I went to Cowboys training camp in San Antonio yesterday.And After practice people were like bloodthirsty animals just trying to get an autograph from anyone i man anyone. Anyways I luckily was there when Emmitt started signing autographs. i was trying to give Emmitt my hat from the stands but it fell. and some security guard picked it up. i was like Oh NO!! my cap that i just bought is gone. Well he picked it up and had it in his hands for awhile i didnt think he was going to give it back. Well believe it or not he gave it to EMmitt. Emmitt then signed it and gave it to me. That was the first time a profressional athlete had ever autographed something for me and it was just an awesome feeling. Who gave u ur first autograph and how did u feel. And if someone other than the first athlete has given u the auto who was it and how did u feel?
Wow! That seemed pretty cool. I got real close to getting several Cowboy autographs, but I couldn't get the nerve up to ask. I stayed at the hotel that the cowboys stayed at before the scrimmage. My 2 cousins, my friend and I thought we should check it out to see if we could found any of them, but we didn't really expect to see any. Well while we were going down in an elevator, the cowboys Sp teams coach walked in. If you've see him, he looks pretty mean, so that's why we didn't ask him. We did follow him a little, and it looked like he was talking to Jerry Jones, but I'm wasn't sure. My friend also saw Campo in an elevator later, but he wasn't in it. Later we were getting into another elevator and 4 or 5 cowboy players were in it! A few notables were Larry Allen and Peppi Zellner. It seemed to crowded, especially with LA, to ask for one. On our last sighting, we got in in elevator with a nobody, or so I thought. But going down, Greg Ellis walks in and starts talking to the guy. I think he may have been a trainer or something. So we saw 2 coaches, maybe the owner, and about 5 or 6 cowboys and got no autographs. Gosh, what a waste! And I had paper and a pen in my pocket!
Back in the day, at memorial city mall, I got an astros shirt autographed by bagwell, caminiti, and Eric Yelding. Also, got Robert Horry's autograph at the mall, too. I think these were promotional things the stores/ mall did back in the day. I still have that shirt, i think. Too bad cammy has admitted to all the roids. It takes the luster off of having a shirt autographed by two NL MVP's.
My first autograph ended up being a lot more than one. I ended up being able to go back into the vancouver canucks dressing room back in 1994 (the year that they made it to the cup finals). Met with trevor linden, pavel bure, kirk mclean and other vancouver legends. My 2nd major autograph awesome thing was when i was allowed back where the wives and stuff waited for the players after the Grizzlies game in 1997. The ironic thing (since i'm not a HUGE rockets fan, never have been, but ironic since this is a Rockets board) is that not only did i get some Vancouver Grizzlies autographs (bryant reeves, shareef, greg anthony), but i also met clyde drexler, charles barkley, and the dream. Greatest autograph of all time - Wayne Gretzky 3 times. Stranges autograph of all time - Waiting outside a porta pottie at a CART race in vancouver when i was about 12 and having Paul Tracy being the one coming out. I quickly pulled out a picture of him and got him to sign...the only thing he said was after signing..."whoa, that was weird" (cuz it was his racing teams porta pottie, i just snuck behind cuz i had to go pee). Coolest Moment surrounding autograph - I beat Brent Price in a one of those arcade free throw competitions (mini ball, mini hoop) at a Golf Tournament in Vancouver right after he got traded to vancouver from Houston (i think). Because i beat him, i won tickets to a sac kings game and, well, beat him. I also beat Stu Jackson there on the same day. I was about 15 then...it was one of the raddest days of my life, i was the best mini free thrower there.
My first (and only so far) autograph was from everyone in Papa Roach, they were really cool and even autographed this CD-R that some girl wanted them to sign.
First autograph was from Clutch the bear. I don't know how he can sign autographs with those hugs paws of his. It was after a Rockets game one night. I also got Clyde Drexler's autograph while shooting some educational commercial with him. It always feels cool to get an autograph.
I got former MTV VeeJay Martha Quinn's autograph once. I thought that was cool. I think that was my first famous person autograph I got in person. Being in Dallas, there's always some Cowboy somewhere signing autographs. I know I've gotten Drew Pearson's and Robert Jones' autographs just by happening to be at whatever mall they were making an appearance at the same time they were making their appearance. Most importantly, though, Earl Campbell made an appearance in Amarillo once, and I got to briefly meet him. Didn't think to ask for an autograph, though. I almost met Ozzy once. My parents went to Oklahoma City somewhere for a vacation while I was in high school. They invited me along, but I declined. When they walked into the hotel, though, there were a bunch of long-haired, freaky people standing around the lobby. My father was aghast, but my step-mother was sure they were with a band and decided to go up and ask who they were. She got Ozzy's autograph for me on the spot. Still have it somewhere. I most regret not getting Stevie Ray Vaughn's autograph back in the mid-'80s. I saw him at Love Field while I was waiting for a flight. He was alone and just hanging around the terminal waiting for somebody. He was famous enough for me to know who he was back then, but not so famous that the average schmuck off the street would have heard of him. He walked by me several times, but I never stopped him. Don't guess I'm going to get another chance to get that autograph from him. There's been a bunch of people whom I've had the nerve to go meet but didn't bother to ask for autographs from. Folks like our current President (though he was just some guy running for Governor at the time) and Art Linkletter and.... well, I know there are others, but I can't think of any (other than all the NFL owners and Mike Ovitz, Ed Roski and Eli Broad who I saw in Chicago.. and Bob McNair, who is an NFL owner now, but wasn't then. But I don't know that anyone would want the autograph of an NFL owner.... unless it was on a sizeable check, of course). I did run down Jack Kemp and get an autograph when I saw him at DFW airport. I'm sure he was thrilled about that. Some goofy guy bothering him while he was sitting down to make a phone call. Probably only had a few minutes to call his wife and tell her he loved her before he had to rush to his connecting flight, but instead of getting to make that call, some goofball was trying to make conversation and asking for an autograph.
My dad took me and my brother to 3-4 games in old 3 rivers stadium every year. I was always a huge Steve Garvey fan so after he went to the Padres in the early 80's we went to see the Padres play and I was standig near the foul line waiting for Steve to come out and sign. Wow those were the good old days when players would actually take 10 minutes before the game to sign things! Any how a rather pudby young Padre came out tot he line and started chatting and signing everything in sight. I thought he was pretty funny so I gave him the ball. Later I had Steve sign it as well. I never thought a whole lot about it because I probably have 6-7 balls with Garvey's autograph. But a few years later I was looking at all of them and the ball had not only Steve Garvey's signature but also Tony Gwynn! So I thought it was pretty cool that a rookie like Gwynn who noone really knew was trying to make such a good impression witht he fans. Always has been and always will be a class act!
My first auto was Kenny Bernstein. Drag racing autos are pretty easy to get and I ended up getting a ton of autos that day. I think they have to sign for a certain time each day, because some don't seam to happy to do it (even for the under 8 crowd) and set up start and stop times. I got Don Prudome's (stuck up guy), Don Garlits' (nice guy), John Force's (nice guy), Joe Gibbs' (nice guy), Warren Johnson's, Cruz and Tony Pedregon's, Shelly Anderson's (nice lady), Larry Dixon's and many others. The only other sport autos I have is a Willie Mays card that I paid $8 to have him sign at a card show - I wish I would have had him sign a ball instead.
My first autograph was Jeff Sellers from the Boston Redsox. My most interesting story is Luis Gonzalez.
my first autograph was by Al del Greco on an old school Starter Houston Oilers cap from 1991. Shows how much I cared about the autograph, since I started wearing the cap again on a regular basis, after displaying it in my room for 6 months.
I guess my first was Dave Smith at an Astros game. I also got Glenn Davis to sign a card at that very same game. I got Micky Mantle like 12 years ago at a show in Houston. Also have Maury Wills, Hank Aaron, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Ricky Henderson, Ken Griffy Jr, Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan and Gary Sheffield. All on their own baseballs and all in person. Football: Emmit Smith, Drew Peerson, Charles Haley, Russel Maryland, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Jerome Bettis, Bill Bates, Jimmy Johnson, and a few others I can't think of. Mostly on pictures...but the Emmit is on a ball. Basketball: entire 1988 Houston Rockets on a ball (Akeem, not Hakeem), Robert Horry, Steve Francis, Cuttino, Patrick Ewing, Sam Cassel, Vernon Maxwell, Matt Bullard, Scott Brooks, Clyde, Michael Jordan (SI championship cover), and Larry Johnson, have a few more, can't remember. All of these were in person, either at games or at sports shows, almost all free, except Hank Aaron and Mantle, but at the time it was only like $20. Most of the Cowboys were at training camp way back when Troy was a rookie. The coolest was Nolan Ryan. My dad got tix from a friend of his who sells for Miller brewing. They of course have a box at Enro...er...Minute Maid. With the tix we got to meet and greet Ryan before the game in one of the kick butt conference rooms that Minute Maid Park has and he signed everything you gave him. This was last year at the opening game of the Texas/Houston series in Houston. Well, that's cool, so we went to our seats (kick butt skybox) and proceeded to down as many free hotdogs as we could eat. About the 5th inning someone walkes down to the seats where we are sitting and sits behind us. About 10 minutes later I turn around and its Nolan, just watching the game, all by himself, so we invite him down to our row and we watch the whole rest of the game with Nolan Ryan!!! We ended getting 3 baseballs, all our ticket stubs, our programs, and caps signed. He was so cool about it too! He was technically rooting for the Rangers because he works for them, but he pretty much cheered when anybody got a hit or any pitcher got a strikeout. That was the coolest thing ever...not to mention the Miller Light girls where there too....
