Share a time you met a famous athlete...

[4reals]

...and played it cool like you didn’t know who they were or didn’t make a scene.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kevin]

Walking around the Coliseum...especially in those terrible years...you’d bump into former Isles all the time. Gillies, I was like a school girl, but I was like 15 or 16 at the time. The others, cool as a cucumber.

In the mid 90s, I was in an empty bar in midtown. I was in my 20s. I went downstairs and who is playing pool? John Tonelli. We were both trashed so we went to the pay phone and called my dad at 2am. I ran into him a year ago and told him we did that and he thought it was funny as heck.

Ran into Daryl Strawberry at the Coliseum about 10 years ago. He was promoting a car wash product or something. I walked by him and gave him a head nod. So, at the Coliseum, we had the best seats in the arena (to see a game). Maybe the best seats in the NHL. Section 205 - Row K - Seats 13 and 14 on the aisle. Who do they usher in next to us? Daryl Strawberry. He sat next to dad for a period and they Kibitzed a bit. Very friendly guy.

[clydepepper]

I was in a crowd that Arnold Palmer waved at once.

[steve B]

I've really only met a couple big names, and played softaball with a sort of star from another sport

Bob Feller was pitching a home run derby in the minor league park near where I lived in Jr High. Dad took me to see him. H was still pretty fast.
After, he came up in the stands with a stack of 8 1/2x11 picture/stat sheets that he signed. Being shy I was pretty much the last kid in line. which meant that when he asked about baseball, I got to sit with him a while. Other kids came for more autographs, which mostly ended up as paper planes being thrown all over. I asked if that bothered him, and he just said kids usually did that stuff and as long as they had fun he was happy.
Then the 2nd game started, and he explained the pitchers strategy etc, for maybe 2 innings before he had to go talk with the boring grownups.

It was years later that I realized just how cool that was.

Brooks Robinson I met at a Sports Illustrated hospitality suite when I was 13. He asked if I wasn't a little young for the hospitality suite and thought it was cool that dad had brought me there, we talked baseball for a couple minuets, and when one of the semi drunk adults complained about holding up the line he gut up and loudly said "hey! I'm talking to a kid about baseball, you can wait"
So I didn't make the big deal, but he sort of did. He had backup from the two football players SI also had there.
(cool setup, three sports figures, they gave you a special picture sheet with all three, and you could get their autographs and talk to them for a bit.
From what dad said about the other times, after the initial rush they circulated around the room. (except for one of the football guys one year who basically sat in a recliner drinking and being grumpy. )

The one I played softball with was a gold medal winner in womens hockey. I never really thought of it as a big deal she was a teammate, and a fantastic player even outside her best sport. One of those players that makes everyone better just being there.
The things that just don't sink in as being sort of a big deal until much later...

[Exhibitman]

Downplayed, ok.

In the 1990s in Las Vegas my wife and I were staying at the Venetian. We went to have breakfast in the spa and sat at the counter. A man sat down next to my wife and they started chatting. He then introduced himself: "Kenny Smith, Houston Rockets." I shook his hand and said my name and "Lakers Fan." He thought it was hilarious.

[packs]

I played black jack at a table in Atlantic City with James Worthy once. He sat in for about 15 minutes, pissed everyone off, and left.

How did he piss everyone off? He kept hitting bust cards while everyone told him not to.

I met Bobby Murcer at an Arcade Game in Seaside Heights NJ , He asked me if I had change for dollar and I said yes, Bobby Murcer autographed his dollar bill this was during the baseball strike in 1981 we were side by side at a shooting gallery . We talked for about 15 minutes

[orioles93]

Orioles fan fest the one year, met Chris Tillman as he was coming out of the bathroom lol. Didn't realize it at first. Got an autograph.

[edtiques]

When I was a kid in the late 60's I used to deliver newspapers to former Red Sox pitcher Bill Spanswick. He was most famous for being on Tony Conigliaro's rookie card.

[frankbmd]

I took my young daughter to the movies in Century City to see a Cosby film.
We happened to end up sitting in front of Magic Johnson. He recognized me before I recognized him.. My daughter was never convinced that it was him.

I’ve always felt glad that we were sitting in front of him, rather than behind him.

[egri]

One of my track coaches in high school was a former Olympic sprinter (for Jamaica in 1992).

Not professional, but I used to work with a guy who tackled Antonio Brown in college; he was the kicker, Brown was the punt returner. We used to joke about that tackle was what made him start going crazy.

The judge that my mom used to clerk had paid his way through law school by playing minor league baseball in the Tigers organization. He never made the majors, but was a very well-respected judge.

[ocjack]

Mid-80's, bought Freddie Solomon a drink when he was sitting at a near-by table in a San Francisco restaurant. As we were leaving, we passed his table, he stood up to thank us and we spoke for a few minutes. I patted his arm as we left, and it felt like I was hitting a brick wall. The man was solid muscle. And also, a down-to-earth guy. Also, passed too soon.