Penguins box office manager retires with 5 Stanley Cup rings
Carol Coulson is one of seven people who have been working for the Pittsburgh Penguins long enough to have been around for all five of the franchise’s Stanley Cup victories.
According to Hockey Reference, there are only 24 players in NHL history who have won more than five Stanley Cup rings during their careers. There are 26 players who won exactly five rings, an impressive accomplishment in and of itself.
Add another name to that five-timers club: Carol Coulson, a Pittsburgh Penguins box-office manager who has been on the team’s payroll since long before the team won its first championship in 1991 and thus also happens to be the proud owner of five Penguins Stanley Cup rings.
After 3+ decades in the organization, Box Office Manager Carol Coulson has seen generational talent, embraced passionate fans, and experienced a lifetime of memories.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 7, 2018
Oh, and she has five Cup rings to go with it.
Coulson punches her ticket to retirement: https://t.co/blgnO6EleM pic.twitter.com/fpKiXLaGCA
Coulson retired this week, ending a long career with the organization that began in 1981.
She joins a shirt list of folks who have been around for all five Penguins Stanley Cup victories that also includes owner and franchise legend Mario Lemieux, longtime radio color analyst Phil Bourque, play-by-play commentator Mike Lange, Penguins TV announcer Paul Steigerwald, former Penguins player and current sportscaster Bob Errey and Penguins Director of Community Relations Cindy Himes.
Related Story: On being a Penguins fan in D.C. during a Capitals Stanley Cup run
“Many people go through their careers and don’t have one, so to have five, you don’t take it for granted,” she told Penguins Inside Scoop’s Michelle Crechiolo. “There’s a lot of work that goes into that. So it’s great.”
Coulson grew up in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood in Pittsburgh where I also happened to spend my formative years. She has lived a charmed life, spending more than 36 years in service of her hometown’s hockey team. You don’t find that kind of dedication to one organization every day.
Carol Coulson: From one Penguins fan to another, thank you for clearly being the good-luck charm that brought five Stanley Cups to the burgh. It’s probably not a coincidence that her retirement coincided with the Pens blowing their opportunity to threepeat. You will be missed.