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I got called up to the varsity baseball team my freshman year as a pitcher during a playoff game and pitched 2 innings of relief only to serve up a game ending gopher ball. Heartbreaking but an experience I’ll never forget.
 
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I played against 4 QBs that had at least a cup of coffee in the NFL. Scott Tolzien: Fremd - UW - Packers/Colts/49ers/Chargers, Tommy Rees: LF - ND - Redskins, Jordan Lynch: MC - NIU - Bears, and Jimmy Garoppolo: Rolling Meadows - EIU - Patriots/49ers/Raiders
 
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I sat next to Drew Pearson at the 2002 All Star Game in Milwaukee; I rode an elevator with Muhammed Ali; I held an elevator door for Walter Payton: as a bartender, I served beer to Tommy John, the VanArsdale twins and Tommy McCraw: I served Luis Aparicio at a hot dog stand on 111th street; I rode in a limo from O'Hare to downtown wit Flip Wilson; during tryouts for the MC baseball team, I hit a fly ball more than 350 feet off future Cy Young winner Denny McLain (but only once); I spent an afternoon chatting with Al McGuire; I knew Ray Meyer on a first name basis. At DePaul, I sat in front of future mayor Richard M. Daley in accounting 101; in 1995 that Daley ran in the primary against my grammar and high school classmate Joe Gardner. Finally,I was the very last person in the entire world to broadcast over-the-air in the 1960s decade. At the time, I was a disc jockey with Armed Forces Radio and Television - at Shemya Air Force Base at the far western end of the Aleutian Islands. We had our own time zone (Bering Standard time - which no longer is recognized) and we were an hour behind the Alaska mainland. We were the only broadcast facility in the zone. Around 6 o'clock on New Year's Eve, 1969, I began playing the top 100 hits of the year. There was still time left after the final record and I wished everyone a Happy New Year as the second hand on the clock rolled past 12. At that point, it was finally 1970 everywhere. The base no longer is operational, but you can google “Shemya” - it's quite interesting.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but what would you expect?
 
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MC63 said:
I sat next to Drew Pearson at the 2002 All Star Game in Milwaukee; I rode an elevator with Muhammed Ali; I held an elevator door for Walter Payton: as a bartender, I served beer to Tommy John, the VanArsdale twins and Tommy McCraw: I served Luis Aparicio at a hot dog stand on 111th street; I rode in a limo from O'Hare to downtown wit Flip Wilson; during tryouts for the MC baseball team, I hit a fly ball more than 350 feet off future Cy Young winner Denny McLain (but only once); I spent an afternoon chatting with Al McGuire; I knew Ray Meyer on a first name basis. At DePaul, I sat in front of future mayor Richard M. Daley in accounting 101; in 1995 that Daley ran in the primary against my grammar and high school classmate Joe Gardner. Finally,I was the very last person in the entire world to broadcast over-the-air in the 1960s decade. At the time, I was a disc jockey with Armed Forces Radio and Television - at Shemya Air Force Base at the far western end of the Aleutian Islands. We had our own time zone (Bering Standard time - which no longer is recognized) and we were an hour behind the Alaska mainland. We were the only broadcast facility in the zone. Around 6 o'clock on New Year's Eve, 1969, I began playing the top 100 hits of the year. There was still time left after the final record and I wished everyone a Happy New Year as the second hand on the clock rolled past 12. At that point, it was finally 1970 everywhere. The base no longer is operational, but you can google “Shemya” - it's quite interesting.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but what would you expect?
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Forest Gump, is that you?
 
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I met with Joe Namath as he walked through our Quad area in High School. He played for the Rams at the time and used our high school pool for his knees after practice. The Rams practiced across the street. At the time the practice field was called veterans stadium. Joe was a nice guy taking the time to talk to me about football and just chat.
 
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About 10 years ago I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with Vern DenHerder #83 of the Miami Dolphins. My Father and I went to his home in a small Northwestern Iowa town. Saw his Super Bowl rings, talked about the 1972 Dolphins, and shared some memories. An absolute Gentleman.
 
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I waited on a Master and Wimbleton champ on the same day at the St. Clair County Country Club - Bob Goalby and Jimmy Connors. The former, a true gentleman. The latter, a degenerate gambler dickhead.

I became Eskimos Brothers with the Blues enforcer, Tony Twist, during college. Same with Jimmy "Ballgame" Edmonds shortly after college.

I squared up with NFL coach Joe Woods, then the baddest man on campus at ISU, because he tried to enter my party without paying $3.00. I was assured by another Redbird LB that he'd pull Joe off me before it became too bad. Aside from an initial tie-up where I shot at his knee and stomped his foot with a cowboy boot, it ended. I later heard he was confused as to why I'd fight him and was concerned I was some "karate guy" who could break bones. NO - I was just a Dutch Irish MF'er who would never (or smart enough to) back down.
 
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MC63 said:
I sat next to Drew Pearson at the 2002 All Star Game in Milwaukee; I rode an elevator with Muhammed Ali; I held an elevator door for Walter Payton: as a bartender, I served beer to Tommy John, the VanArsdale twins and Tommy McCraw: I served Luis Aparicio at a hot dog stand on 111th street; I rode in a limo from O'Hare to downtown wit Flip Wilson; during tryouts for the MC baseball team, I hit a fly ball more than 350 feet off future Cy Young winner Denny McLain (but only once); I spent an afternoon chatting with Al McGuire; I knew Ray Meyer on a first name basis. At DePaul, I sat in front of future mayor Richard M. Daley in accounting 101; in 1995 that Daley ran in the primary against my grammar and high school classmate Joe Gardner. Finally,I was the very last person in the entire world to broadcast over-the-air in the 1960s decade. At the time, I was a disc jockey with Armed Forces Radio and Television - at Shemya Air Force Base at the far western end of the Aleutian Islands. We had our own time zone (Bering Standard time - which no longer is recognized) and we were an hour behind the Alaska mainland. We were the only broadcast facility in the zone. Around 6 o'clock on New Year's Eve, 1969, I began playing the top 100 hits of the year. There was still time left after the final record and I wished everyone a Happy New Year as the second hand on the clock rolled past 12. At that point, it was finally 1970 everywhere. The base no longer is operational, but you can google “Shemya” - it's quite interesting.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but what would you expect?
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This is awesome!
 
I delivered the July 21, 1969 Sun Times with the Headline "Men Walk on Moon." 😄

I had a beer with Nick Nolte years ago at the Holiday Inn in Joliet back in the 1980s. Wifey and I were at a wedding reception and me, being me, I walked into the hotel bar and there he was, sitting at the bar by himself. So I struck up a conversation.

Everything was going fine until wifey walked in with a girl friend of hers. They wanted to take a picture with him. So just before the pic was snapped he tried to put his hands where they shouldn't go on wifey. She grabbed his hands and then slapped the living shit out of him. I mean, it knocked the wire frame glasses off his head and onto the floor.

Nobody got mad, other than wifey, and he apologized to her. I friend asked me if I was going to punch him and I said; "I think he's embarrassed enough to have taken that shot from her." Besides, wifey knew and still understands, if I need to step in she will let me know.
 
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On a lark, I went out for soccer as a senior at Loyola. I became a starting defender because I was fairly fast, and because I hadn't played the game enough to develop the dribbling/foot skills needed to play midfield or on the forward line. The first regulation soccer game I ever played in was our first game of the season senior year. That first game, we played against Niles West. In the first couple of minutes of the game, NW scored off of a corner kick where the guy curved the ball in for a goal off of the kick. I remember we all looked at each other with a look that said, "Holy crap, this is going to be a long game." Wound up losing that game 6-0, but we finished the season with a winning record because most of the CCL back then, with the exception of Gordon and Rice, sucked at soccer. Played against Rita in their old stadium dust bowl. I remember playing DLS and wondering what the hell an Institute was.

In college, I started from day one all four years. We weren't very good my freshman year, losing 15-0 to a UWGB squad that went on to play in the D2 final four that season. We got much better as my college years went on, to the point where we were 9-2-1 my senior year, one of them was a 2-0 decision against UWGB.

On both my high school and college teams, I played against a couple of players who went on to play professionally and on the US Men's National Team.
 
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All.... Since this subject thread is all over the board I have one to tell. It's sports related. ☺️ Before ending up working for the state I sold sporting goods in a retail and wholesale setting.

The Russian basketball team was on an exhibition USA tour before the Olympics was going to start later on that year. The A team was in town for a game or a short stop and then on to Champaign for the event. It was quite some time ago and I don't recall where exactly they were to play. Anyway....

My specialty at the store was firearms. Now it was kind of slow and I was bored. I hear the front door opening and here they come. About a dozen of the tallest giants I have ever seen dressed in their Ruskie red sport outfits.

Immediately they gravitate over to the lightly lit up glass showcases full of handguns of all type where I'm standing. I don't speak Russian but they were jabbering away with excitement like kids in a candy store. The coach was no where in sight by the way.

The seven footer and a couple of others were really locked into one big one immediately in a presentation wood box. I couldn't help myself and said what the hell. I was really young back then. I pull it out and say two words. Dirty Harry. Yep it was a 6 1/2 inch 44 magnum revolver made famous by Clint in the movies. And they knew who I was talking about. So on that day for a very short period of time the Russian team got to handle one of Smith and Wessons finest. No international incident was reported. Ratsy
 
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2 stories regarding interactions with MLB pitchers in the 1990's.

I played in a golf outing near Waterloo that also included ex St Louis Cardinal Danny Cox. Baseball Reference lists him as 6"4" and 235 from his playing days. When I saw him, he had been retired for a few years and was a little heavier. Apparently, the rest of his foursome tried to match his hydration intake that day, which was a scorcher, and they each came back in very rough shape. On the other hand, Cox seemed completely unfazed at the end of 18 holes.

While with a friend in a bar, we recognized Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Clark who was from a small town about an hour from Springfield. Another big dude, possibly even bigger than Cox. My friend is a huge Cubs fan and eventually tried to strike up a conversation by asking Clark what it was like to pitch to Barry Bonds. Clark stopped drinking his beer only long enough to glare at him, say I'm not here to tell stories, and turn his back to us.
 
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I do have a story that places me in proximity to sports immortality. In the late '70s, Joe Dimaggiao's bother Dom came down from San Fran with his entourage to dine at an Italian restaurant in San Jose, where I was working as a humble waiter. When they sat in my section, I tried to give them the best service. They ate and drank lavishly, running up a huge bill, and the kicker is that they stiffed me. Didn't leave a dime. I later read a biography of Joltin' Joe and the book said he was really cheap, a trait I guess he shared with his brother.
 
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Silver Rain said:
I do have a story that puts me in proximity to sports immortality. In the late '70s, Joe Dimaggiao's bother Dom came down from San Fran with his entourage to an Italian restaurant in San Jose, where I was working as a humble waiter. Their table was assigned to me. Naturally, I tried to give them my best service. They ate and drank lavishly, running up a huge bill, and the kicker was that they stiffed me. Didn't leave a dime. I later read a biography of Joltin' Joe and the the book said he was really cheap, a trait I guess he shared with his brother.
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That's a good one.

15 years ago I was coaching football and one of our promising players failed to show up to one of the early season August practices. The next day he shows up, comes up to me with a big smile, and hands me a note. It read:

Dear Coach,

Please excuse (name of student) from practice yesterday. He was with me.

Mike Vick #7



This was when he was doing speaking engagements and working with kids as part of his getting out of the legal system and back into the NFL. Player went up and saw him at a nearby church or community center. I was so taken off guard that I couldn't even really be mad.
 
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I have thought since this thread first started that I may share my embarrassing football moment from my Junior year at JCA/JCHS on Live TV but I have decided that it is just too painful to write, maybe later on if this thread lasts a while.

I have another Wresting story though from my sophomore year at JC.

Wrestling season of 78/79. I had just started wresting on Varsity as a soph 2-3 weeks before as Heavy Weight. I was doing pretty well, I had like a 7-1, 8-2 record and it was just a week or 2 before Districts started. We had a regular dual meet against some school down south, IDK but it seemed like a really long drive.

When warmups started I noticed the other team wore big baby pins on their warmups, kind of like football helmet stickers, and my Heavy Weight opponent had like 40-50 of them running up and down the front of his warmup. No, that didn’t scare me, it just made me pissed and I labelled him a jerk in my mind.

When our match finally started at the end of the meet. I attacked pretty aggressively and did the typical heavy weight head to head lock up. Right away I tried a move from that position that never-ever works, I called it the head jerk take down. All heavy weights do it, but it never really works and basically just gives you a measure of your opponent’s strength and balance and any mildly decent wrestler will just counter it and nothing is gained.

Well, I did it perfectly at the just the right balance point and it actually worked and I quickly spun behind him for a 2-0 lead.

First thing: right away, I could tell he was really pissed and embarrassed.

Second thing: I spent the next 4-5 painful minutes, learning the hard way that he was: 1) Undefeated (all pins) and 2) he was the top rated heavy weight in Illinois, maybe even the Midwest.

He no longer just wanted to beat me and pin me, he was going to beat my ass and toy with me until he was bored and finish me off. FYI there were no Tech Falls back then (I think).

I think he was winning something like 28-2 when he finally finished me off with a pin.
 
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Kevin JCHS 81 said:
I have thought since this thread first started that I may share my embarrassing football moment from my Junior year at JCA/JCHS on Live TV but I have decided that it is just too painful to write, maybe later on if this thread lasts a while.

I have another Wresting story though from my sophomore year at JC.

Wrestling season of 78/79. I had just started wresting on Varsity as a soph 2-3 weeks before as Heavy Weight. I was doing pretty well, I had like a 7-1, 8-2 record and it was just a week or 2 before Districts started. We had a regular dual meet against some school down south, IDK but it seemed like a really long drive.

When warmups started I noticed the other team wore big baby pins on their warmups, kind of like football helmet stickers, and my Heavy Weight opponent had like 40-50 of them running up and down the front of his warmup. No, that didn’t scare me, it just made me pissed and I labelled him a jerk in my mind.

When our match finally started at the end of the meet. I attacked pretty aggressively and did the typical heavy weight head to head lock up. Right away I tried a move from that position that never-ever works, I called it the head jerk take down. All heavy weights do it, but it never really works and basically just gives you a measure of your opponent’s strength and balance and any mildly decent wrestler will just counter it and nothing is gained.

Well, I did it perfectly at the just the right balance point and it actually worked and I quickly spun behind him for a 2-0 lead.

First thing: right away, I could tell he was really pissed and embarrassed.

Second thing: I spent the next 4-5 painful minutes, learning the hard way that he was: 1) Undefeated (all pins) and 2) he was the top rated heavy weight in Illinois, maybe even the Midwest.

He no longer just wanted to beat me and pin me, he was going to beat my ass and toy with me until he was bored and finish me off. FYI there were no Tech Falls back then (I think).

I think he was winning something like 28-2 when he finally finished me off with a pin.
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Damn ... the other story is worse than that?

I am sorry, man. Whatever it is.
 
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Baseball umpiring story….

Always left my gear in the truck bed.

I was living on the 4th floor of a condo complex and to take the trash out consisted of going down 4 flights of stairs and then walking about 100yards through the basement parking garage to the dumpster. Got lazy one night and rather than walk the 100yards through the garage to the dumpster I dropped the garbage bag into my truck bed planning to throw it into the dumpster on my way out in the morning.

The next day I forgot about the garbage until I pulled up to my game and noticed the garbage bag mixed in with all my umpiring gear. It was 90 degrees that day and the garbage sat out all day in the sun mixing in with my gear. There was garbage juice everywhere.

I showed up at 415 for a 430 game and had no choice but to put all the garbage soaked gear on. My shirt was also soaked.

Within the first couple pitches of the game the catcher (about 14yrs old and extremely shy) turns around and says “Blue, I’m really sorry to say this but you smell really bad.” Just told him it was going to be a long game and I’m sorry buddy.

My partner laughed his head off the entire game and wouldn’t come near me.

I dry heaved countless times and the worst part was the gnats flying around my eyes the entire game.
 
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crusader_of_90 said:
Damn ... the other story is worse than that?

I am sorry, man. Whatever it is.
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LMAO. It probably won't sound worse to you guys, BUT it was definitely worse for me because it was football on Live TV and they kept showing it over and over again on instant replay. Thankfully I didn't really know they kept showing it on instant replay back then, because it was too painful to watch and I could never bring myself to watch the taped replay for 15-20 years. :)
 
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As a sophomore, I was one of four called up to Varsity, but one of two never expecting to play a down. Myself and the other 'no-play' guy always partnered in pregame stretching (these were all grass fields). We both made sure to help ourself and each other get as much grass-stain on our white pants as possible so that as we walked up and down the sideline during the game, our girlfriends and parents would see the dirt and assume we were playing in the game.
As a Junior, I was 4th on the Senior laden WR depth chart. I caught one pass all year...it was called back due to a Holding penalty.
Next season will be my 31st as an Official.
 
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Nothing impressive football wise...played DT at 150 pounds and was under a lot of piles.

Wrestling wise though, was part of Sterling's state wrestling team my junior year and undefeated dual meet regular season my senior year, though we ended up losing in the Team Sectional finals.
 
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