Who's the earliest HOF you met in person?

[ZenPop]

My grandmother was good friends with George "High Pockets" Kelly and his wife. They invited her to his HOF Induction ceremony in 1973. She went and brought me back an autographed program with a few other HOFs... (as soon as I find it, I'll scan and post)... I went over to his house later that year (I was 11 years old at the time) and he told me some amazing stories of the 1921 NY Giants... also told a doozy of a story involving a fight between Casey Stengel and Leo Durocher... Stengel was kind of a mentor to Kelly... First time I recall hearing the term "son of a bitch." (Kelly was NOT fond of the Lip.). I also got a tour of his trophy room and he gave me an autographed baseball. Pretty cool.

I also met Willie Mays at the San Jose Airport. We talked for about 20 minutes before the plane boarded. This was around 1989... He talked about how much he liked Kevin Mitchell, talked about the current Giants. He also recounted some stories from his past (talking about how that great catch in the '54 World Series wasn't nearly his best... and said preventing the runner from tagging up was the biggest thing.) I know he has a history of people saying he was ornery, but he was awesome to me.

I guess (according to some)... I met the greatest and the worst HOFers ever.