Miragh Bitove began her work at the Hockey Hall of Fame as an intern before working her way up to become the Stanley Cup manager.

Nirva Milord

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Miragh Bitove has a hockey background.

The Toronto native, who started as an intern at the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003, remembers her childhood as a “rink rat,” rarely spending a day outside of her local ice arena. Whether watching her brothers play or passing a puck herself, Bitove’s entire life seemed to revolve around the sport of hockey – a game her father absorbed as a fan and that preoccupied his uncle before him as a player for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But now Bitove brings her own story into play.

Last summer, the longtime Hockey Hall of Fame archivist and mother of three became the first woman to be officially named a “Cup Keeper” during the Cup’s Summer Champions Tour, when players and coaches from the winning team each get to spend a day with the Stanley Cup.

“Honestly, I don’t think that part has really sunk in yet,” Bitove tells PEOPLE in an interview in her office at the Hockey Hall of Fame, surrounded by gloves, sticks and other equipment she is actively archiving in the history of the game. “Most days when I’m in the office, I’m writing the history of hockey or doing research on it, so it’s not entirely understandable that my name could be in that mix, too.”

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Bitove became interested in archiving as a teenager and earned college degrees in art history and museum management. After that, she struggled to find a steady job for a while until her father suggested she combine her lifelong love of the sport with her studies. So Bitove went to the Hockey Hall of Fame and asked if they needed an intern. She started working unpaid at first and even stayed longer than the job required of her. She kept one foot in the door before knocking it down.

“My internship was over, but I just kept going,” laughs Bitove. “On my last day of the internship, they bought me lunch and I said, ‘That’s nice, thank you very much, but I’ll be back on Monday.’ And I just kept going until they could throw me small amounts of money for work events.”

She eventually landed a full-time position at the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005, and over the years she took on additional duties in addition to her work in the records office, including working at events where she and other trusted staff members transported trophies, including the Stanley Cup, for public viewing.

“Just seeing people’s reactions to the Stanley Cup… honestly, it never gets old,” Bitove says.

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Bitove still remembers the first time she saw the trophy in person. She was 13 years old at the time and took her cousin to the Hockey Hall of Fame so they could relive a moment in their own family history. Bitove’s grandfather’s younger brother, Teeder Kennedy, was an NHL player who won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His name was engraved on the side of the trophy along with those of every other player who has ever been on a championship team.

Bitove and her cousin went to the trophy, the centerpiece of the Hall of Fame, and looked among the names for that of their great-uncle Teeder.

“It’s just … breathtaking when you walk into the room and see it,” Bitove says of the historic trophy often considered the best in sport. “I still remember that feeling very well.”

Today, as the official Cup Keeper, Bitove often gets to witness the reactions when players travel with the trophy to visit their families and friends or take it to crowds in their hometown.

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Bitove’s official title as “Cup Keeper” (or “Cup Handler,” as the role is sometimes called) – a position under the direction of the “Keeper of the Cup,” Hockey Hall of Fame Vice President Phil Pritchard – began last season on tour with the champion Vegas Golden Knights.

The Cup travels 300 days a year, including about 100 days in the offseason when the winning team gets to take the trophy home. Each offseason, social media is filled with videos of players and coaches taking the Stanley Cup around the world – back to their often international hometowns for public celebrations or to their families’ homes for private parties.

“I just love thinking about the story of these people, how they did it and how their dream must have come true in those minutes,” says Bitove, sometimes thinking back to how her great uncle must have felt when he lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time. “And now I get to experience those moments live this summer when people hold the Cup for the first time with their families or in their home arena in the arena where it all began for them. It’s incredible.”

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