It is 61 years old, needs assistance in traveling, likes to drop names from the old days, and hasn't been seen in years.
The Utah Snow Cup has gone as missing as Amelia Earhart.
This may or may not be a big deal to you, but in the world of trophies the Snow Cup is in a class with the Oscars, Emmys and Stanleys. It is the oldest downhill ski racing trophy in the country, dating back to when Lloyd McLean and future Olympic gold medalist Gretchen Fraser won the men's and women's races at Alta in 1940 and had their names etched at the base of the 2 1/2-foot, 50-pound cup.
All sorts of the finest skiers from Utah, the United States and the world have since added their names as Snow Cup champions, including many more Olympians, but for the past 10 to 15 years there have been no new names engraved on the cup.
Because nobody knows where it is.
Or if they know, they're not telling.
I called local ski legend Jim Gaddis. He won the Snow Cup in 1962, 1963 and 1964.
"OK," I said. "What'd you do with the cup?"
"I stole it and put it in my basement," he answered.
But then he said he was just kidding. Hey, he wishes he did have the cup, but he doesn't. The last time he touched it was in 1964 at Alta when he tried to take it home and the official standing with him on the podium told him to keep his hands off.
Jim was under the impression that if you won the cup three straight times you got to keep it.
"We (ski racers) were all under that impression," he says.
But the official told him, "Sorry, we changed the rules. We'll get you a nice new one."
"And they did," says Gaddis. "But it's not like the cup. There aren't many trophies like that one."
A few years later, Alta stopped holding the Snow Cup races and lateraled them to Solitude, where they were held for a few more years until Park West — now The Canyons resort — took over.
It's there that the cup's trail goes cold.
When Snowbird took over the races at the start of the 1990s, there was no Snow Cup trophy to be found.
"Somewhere around 1985 or maybe a little later was the last time anybody remembers seeing it," says Steve Bounous, director of the Snowbird Ski Education Foundation and host of this year's Snow Cup races scheduled Saturday and Sunday at Snowbird.
Bounous won the cup in 1977 and remembers it as being "quite large. Something you have to hoist with both hands for sure."
Anyway, they're having a Snow Cup Gala at Snowbird this Saturday night. Gaddis is speaking. All former winners are invited. Everybody will be there.
Except the cup.
Check your mantels, check your attic, check your storage bin, check your neighbor's storage bin.
If you were a really fast ski racer circa 1985, check your trophy case.
If you find a big silver bowl almost half as tall as you are with "Jack Reddish, 1948, 1949, 1950" on the side, that would be the Snow Cup.
Show up with it Saturday night and dinner is on the house. No questions asked.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.