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Stories about pro-athletes you've met...

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sgabuck

Junior
That have left a lasting impression on you.

It's still the off-season, so I think this could be an interesting topic. Who are some of the pro-athletes (or not even pro, maybe a great college athlete you have met) that has left a permanent memory?

Mine would be Charlie Ward. From some of my other posts, you might know I was a sports writer at the Thomasville Times-Enterprise in Thomasville, Ga. Thomasville is Charlie Ward's hometown, and he comes back every summer to hold a basketball camp.

I had the priviledge to cover it last summer. Basically, I thought I was going to head over to it, talk to Charlie, talk to some of the kids and write my story and that would be it.

Every year, however, he'll invite the campers to his house afterwards for a barbeque. The last day of the camp, I got the stuff I needed for my story and thought...Ok, I got what I needed, I'll go back to the office and do my writeup. Charlie, though, was like what are you doing later on. I just said, going back to the office to do my story. He said, if you get a chance, come by my place and hang out with us. I said, "cool, I'll do that."

I get there and he introduces me to his family (I already knew his father pretty well, he's Thomas County Central HS's clock keeper during basketball season, and I would talk to him whenever I was at a game). But I met his mother and grandmother....his grandmother was one of those southern ladies who had to be in her 80's...But did she ever love to brag about Charlie...lol.

He introduced me to his wife, who is a lawyer in New York, and after talking to her, it was easy to see she really enjoyed going down to Thomasville for this event (actually, she gave me a lot of good quotes for my story too...:) )

It was amazing how down to earth he was. We're talking about a Heisman Trophy winner and a 10-year vet in the NBA. But once he got back home, he was just another person. They showed me around the place, and Charlie Sr., made sure to show me the "trophy room" he had for all of his kids. Most of the trophy's were Charlie's, but he also had all of Charlie's brothers and sisters HS trophys in there as well.

When I got there. I was thinking, it was cool that I hung out with a "Star". But by the time I left, I realized he wasn't that much different than anybody else.

With all the negative publicity a lot of athletes are getting, including some of OSU's, I thought it would be cool if other's shared their better experience with the so-called "Stars".

I was just reading some of the articles written about Charlie...and I think this one sums it up best.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/college/heisman/news/2000/09/24/charlie_ward/

My favorite quote is..."A devout Christian who spent evenings reading the Bible, Ward was cool ice surrounded by flamboyant fire. On a team of yappers, he led by quiet example. "I pick and choose when I want to talk," he says. "Guys respect you for that. Go out and do your job, and people will follow you."

That's Charlie.

If any of you have a story, feel free to share it. I would especially like to hear some stuff about some of past OSU guys. Unfortunetely, I haven't had the pleasure to meet any of the Woody Hayes', Eddie George's, Antoine Winfield's, Korey Stringer's...etc.
 
Wade Boggs 50+ beer night coming back from a West Coast trip. I have a pretty good source on that one (a former teammate that I am related to). It was classic that the guys on PTI actually asked about this over 10 years later. Boggs gave a no comment, but it is a classic story that has been told many times.

I met him on another occasion, but that story beats any personal meeting. If you don't know about it I will write more, but it is a pretty well known story.
 
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Nicky Sualua. He wasn't a pro athlete at the time - he still played at Ohio State. I went to school in Cleveland, and my freshman year we drove to Columbus to a bar that served "nickle pitchers." Someone on this board might know the name of the bar, but I can't. Anyway, Nicky Sualua was there, drunk out of his mind. He was pretty sloppy, too.

Anyway, Yertle was there with me, and he has a pretty funny story. I'll make him tell y'all his story.
 
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I have a lot of stories but most seem to happen in first class on planes.

When I first got out of school I was a traveling engineer flying United. I flew in and out of Cleveland and sat next to Paul Warfield a few times. He was always bringing guys in and out of Cleveland for tryouts etc. He was friendly guy.

I also flew next to Mike Shula. He was friendly but you could tell he was born into a different world than I was. Very privledged and expected white glove treatment.

I had posted before that Bill Cowher and his daughter were in NOLA for a basketball camp. They were riding in coach and the stewart moved them up to first class. There weren't any seats together so I go up and moved so they could sit together. He was very thankful and gracious.

I also played backyard football with Paul Campbell after he played in the NFL. He was huge.

I have met quite a few pro golfers also. I can't remember the guys name, he was the one that died in the runaway jet but I was supposed to get a golden retriever puppy from one of his litters. I never did get the pup.
 
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bucknola said:
I have met quite a few pro golfers also. I can't remember the guys name, he was the one that died in the runaway jet but I was supposed to get a golden retriever puppy from one of his litters. I never did get the pup.
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That would have been Payne Stewart, who died about 4 months after winning the US Open in 1999.
 
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I've met Santonio at Easton and earlier on I met everyone's favorite Reecie.

Both were extremely nice although Santonio spoke so softly that you could barely hear a word that he said. I heard he was soft-spoken but wow, the guy practically whispers.

When I lived in Columbus driving back from my then girlfriends' place at something ridiculous like 5:45 a.m. I saw Krenzel on High St. waiting for a ride (practice I'm sure) and I about pulled over to ask him if he wanted one but assumed he'd have probably declined. Would have made a great story. Nonetheless, my girlfriend had a couple ridiculous chemistry classes with him and said he is EXTREMELY nice.
 
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I worked for Sports agent Craig Domann as an intern and met a ton of guys. The guy I disliked the most was Scott Frost...he thought he was the coolest thing and was on the cover of Mens Health a year before or so.

Last year hung out with Chris Doering, Shane Mattews and Sage Rosenthal after the Ditka classic...All were married and all were hitting on anything that moved. Shane Matthews thought he was the shit as well but ended up getting the Heisman from a friend of mine when he tried to take her home.
 
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I was in a strip club in Orlando FLA long ago.
This tall black dude comes in. Wilt the Stilt Chamberlin. He had women all over him. We got to say hello before he was escorted to the VIP lounge. The guy I was with was a member of the club and had VIP access but not that night.

Where I work out there has been a few Saints players come and go. I am a big guy but some of these guys are huge. They also have injuries that I would not wish on anyone.
 
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I've met quite a few race car drivers... some (Mark Miller, Jeff Gordon) had some damn funny stories... mostly small fellas... 5'6 ish... 160 lbs...

I met all the Cavs from the Mark Price, Dougherty, Ehlo, Hot Rod, Nance days... Price was impeccable.. all were really good guys... Jimmy Oliver gave my oldest shooting lessons... it cost me.. but well worth it..

Met Bill Walton... not sure if he was good or phony...

now movie stars... I can ramble on those...
 
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I have told this story before.... But when Steve was being recruited in 2003, we went to the WSU night game. When we were walking to our seats, as most you know recruits walk from the buckeye entrance ramp, to the feild, then to their seats behind the bench, we ran into Eddie George. We stopped to say "hi" and Eddie noticed Steve name tag that they gives recruits. One of the first things out of Eddie's mouth was how Steve should come to tOSU. Before Eddie could finish selling tOSU Steve told him that he already commited. Next thing you know Eddie is shaking his hand and making Steve feel like one of the family. It was a pretty sweet experience.

Besides that I have met alot of other famous people. The Munoz family is one of the nicest families I know. I was in the same grade as Michael was and went to Moeller my frosh year.

I also had to the chance to work a Bob Huggins Golf Outing. I cant even begin to name the people I met there.
 
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Zurp said:
Nicky Sualua. He wasn't a pro athlete at the time - he still played at Ohio State. I went to school in Cleveland, and my freshman year we drove to Columbus to a bar that served "nickle pitchers." Someone on this board might know the name of the bar, but I can't. Anyway, Nicky Sualua was there, drunk out of his mind. He was pretty sloppy, too.

Anyway, Yertle was there with me, and he has a pretty funny story. I'll make him tell y'all his story.
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Buckeye Alley?
 
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I grew up in Daytona and met dozens of NASCAR drivers, but you asked about ATHLETES... (Richard Petty, Neil Bonnett, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Tim Richmond, Alan Kulwicki, Davey Allison, and Buddy Baker to name a few)

I've played golf with Dom Capers, HC of the Texans. I've talked to Shawn Springs a few times and every now and again on gamedays, former Buckeyes come into my lot enroute to the Woody. I've met Archie dozens of times.
 
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I read this one on a ND board. BTW A week or so late as I just got home from that park...

My 10 year-old son plays little league in Granger, Indiana (for the non-Hoosiers on the board, that's just northeast of South Bend). We were at a game about a week ago when I saw someone standing all by himself against the fence that ran down the left field line watching the game that my son was in. I thought this person looked an awful lot like Charlie Weis. But it was one of those things where you think it can't be Charlie Weis because what would he be doing watching my son's little league game? At any rate, it turned out that it indeed WAS Coach Weis, and he was waiting to watch his own son practice on the field that my son was currently playing on. His game ran late and Charlie was just waiting until the previous game finished up. I exchanged hellos with the coach. But what I'll never forget is the look on my son's face (and the faces of his teammates) when I went to the side of the dugout and told them that Charlie Weis was watching their game. And he was there for a good 3+ innings just standing by himself and watching baseball. As luck would have it, my son was playing left field one inning and made a good running catch of a fly ball to end an inning. This happened right in front of Charlie. When my son approached the coach after the game to ask him for his autograph, Charlie said to my son Andrew, "I should be asking you for YOUR autograph after that catch you made." I can't tell you how proud that made my little guy. I suspect that's a story he'll be telling his grandkids. Charlie then signed his mitt and shook his hand. He's definitely a class act. Go Irish!<!--MESSAGE-->
 
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When I was stationed at Ft. Bragg I went to the main PX because I was told that there was a great sale on the razors that I liked. Well. parked in front of the PX was Richard Petty's car. I'm not into racing but I wanted to have a look at the car. I saw that the headlights were actually just stickers that looked like lights. That struck me as funny and I laughed a little about it. Next thing I know this tall goofy looking man in a cowboy hat comes up to ask what was so funny. I tod him that it seemed kind of silly to put headlight stickers on your car and made some kind of joke about what if one of them goes out. The guy kind of laughed about that and agreed that it was a silly thing to do but rules were rules. He shook my hand and asked if I had anything he could write on, I guess for an autograph but to be honest I thought he was trying to hit on me. I politely said no and that I was in a bit of a hurry. As it turns out, that was Richard Petty. He was doing some kind of tour thing because he was retiring. The only other experience I've ever had with an athlete was the time Hulk Hogan stuck his hand down my pants asked to see the little Hulkamanic, but that's a story for another time.
 
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