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<p>Howie Borrow was traveling with Boston Bruins players with the Stanley Cup in 2011 when his childhood idol Cam Neely asked him a question.</p><p>Twice.</p><p>&#8220;He asked me two times to drink from the Cup. I had to turn him down,&#8221; Borrow said.</p><p>The reason?</p><p>As one of four keepers of the Cup, Borrow, who works for the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, spends weeks every summer traveling the globe with hockey&#8217;s ultimate trophy bringing it to players of that season&#8217;s championship team for a day at a time. Borrow has been traveling with the Cup yearly since 2010 and he&#8217;s logged some serious miles.</p><p>This summer alone Borrow has taken the Cup to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Nova Scotia, North Carolina, Boston, Maine, New Hampshire and overseas to Germany, Finland and Sweden. On Wednesday he added Wilkes-Barre to the list as area native Teddy Richards had his day with the trophy.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a long summer. I&#8217;m finishing off a week today and I&#8217;ll fly to Detroit to hand it off to another co-worker,&#8221; Borrow said.</p><p>The four keepers of the Cup work in a rotation. Once players submit dates that they&#8217;d like to have the Cup, a schedule is devised to maximize travel time and so each &#8220;keeper&#8221; averages a week on the road before getting a break.</p><p>While the travel can be grueling, each trip is memorable.</p><p>Borrow said his largest crowd this summer occurred during Sidney Crosby&#8217;s day with the Cup in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. More than 35,000 flocked to the town for Crosby&#8217;s Cup parade, and Borrow said large crowds at every stop are now the norm thanks to word spreading on social media.</p><p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t take long to find out where it is and the next thing you know there&#8217;s 1,000 people waiting for us,&#8221; Borrow said. &#8220;It&#8217;s fun, but hectic, too.&#8221;</p><p>And eventful.</p><p>While players try to make the most of their day with the Stanley Cup, Borrow has seen his share of unique occurrences. Eating out of the Cup is a popular choice, and he&#8217;s watched players feast on ice cream, cereal, pierogies, chicken wings and spaghetti, to name a few, from the bowl of the trophy.</p><p>Borrow has also seen plenty of alcohol consumed from the Cup, as well as apple juice and milk that was shared with players&#8217; children. He&#8217;s watched players take the Cup onto the golf course and even on a lake fishing.</p><p>One player, he said, put all the fish he caught inside the bowl of the Cup.</p><p>&#8220;I clean it every day with plain soap and water. That takes off all the lipstick, fingerprints and everything else,&#8221; Borrow said.</p><p>One of his most unique experiences with the Cup occurred in 2010 when the prize was claimed by the Chicago Blackhawks. Borrow said a team executive called and told him his wife just had a baby and he wanted to place the infant in the Cup. They rushed to the hospital and the newborn, who was only 97 minutes old, sat in the bowl becoming the youngest baby ever in the Cup.</p><p>After seven years, there isn&#8217;t much that surprises Borrow any more.</p><p>&#8220;Players try to do a lot of different things, but the list is getting smaller all the time. There isn&#8217;t too much that hasn&#8217;t already been done with the Cup,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Problems are few, Borrow added. Before a player gets the Cup Borrow will have a brief talk outlining a few rules, and then it&#8217;s up to the player to choose what he wants to do. Most spend their time with family, friends or fans and are respectful of the Cup because they know the history behind it.</p><p>But every now and then Borrow cringes at some of the activities.</p><p>&#8220;If anything, later on at night it may go to nightclubs where it&#8217;s crowded, the alcohol is flowing and everyone&#8217;s really excited. You want to make sure the Cup is looked after and at the same time everyone&#8217;s having fun with it as well,&#8221; Borrow said.</p><p>While the travel schedule is daunting, there are a few challenges that come with flying a trophy that is 35 inches tall and weighs more than 34 pounds.</p><p>Borrow said the Stanley Cup doesn&#8217;t sit with him on the plane because it would generate too much attention. Instead, it&#8217;s shipped in a protective case and stowed with other luggage. While checking into airports, security officials routinely ask him to open the case so they could inspect the contents and, depending on the locale, once the Cup is unveiled it stays out for a few photos.</p><p>&#8220;I only had trouble one time. I flew an airline from New York to Dallas and everything went fine. The next day going back the airline gave me a hard time because of the height and weight of the Cup,&#8221; Borrow said. &#8220;They told me I couldn&#8217;t fly it when I just flew it on that same airline the day before.&#8221;</p><p>There are actually three Stanley Cups: the original bowl which dates back to 1892 and a replica Cup are both on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. The &#8220;Presentation Cup&#8221; which is the one presented on the ice to the championship team and travels to each player during the summer and is on the road for 320 days each year.</p><p>Borrow, who is from Toronto, said he&#8217;s never drank from the Cup despite being asked.</p><p>&#8220;I work with it. I haven&#8217;t won it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When I was asked to travel with the Cup seven years ago it wasn&#8217;t expected. It&#8217;s been an amazing journey and I never would&#8217;ve seen 99 percent of the places I&#8217;ve been to if it wasn&#8217;t for this.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Howie Borrow runs alongside the Stanley Cup, which is being carried by Wilkes-Barre native Teddy Richards as it enters Public Square on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL090816Howie-Borrow1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Howie Borrow runs alongside the Stanley Cup, which is being carried by Wilkes-Barre native Teddy Richards as it enters Public Square on Wednesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL090816Howie-Borrow2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">As one of four keepers of the Stanley Cup, Howie Borrow has traveled from Maine to Sweden this summer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_TTL090816Howie-Borrow2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>As one of four keepers of the Stanley Cup, Howie Borrow has traveled from Maine to Sweden this summer. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Keepers of the Stanley Cup travel the globe</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Cup keeper stops in Wilkes-Barre in a summer on the road with Lord Stanley