July 01, 2004
WE'VE GOT TO STOP
MEETING LIKE THIS
In May, I wrote about the chance I got to snuggle up to the Stanley Cup one day when it showed up in my building at work.
Well, miracles never cease...
I mean, what are the chances of someone getting to hug on that bad boy twice in five weeks' time at the workplace?
This time, as you can see, I had to bust out the sombrero. This now makes two championship trophies that the 'brero has crested. The other: The Lombardi Trophy.
The germ of the event was innocent enough. Our editorials editor thought it would be fun to have the Cup at work, since we had been so prominant in our goofup of running the "Aw, the poor Tampa Bay Lightning lost" editorial on the day the team won the cup. Click here to read my account of that snafu.
Anyway, what started as a small gathering eventually became a campus-wide event. As you can see above, several hundred people joined in to see and pose and hug and kiss the cup.
Even the Rev. Joe Kendall showed up.
The setup involved stepping up to pose however you wanted to with the Cup. A photographer then shot portraits that will be posted at a later date. (I'll post some of those here.) Then, invariably, people who brought cameras lingered for a few seconds longer to make sure they got their own copy.
It made the process immeasurably longer, but it was cool. No one complained. Except when Jose, to the right of the Cup, above, cut in line. I believe the phrase I used to refer to him was, "Rat bastard."
After missing it the first time it came to town in May, Rommie finally got to pose with it.
Even Albert, a diehard Bucs fan, got in line fully adorned in Lightning gear. You might remember that Albert cut a lightning bolt into his hair before Game 5 of the finals. Why? "To promote unity in the community," he said.
Still, he couldn't resist:
Gotta credit the man for consistency.
Eventually, the event morphed into a sidebar of Sombrero Project activity. Again, Albert was an enthusiastic participant:
Hola', Senor Alberto.
Pretty soon, others were getting sucked into the Sombrero Vortex. Jeremy, a son of my friend Greg, posed with it, to his eternal chagrin. Despite his initial reservations, I think he did an excellent job displaying the chapeau.
Then, of course, it gathered steam. Dave, namesake of The Daily Dave, posed with his stuffed elephant, Daal. Dave's own sombrero shot can be seen by clicking here.
From there, it descended into the ridiculous. Someone posed their boss's golf statue next to the Cup. Then they asked that the sombrero adorn their statue. It was all very heady stuff, these two obscure icons coming together. Only the Stanley Cup could forge such a magical moment.