oakville, Ontario. He wasn't a professional player but still plays hockey a few times a week — and said he has the scars to prove it.

During and after college, he volunteered to work with several hockey organizations and eventually landed a job with the Hockey Hall of Fame. He's been working there 20 years and has been traveling with the Cup almost since the first day.

At first, the Cup was available for display in nearby towns, then weeklong visits in the championship city, then two weeks. Finally, in 1995, it began going to the hometown of each player, coach and official on the winning team.

• Best part of my job: "Seeing the fans see the Cup, seeing the expressions on their faces," Pritchard said. Besides, he noted, "We always hang out with winners."

• Most challenging part: "The travel and time involved," he said. "I've got lots of air miles . . . and lots of special moments."

• What people don't know about my job: "I'm a curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame," Pritchard said. "The Stanley Cup is the pinnacle, but we also have 70,000 square feet of hockey history here. We look after it with the same care we look after the Cup."

While in public, the keepers wear white gloves to handle the Cup, like a museum official handling an artifact. In private, gloves aren't necessary, he said.

Only members of the winning team are supposed to hold the 35-pound trophy over their heads. "They have earned that right," he said. "They've worked for this their whole lives."

• What keeps me going: "The love of the game," he said. "I play hockey, my young son is a goalie [on a junior team], I watch it on TV."

• Preparation needed for this job: Pritchard said the basic requirements for his job are the same as for a job in a museum. He has taken courses in conservation and preservation. "We handle hockey jerseys, pucks and skates. We deal with hockey; they deal with art."

To take the Cup on the road, Pritchard also has to make extensive arrangements with the players and their communities, police, customs officials and airlines.

Pritchard has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Ontario, and a two-year degree in sports management from Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario.

He also teaches a course in hockey history and sports administration at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto and has written, with the other keepers, a book about their journeys, "Travels With Stanley."

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.