It's special when a player spends their entire career with one organization - and just as special when a front-office employee does as well.
Carol Coulson, one of the Penguins' box office managers, retires Thursday after 36 years and five Stanley Cup rings with the franchise.
Five-time Stanley Cup-winning staffer retires
"Carol is part of the legacy of the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the people behind the scenes who have worked so hard to make our franchise a success," said David Morehouse, CEO and President of the team. "She has contributed so much in her 36 years, has been a mentor and friend to many employees, and I know she is proud of her five Stanley Cup rings. We wish her all the best in retirement and look forward to seeing her back here as a fan at PPG Paints Arena."
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967, Coulson - who grew up in Squirrel Hill - went into the Peace Corps as a way to travel and see the world. She spent two years in West Africa - one in Senegal and one in the Gambia - which she called an "amazing experience."
At the end of her tour, Coulson married a British volunteer and the couple lived in England for the next 11 years, with their two sons being born overseas.
"Oddly enough, their names are Craig and Patrick," Coulson laughed, thinking of former Penguins GM Craig Patrick. "I have a picture when we won the Stanley Cup either in '91 or '92 and we had a party at the Grand Concourse. At the top of those stairs were all the trophies and I was walking by with my boys and there was nobody else around and I said 'Craig, do you mind?' And he knew, I think he had met them before. And he even arranged them so it made sense."
When the family moved back to the States, Carol was looking for a part-time job. She didn't have anything particular in mind, just something interesting. And during her search, the play The King and I, starring Yul Brynner, was in town at the old Syria Mosque.
"They were looking for phone operators, so I applied for it and you know how you have these 'a ha!' moments in life? It was one of those," Coulson said. "It was fun. Yul Brynner came down to the phone room and talked with us, the producer/director was Mitch Lee and he sat right across from where I sat. So I thought, 'this was cool, I really like this.'"
Coulson eventually got to know workers at the box office in Mellon Arena, and told them that if a job ever opened up, she would be interested. They hired her in 1981, and as Coulson joked, "I never left."
Coulson is a huge hockey fan now, but she didn't know much about the sport when she first started. Back then, the phone operators would take orders and send the requests over to the box office, where Coulson and one other worker would fill them by hand since they didn't have computers at the time.
"We had a seating chart and I said to the box office manager, 'you've got to put lines on this chart because I don't know what the red line or the blue line is,'" Coulson laughed.
When the Penguins won their first Stanley Cup in 1991, players had to stop and see Coulson in person if they wanted to buy extra tickets. She joked that it wasn't an ego trip for a lot of them because she didn't know who they were. But by the end of playoffs, she knew them well - particularly current Penguins radio color analyst Phil Bourque, who still stops in the box office every game day to this day.
"He would come into the office, he would sit down in the office after practice and chat with me because he's very personable," she said. "We'd sit and talk a bit and he was exhausted after practice, of course, and I'd think, 'I don't see how you're going to take a nap and come back and win a game.' But they did."
That was the first of five Stanley Cups Coulson would get to experience as a team employee. Coulson experienced some disappointment at the time, as there was an opportunity for members of the front office to go to Minneapolis, but she couldn't afford it.
"I sat by myself watching the game and they showed the crowd and there were the people from the front office in the crowd and I thought, 'No! Why didn't you borrow the money?'" Coulson recalled with a laugh.
Fortunately, Coulson would eventually get the opportunity to experience two more Stanley Cups from the road when Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle chartered planes to take front-office staffers to Detroit in 2009 and San Jose in 2016.
"I think one of the greatest experiences was being in San Jose when we won the Cup," she said. "That was the best because we spent the night afterwards, we got to go to the party. That was unbelievable. I was in Detroit when we won and that was neat, but we struggled to get down on the ice and then we had to fly back and that sort of thing. But just to be there and to stay the night, that was cool. I was up for 24 hours and it didn't even feel like it."
Coulson is one of just a handful of people to have all five Penguins Stanley Cup rings, a group that includes Bourque, Mike Lange, Paul Steigerwald, Bob Errey, Penguins director of community/alumni relations Cindy Himes, and of course, Lemieux.
"Many people go through their careers and don't have one, so to have five, you don't take it for granted," she said. "There's a lot of work that goes into that. So it's great."
Coulson didn't take one day of work for granted during her time with the Penguins organization.
"I have a lot of respect for management, what they've done for the staff and contact with them and that sort of thing," she said. "I still get a wild feeling sometimes when I'm walking in in the morning and I think, 'you work here.'"
Coulson says what she'll miss the most about working for the Penguins is the people - both her colleagues and the team's season ticket holders, some of whom she's known since Day 1.
"There's so many season ticket holders that I got to know over the years, and I'll miss them," she said. "Some of them, I feel like they're my friends, almost family."
Apart from cleaning and organizing her home in Oakmont, Coulson doesn't have many plans for retirement, instead choosing to take it "day-to-day" and, as Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan likes to say, "enjoy the moment."
During her time with the Penguins, Coulson estimated she saw less than 20 games in person over her 36 years as a big part of her responsibilities were on game nights. So now, she's looking forward to upping that total.
"That is my hope. I want to come in and see a few games," she said before adding with a smile, "I think I'll be able to do that. "
