"I Met a Famous Person and Here's My Story" Thread

[houstonherdfan]

Well, before he was famous, I was a graduate Teach asst with Randy Moss in my class.

He did decently, but had he tried harder would prolly have been a pretty good student.

[Mookie4ever]

I was once in the bleachers of Olympic Stadium, it was pretty deserted except for me and my roommate (a cute girl) and some guys beside us who were giving Barry Bonds a really hard time. Barry started talking back to them and after catching a fly ball he turned to them and made like he was going to toss it to them, he asked them whether they wanted it then he tossed it to my roommate a few seats over from them.

Another time a buddy and I had seats right behind home plate at Skydome for a game against the Mariners. It was a close game and Billy Koch came out to close it. My friend started talking smack to Mark McLemore in the ondeck circle asking him if an old man like him could hit a 100mph fastball. Mark got pissed and turned around and said that he could hit it over the fence. Well he got up and hit a hundred mph fastball and cleared the bases with a triple or a double. He later came in to score and pointed to my friend and said "that was for you". My friend yelled back "You didn't hit a homer. You said that you were going to hit a homer. " The Jays lost.

[biju]

I was actually pretty decent acquaintances with Dave Abbruzzese, the old drummer for Pearl Jam. He has about a million great stories from when they were on the road, and absolutely none that can be posted here.

I've met all of the guys from Alice in Chains and had "drinks and other stuff" with Layne and Jerry after a small concert they did before Dirt released. We met them because the venue they were at didn't have security or even a rail at the front of the stage. My friend and I made our way to the front while they played "It Ain't Like That" and during the solo my friend asked if he could sing the last verse. Layne told him "You'll make a fool of yourself" to which my friend said he wouldn't and knew the lyrics. Layne pulled him on stage and he jammed with the guys (including Jerry realizing he could sing and actually doing the harmony while Layne poured beer over his head).

After the show we found out they were staying at the hotel next door and met up with them at the hotel bar. (I was 17 at the time so the bartender clearly didn't care about age.) Layne mentioned that he should "kick my friend's ass for singing better than [Layne]" and then bought us drinks. We spent a better part of the night partying with those guys and the members of a local band named "Gruntruck" who were favorites or ours after that night. (And yes, that's probably as far as I can take that story too.)

I've got quite a few of those stories as I grew up in Seattle's grunge days and met most of those guys--they were all pretty cool and relatively normal people.

Others: Sam Perkins, Gary Payton, Clive Barker, Bruce Campbell, and a great story about Jeff Bezos right after the 2001 Seattle earthquake that I'll save for a different time.

[flotsamnjetsam]

After reading about an interaction with Don Shula in the GC forum, I thought this might be a good idea to have a thread where people can tell their stories, good and bad, about how they met an athlete, coach, TV star, movie star, president, whatever.

My post started an entire thread!


For those that didn't see my post in the GC forum:

Sidenote story on the 1982 championship game in the mud in Miami. To this day, there are Jets fans who blame Don Shula for the muddy field. The Dolphins didn't cover the field during the week. Some Jets fans still think that Don Shula did that on purpose to slow down the Jets. If he did...it obviously worked. The Jets couldn't do anything vs the killer B's defense & they lost 14-0. I was very happy when the 49ers beat the Dolphins in SB 19.

So when I 1st moved to Florida I was living in the West Palm Beach area, and I was working at a golf resort. Don Shula has a bunch of steakhouses and they were opening one up inside the golf resort. Don Shula & his sons came a few days early to get some lessons and play some golf. I worked in the bagroom/cart room & when golfers finished their rounds, we'd go clean their clubs and then bring their clubs wherever they needed them. I was working with a bunch of Dolphins fans & they were all scared to talk to him! I've met a bunch of celebrities (I met & talked to Joe Namath for 1/2 hour while he was waiting for Don Maynard at this same resort), and I've never been nervous around any of them.

So I knew that I had to ask Don Shula about the mud in the 1982 championship game. When he finished one of his rounds I went over and started cleaning his clubs. After I was done he was still sitting in the cart adding up the scores. This is EXACTLY what I said:

"Coach, I've been a Jets fan my whole life. I just moved down to Florida recently, and I have a question for you."

Without any hesitation he said "I didn't make the field muddy on purpose!"

I just started laughing because I didn't even get the question out! He also said "you Jets fans, it's either that or SB 3 (Jets beat the Colts who were coached by Shula)".

He went on to say that his team was really fast so the mud didn't help his team either. I told my friends the story and most of them don't believe him. They say "It's the lie/same story he's been telling forever...that's why you didn't need to ask the question!".


I don't think I ever posted that story so enjoy! They're 2 of my favorite stories (meeting Shula & Namath).

More stories to follow...when I'm more awake.

[Munboy]

Kevin Greene - Cool dude
Archy Manning - Big grouch
Alge Crumpler - Nice guy, likes to hug the ladies

Bubby Brister - Signed a hat
Several other Steelers from 1990 that I don't remember....sat on the sidelines during a Steelers/Saints game in NO...Sometimes, it paid to be a band geek (Steelers won 9-6)

My wife met Garrison Hearst (wish I could have, big fan) She brought a couple of my cards to sign. He asked why I picked those cards, my wife said "because they're worth the most" Gotta love honesty.

Most of you will go "Who?" But I met Brandon Sanderson. He was at the local Waldenbooks before he hit it big in the fantasy novel circles. There was nobody else there, so he signed a copy of a book and chatted with us for awhile, more than willing to answer our questions about getting published.

I had a passing acquaintance with Randell Godfrey in high school. He was a couple years ahead of me, but we had a class together.

Passed Kobe Bryant in the Houston airport...he had a long line of teens following him through the airport. He didn't look happy

That's all I can think of. Growing up in Backwater, Georgia and living in Backwaters, Ohio and Backwaters, Idaho do not lead to many celebrity encounters.

Oh, one more....i don't know if he counts as a celebrity, but he's done comedy clubs around the country, but my wife's cousin is Todd Johnson.

http://www.toddjohnsoncomedy.com/Site/HOME.html

That's it.

[joejlitz]

Garrison Hearst cards are worth money?

[lmcjaho]

Most of you will go "Who?" But I met Brandon Sanderson. He was at the local Waldenbooks before he hit it big in the fantasy novel circles. There was nobody else there, so he signed a copy of a book and chatted with us for awhile, more than willing to answer our questions about getting published.

He's the guy that is finishing the Robert Jordan series The Wheel of Time now that ole Roberts passed on to greener (hopefully for him) pastures. If it weren't for that I wouldn't know who he is either...

[Munboy]

Most of you will go "Who?" But I met Brandon Sanderson. He was at the local Waldenbooks before he hit it big in the fantasy novel circles. There was nobody else there, so he signed a copy of a book and chatted with us for awhile, more than willing to answer our questions about getting published.

He's the guy that is finishing the Robert Jordan series The Wheel of Time now that ole Roberts passed on to greener (hopefully for him) pastures. If it weren't for that I wouldn't know who he is either...

Indeed he is. But I'm not a fan of the WOT series. If you're into fantasy books, you should pick up his Mistborn trilogy. Good reads.

[knapplc]

Just about every month I run into Bo Pelini, Coach of the Huskers, here in Lincoln. We frequent the same coffee shop, and I'll see him coming in as I'm going out, or vice versa.

Every time it's the same. I say, "Hey, Coach." He says, "Hey." That's about it. He's not exactly a chatty guy, and although he's cordial, my experience has not been this guy:

[Metroid]

Just about every month I run into Bo Pelini, Coach of the Huskers, here in Lincoln. We frequent the same coffee shop, and I'll see him coming in as I'm going out, or vice versa.

Every time it's the same. I say, "Hey, Coach." He says, "Hey." That's about it. He's not exactly a chatty guy, and although he's cordial, my experience has not been this guy:

Yeah When I lived in Eugene I ran into Coach Mike Bellotti quite a few times. Once at a Ducks basketball game I was standing in line at a concession stand and he was waiting in front of me, the line was rather long and we chatted a bit about Oregon's basketball team and then the upcoming football season. He was really nice and down to earth. I even asked if I could snap a photo with him and he accepted without hesitation. Really cool guy. I cannot for the life of me find the photo though, another buddy was in the pic too. I wonder if he still has it.

I've met a lot of former Ducks, some have had success after leaving Oregon, some not so much. I briefly met Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, and Onterio Smith at various spot around town. Ran into Demetrius Williams, and Igor Olshanksy (seperaely) at a gas station. There's a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

I didn't meet him but we pulled up next to Ahhnold in his old Hummer with the top off in LA once, before he was the Governator. His head stuck up above the windshield. I thought that was pretty funny.

I met John Denver at Yosemite back in the day. I forget exactly how old I was, somewhere between 7 and 12 probably. He was doing a small show in the park, I think at half dome....or wherever the outdoor amphitheater is. He invited all the kids on stage and us sing along to a bunch of kids tunes. It was cheesy I'm sure but I remember it pretty vividly and fondly.