A chauffeur to Lord Stanley
-By Mike Moore-
Wherever it goes, he goes.
That’s the rule of the land. No debating it. No questioning it.
A school function with some adoring young kids or a Malibu party with more celebrities than a prime-time awards show, if the Stanley Cup makes an appearance, so does Mike Bolt.
He’s your average guy, as simple and down to earth as his name suggests. His occupation, however, is unlike any this world has to offer. Bolt, a Toronto native and employee of the Hockey Hall of Fame, has the distinguished and unique job of traveling with hockey’s grandest prize.
Watching its every step.
Protecting its every move.
“An honor, more than a job,” as he described it. “Wherever it goes, I go.”
Bolt has always viewed the game of hockey as a sort of religion. A player in his youth, though, “never very good,” he laughed, it was Bolt’s admiration for the sport that eventually landed him the job.
“I always wanted to work at the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was a lot easier than paying admission,” he said. “For a while I worked in the museum itself and traveled with different displays. But in 2000 I was asked if I’d be interested in traveling with the Stanley Cup. I was in such compete awe at first. It took a few hours before what I was actually being asked to do, set in.”
Needless to say, Bolt jumped at the opportunity, and since has worked as one of three keepers of the Cup. During the National Hockey League’s regular season, he’ll travel to do promotional or charity events. He’ll visit schools, hospitals, minor league rinks or anything else the NHL has scheduled.
Chaos, as some would call it, sets in every summer at about the same time, as soon as the NHL crowns its newest champion. Players, coaches and staff of the Stanley Cup champion are each awarded one day with the Cup, and, as Bolt said again with a laugh, “wherever it goes, I go.”
In his eight years on the job, Bolt’s summers have taken him to just about every nook, cranny and corner of the world. He’s accompanied the trophy throughout the United States and Canada. He’s been to Moscow, Finland, Sweden. He even made a stop last March in Afghanistan to visit the coalition forces.
“A missile went off while we were there,” he recalled. “That was pretty surreal.”
This past summer alone, while traveling with players and coaches on the Red Wings, Bolt traveled to Chicago, New York, Wisconsin, Malibu, British Columbia, Ontario, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic and numerous stops in Michigan. Many of those destinations were visited during a 23-day road trip.
“I averaged about three or four hours a sleep during trips like that,” Bolt said with a laugh. “I guess it’s pretty simple, though. All I have to do is make sure it gets from point A to point B without anything going wrong.”
Aside from a few drops and dents, Bolt has kept the Cup in nearly perfect condition. As a matter of fact, Bolt said players and coaches of winning teams have never presented a problem toward the trophy or to him.
“The players couldn’t be more respectful to me or to the Cup,” Bolt explained. “For the most part, when they have it, I become part of their families. I’m in their houses, hanging out with their friends and having a beer with them. A lot of them have questions for me and so on. It’s always a good time.”
Bolt said his highlight of the 2008 summer was, without question, when Chris Chelios hosted a party at his summer home in Malibu, Calif.
“There were a lot of big shots there,” Bolt laughed of the party, which included, among others, Chelios, Sylvester Stallone, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kid Rock, Ray Liotta, David Spade and Wayne Gretzky. “At one point, I look over and see Tom Hanks walking up and he said, ‘I heard the Stanley Cup was here.’ … The Cup is probably a bigger celebrity than any of those people.”
As the summer wound down, Bolt and the Cup made more local stops, like the Sept. 12 visit the two made throughout the Beverly Hills Detroit Country Day school district. Hundreds of adoring students stood next the trophy, snapping pictures while Bolt sat on a nearby couch, trying to simply relax.
“It’s been another crazy summer,” he said. “It never gets old, though. A few nights ago I was sitting in my hotel room and it kind of hit me again. I’m in a room with the Stanley Cup sitting on the couch.”
While he stopped short of naming which city has been his favorite champion, Bolt talked about Red Wings’ fans having a passion few others can relate to.
“To go downtown and see 1.5 million people at a parade is pretty incredible,” he said. “To see the reaction it gets here, it’s pretty special.”
Bolt’s final duty in the Detroit area was Oct. 9 when the Wings opened the 2008-09 season at home with a banner-raising ceremony that featured the Cup inside Joe Louis Arena.
For now, Bolt is back in Toronto with his life returning to some level of normalcy. For Red Wings’ fans everywhere, the hope is he’ll be back – and soon.
Mike Moore can be reached at mjm12@albion.edu
