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What is Your Favorite Football or Sports Autograph? Here are Mine.


TreatyOak

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Please share your favorite sports autograph and tell us the story. Here are my three faves:

I had the extreme honor of shooting a commercial with Tom Landry for MCI. (Remember them?) I tied it to his history of flying a B-17 in WW2. Got to spend two days with him and hear his stories, plus the B-17 was awesome. Here is a page of the storyboard that I had him sign. You can see that the storyboard was approved by his son. He told me that if he could have kept Duane Thomas happy, he would have won two more Super Bowls.

Auto-Tom-72.jpg

 

My wife used to do the PR for Jack Daniels. She publicized the Jack Daniels Barbecue Cook-offs and got John Stallworth to be a judge. We had a long-time pickup football game in NYC so he drew me his favorite play on the judging scorecard!

Auto-John-72.jpg

 

I ran into old KC coach Hank Stram in NYC at a copy center trying to photocopy the lineup for an NFL game that he was announcing. We talked about him in the NFL Films Super Bowl video. I always remembered the play he scored with (cause he says it about a 100 times on the sidelines - 65 Toss Power Trap) so he drew it up for me:

Auto-Hank-72.jpg

 

Anyway, those are mine. Please share one that you love. Thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jesus. Grew up in Wichita and remember watching him play vs the Wings. 

I have two...both handed down from my dad. One is a Barry sanders autograph that he got around Wichita and the other was a ken Griffey jr rookie card and autographed ball that he gave me when I moved away from Wichita as a kid. They are nice reminders of him.

 

I still need to go back to Wichita and clear out a small storage locker that I had to leave all of his baseball cards if after he passed. What the hell do you do with 10 tubs of that stuff and no clue what has a value?

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This is actually my brothers but i got it for him. If y'all remember back at the old Arlington Stadium you could stand by the gate as the players left. Well everyone was about gone and we see Juan Gonzalez walking and talking to someone. We look over and the gate is open but my brother (10, might have been younger) was too scared to go up to him. So i (12) take the card and walk through the gate, walk up to Juan and ask him for his autograph. He looks at me, chunks his coke to the ground and signs the card without saying a word. I say thank you and run off.

As i got older and talked about that story, i always thought "what a cocksucker Juan was" 

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Spin off into Celebrity encounters.. I have a couple. 

CSB #1 My buddy used to work the door @ Rain in the Palms.. So me and a friend were up in the VIP area hanging out. We take the elevator down and as soon as the door opens I'm about 5 feet from Derek Jeter as hes in line to go up the elevator. This was during the peak Yankee years and the Astros had just signed the Rocket. I go into a drunk filled rant screaming and yelling at him. The guy literally barely looked my direction which annoyed me even more and shortly after security ushered me away. 

 

CSB #2 Was at the Mandalay Bay for the Jones/Tarver fight.  After you walk inside the events center If you stand at the main entrance every celebrity that wants to be seen comes in thru that entrance so everybody can stare.  Well for that particular fight everywhere you looked in the concession area was an athlete or celebrity hanging out talking with fans taking pics etc. All of a sudden you see people start rushing to the entrance.. It's Lebron who at the time was in his Rookie year. As he gets closer i realize how large this 18 year old kid is.  He has an entourage of about 10 guys surrounding him. I whip out my flip phone for a picture.. One of his bodyguards bumps me and says no pictures as i spill my $15 Crown and seven all over my shirt. From that day forward I have always hated Lebron. 

Side notes.. Randy Couture is a dick, Tito Ortiz and Ben Affleck are awesome.. Willie Mcginest is a large human. Peter Warrick is tiny.. Jamie Pressley is gorgeous. Mike Tyson is scary.. Michael Jordan commands a room like no other

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1 hour ago, Tylerocks said:

I got Mickey Mantle's autograph at a card show when I was 12 or so.  I was wearing a Baseball Hall of Fame T-shirt....and he said "Nice shirt, kid."  I remember like it was yesterday.

This is so perfect it doesn't even sound like a real story. 

Is this a real story? 

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My neighbor’s daughter is married to Jim’s son.  Who is a brilliant musician and DJ.  They know what a huge Longhorn fan and saw him play at Texas so they asked him to sign it and gave it to me for Christmas.  Jim said he had never signed a hat before so it is likely one of a kind!

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2 minutes ago, ztejas said:

This is so perfect it doesn't even sound like a real story. 

Is this a real story? 

:)  Yes, ha.

One of those Tri-star type shows at some old hotel/ballroom in the late 80;s.  Pay a fee and line up like cattle.  I bought an 8x10 photo of him at the show and that's what he signed.  I was just surprised he said anything, given they were kind of just passing us along.

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Back in 99 or so, I caught a line drive off the bat of Pudge Rodriguez at the Ballpark. Hell of a snag. Anyway, it took damn near 20 years but I finally got him to sign the ball. Unfortunately, the message to write “Nice catch” in Spanish wasn’t conveyed. Need to see about that. Would also be cool to have Jamie Moyer sign it. He was the Seattle pitcher that threw it.

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Got a ball signed by Andres "Big Cat" Galaraga.  Signed after he fought, and beat, the same type of cancer that killed my dad. It was that, and not his athletic achievements, which then made him a hero of sorts to me.

 

Oh, and fuck cancer.

Edited by Buffsoldier
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23 hours ago, TreatyOak said:

Please share your favorite sports autograph and tell us the story. Here are my three faves:

I had the extreme honor of shooting a commercial with Tom Landry for MCI. (Remember them?) I tied it to his history of flying a B-17 in WW2. Got to spend two days with him and hear his stories, plus the B-17 was awesome. Here is a page of the storyboard that I had him sign. You can see that the storyboard was approved by his son. He told me that if he could have kept Duane Thomas happy, he would have won two more Super Bowls.

Auto-Tom-72.jpg

 

My wife used to do the PR for Jack Daniels. She publicized the Jack Daniels Barbecue Cook-offs and got John Stallworth to be a judge. We had a long-time pickup football game in NYC so he drew me his favorite play on the judging scorecard!

Auto-John-72.jpg

 

I ran into old KC coach Hank Stram in NYC at a copy center trying to photocopy the lineup for an NFL game that he was announcing. We talked about him in the NFL Films Super Bowl video. I always remembered the play he scored with (cause he says it about a 100 times on the sidelines - 65 Toss Power Trap) so he drew it up for me:

Auto-Hank-72.jpg

 

Anyway, those are mine. Please share one that you love. Thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My mom was staying at the Waldorf Astoria in late summer 1993 and ran into Emmitt Smith there in the lobby (this was while he was in his hold out that ended after 2 games prior to their 1993-1994 second Super Bowl season of the triplets) . Apparently he was really friendly with her they talked a bit about the hold out and he signed a piece of Waldorf Astoria stationary the concierge gave my mom. She gave it to me....it's pretty cool since there is a story with it and it's on a piece of paper from one of the more famous hotels in the world.  

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I used to own a card shop here in Austin.  I sold it to a friend who moved it to North Carolina.  He invited me up to check it out 6 months later and at the end of the day we were back at his place drinking on the back porch when I saw some bright lights in the distance.  I asked what that and he replied it's garbage.  Said it was minor league baseball.  I insisted we go check it out.  Turned out to be the Piedmont Bollweevils.  They had a guy in left field named Ricky Williams.  I as always was wearing my UT hat.  I got to talk to him in the parking lot and he signed as much stuff as I gave him.  We told him about the shop and talked sports, mostly Texas football and the Hawaii game.

In the third inning of that game Ricky fouled a pitch some 30 feet high into the fence right behind the catcher.  I was eyeballing it all game long and even went right up to it after the game.  I just didn't know how I was going to get it.  At that moment some little 12 gear old Forrest Gump clone offered to climb up there and get it for a few bucks.  Best money I ever spent.  That night my friend and I got drunk in celebration.  We arrived late to his shop the next day.  There was a note from Ricky Williams.  He came by to check it out and sign more stuff.  We blew it.  I went from cloud nine to crash and burn in mere seconds.  That day was rough.  I did go back to the stadium and buy every Piedmont team set they had thinking  I would see Ricky one more time but I did not.  Turns out those team sets had 2 Ricky cards.  The regular card of Ricky and the Heisman trophy pose card.  I was happy again.  Ricky has been my favorite horn ever since.

 

 

Edited by Snotrocket
My typing sucks
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I live in the town where Roddrick Muckleroy is from.

Every so often the high school purges old jerseys and offers them to be purchased by the students. My son was playing high football at that time and my younger nephew was a ball boy for the high school at the time since he was in junior high at the time.

My nephew bought Roddrick's old high school jersey.

One week Roddrick was at home for a Friday night game and was on the sideline. My nephew told Roddrick that he had his old jersey and he wished he had it with him so that he could sign it since Roddrick was signing other things. Roddrick asked where my nephew lived and said that he would swing by the next day to sign it. Sure enough he came by the next day and hung out with the boys for about an hour signing stuff, taking pics and just talking to my son, nephews, sister and BIL.

Never got Josh Cochran to sign anything but he would come by the house from time to time because his girlfriend was good friends with my daughter (no pics).

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On 7/12/2019 at 10:10 AM, TreatyOak said:

Please share your favorite sports autograph and tell us the story. Here are my three faves:

I had the extreme honor of shooting a commercial with Tom Landry for MCI. (Remember them?) I tied it to his history of flying a B-17 in WW2. Got to spend two days with him and hear his stories, plus the B-17 was awesome. Here is a page of the storyboard that I had him sign. You can see that the storyboard was approved by his son. He told me that if he could have kept Duane Thomas happy, he would have won two more Super Bowls.

Auto-Tom-72.jpg

 

My wife used to do the PR for Jack Daniels. She publicized the Jack Daniels Barbecue Cook-offs and got John Stallworth to be a judge. We had a long-time pickup football game in NYC so he drew me his favorite play on the judging scorecard!

Auto-John-72.jpg

 

I ran into old KC coach Hank Stram in NYC at a copy center trying to photocopy the lineup for an NFL game that he was announcing. We talked about him in the NFL Films Super Bowl video. I always remembered the play he scored with (cause he says it about a 100 times on the sidelines - 65 Toss Power Trap) so he drew it up for me:

Auto-Hank-72.jpg

 

Anyway, those are mine. Please share one that you love. Thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OP I thought you were a young whippersnapper with your photoshopping wizardry.  Got damn.  And CSB...

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I had just finished working the lunch shift at Dominic's in El Paso circa 1995 when my buddy and I headed over to our usual cheap drink spot at Kazi's Bar & Grill. It was early afternoon so there wasn't maybe 4 people (including the bar staff) in the whole joint. I was chugging down $1 Tecate number 4 or 5 when in walked this enormous human being. I turned to my buddy and exclaimed "Dude, that's Randy White!" Buddy justifiedly replied "What in the fuck would Randy White be doing here?"

I knew who it was though. So when Randy sat down at a table with a bunch of Miller Lite shit I went over to introduce myself. I apologized for bothering him and explained I just wanted to shake his hand and say thank you for the great memories. He shook my hand and said he was glad to meet a fan. He was there doing promotional shit for Miller and offered to sign anything I wanted. I ran home and got a Cowboys jacket and mini-helmet for him to sign along with a bunch of 3x5 cards they had at the bar. He was more than happy to sign everything and talk about the good ol' days. He had just gotten into the NFL Hall of Fame the year before and signed everything "HOF '94".

I've met a handful of other Cowboys but Randy's the only one I got to sign stuff. I've also got a Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson signed photograph of the "Hail Mary Catch" that I saw at one of the Cowboy's San Antonio preseason camps that I just couldn't pass on and paid cash for it.      

Edited by Texas007
words words words
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I got Barry Bonds' autograph after a Giants game at PacBell in 2002, that was pretty awesome for a young teenager. I remember watching the Texas-South Carolina national championship game in the hotel in San Francisco on that same trip. Good times.

My mom and I stumbled across an Earl Campbell book signing on the Riverwalk, so I got an autographed copy of The Tyler Rose and a photo with a true legend. 

I have a football signed by most of the 2003 Texas team, including Roy Williams and BJ Johnson. That one is pretty special to me, too.

A long time ago, my mom met Tom Landry at a Special Olympics event she was volunteering at and got him to sign a Special Olympics folder for me.

Not on the same level, but I met Andy Murray and Milos Raonic at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2014 and got autographs from each of them, too. I was so close to getting a Federer one but he went the other way at the last minute.

The best one, though, has to be the Texas basketball poster I got signed by Vince Young when he was on his official visit as a senior in high school. I remember the crowd giving him a standing ovation  I think he committed like 2 days later.

Gosh, this makes it sound like I'm an autograph chaser, but I've really just been in the right place at the right time for the vast majority of them. The only ones I really tried for were Bonds and VY, but even VY's wasn't really more than walking up to him.

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2 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

OP I thought you were a young whippersnapper with your photoshopping wizardry.  Got damn.  And CSB...

Haha! I own a small marketing company and if you aren't always learning relevant technology, you won't succeed. Also, a very wise person once told me, "Embrace technology and you'll never grow old." Cheers. 

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4 hours ago, EuroHorn said:

 

This is amazing. Thanks so much for finding it. Can't believe it's online, lulz. A big, Dallas rainstorm blew in, delaying the shoot for two days. It caused Tom to miss his grandson's game on the Saturday and he was not happy and let me know it. But, it was still an amazing experience to spend those days with him. 

I had a much better idea for the commercial but his son wouldn't approve it. It was just after Tom was let go by Dallas and we wanted Tom in front of 15 monitors with 15 phones watching every pro game and calling plays for every team. It would have been really funny. Oh, well.   

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My Dad played for the Horns (60-63) and he invited my son and I to the “breakfast with the Horns” prior to the Baylor game in ‘08.

Prior to arriving, I bought my son a UT autograph book, and when we entered the field house for b-fast, my dad immediately saw some old teammates in an area and went over to that area of tables. My son and I in the buffet line, I tell him to go get autographs of some Longhorns. He’s a 9 yr old and comes back to me frustrated, so I ask him why? He said he didn’t see any Longhorns - he thought we were having b-fast with the current team!

I asked to go find his grandpa and get the autographs of all at his grandpa’s table - including Tommy Nobis, Tommy Ford, David McWilliams, and Ed Padgett (enshrined into the Ring of Honor that day). Upon arriving with our food, I asked how many autographs did you get? He said None as I looked at that seated table, so I asked why not these and he said they were just a bunch of old guys!!!! They all laughed, which I promptly sent his book around the table to be signed!

The only person he was glad to get was Roger Clemens, who signed his “football” book of autographs.

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In 2002 or so I ran into OJ at a casino in Vegas.  People were getting autographs from him.  That was not good enough for me.  Went into the gift shop and bought a disposable camera and had a friend take my pic with him.  I put it on a Christmas card and sent it to my friends that year with the caption "Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men".  Some people thought it was hilarious and others told me it was in bad taste.

Framed it and put on my desk in my office.  I have a real shit eating grin on my face in the pic kind of like "I am going to have some fun with this".   People get a kick out of it.

By the way, he must have the biggest head of any other human.  I don't mean that he was full of himself.  I mean his head is almost too big for his body..

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On 7/12/2019 at 4:46 PM, BERT said:

This is actually my brothers but i got it for him. If y'all remember back at the old Arlington Stadium you could stand by the gate as the players left. Well everyone was about gone and we see Juan Gonzalez walking and talking to someone. We look over and the gate is open but my brother (10, might have been younger) was too scared to go up to him. So i (12) take the card and walk through the gate, walk up to Juan and ask him for his autograph. He looks at me, chunks his coke to the ground and signs the card without saying a word. I say thank you and run off.

As i got older and talked about that story, i always thought "what a cocksucker Juan was" 

You realize he didn’t speak a word of English, right?

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Got rid of a bunch of my UK stuff when I was packing for our move to NY from Texas, went through some of my Dad's stuff and came across a couple of programs from IBM dinners when they had guest speakers and found a couple of signatures from Red Auerbach and Fran Tarkenton.   My mother owned a signed ball from Johnny Bench but we've not been able to find it after her passing, no idea what happened to it.  

Edited by Underdog
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I have the ‘82 Cowboys on a football, to include Tom Landry. Door Prize of the Cotton Bowl Breakfast the day prior to the SMU vs Pitt game. I got the the whole Pony Express to sign the days program and after I showed it proudly to my Dad, he stated that I needed to go get that tall guys autograph over there talking to reporters - Marino! As a kid, I really didn’t know of him, but Dad stated that that would “complete” the signing of the day, so I did. Eric Dickerson and Dan Marino on the same program - who would’ve known?

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