Who's the earliest HOF you met in person?

[egri]

I haven't met any HOFers (yet) but I ran track in high school with a guy whose mom was a professional photographer. In the 80s she was hired to cover a show with Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. So she went and spent the day an arms length away from the two of them, making small talk, and at the end of the show, they offered to sign as much stuff as she wanted, for free. She declined, because she was not an autograph collector.

[jiw98]

My son and I met and got autographs from Al Kaline and Gordie Howe at events in town around 25 years ago. As I remember both were very nice. My son was very excited to meet them.
My son and I play golf with Dolly Konwinski's (Dolly Niemiec) sons. She played in the AAGPBL and still signs at shows. She was at the Chicago National this year.

[rocarroll]

Mickey mantle around 1982. He was completely drunk signing autographs at a department store. If you bought a pair of Lee jeans he signed an autograph for you. My mom actually made a comment to him about showing up at an event for kids in his condition which started an argument between him and her. I was 7 at the time and totally embarrassed. Looking back I understand now. He was a total a-hole then but he ultimately made amends for his behavior. My mom and I share a laugh From
time to time about her shouting down the Mick

[sayhey24]

Started going to the HOF induction ceremony in 1970 -- met people Like Rube Marquard, Harry Hooper, Lefty Grove, Jesse Haines, Joe Cronin, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Max Carey, Zack Wheat, Earle Combs, Lloyd Waner, Frankie Frisch, Burleigh Grimes and Buck Leonard just to name a few. Did the same thing that a previous poster mentioned --hung out in the lobby of the Otesaga Hotel.
Here are a few photos of me as a kid with Buck Leonard, Lefty Gomez, Stan the Man, Rapid Robert and Lefty Grove.

Greg

[yanks4]

Around 1994 I showed one of my neighbor's son my small vintage Yankee collection .....he was impressed to a point.... being young I wasn't sure he knew or really cared about the 30's Yankees .....A couple weeks later his mother saw me playing catch in the front yard with my oldest son so she brought her father, who was visiting from out of town, over to meet me.... I remember that he was in his 90's and his nickname was Smoke .... He played football at Columbia with Lou Gehrig... Smoke is in the team picture that appears in a couple of the books on Gehrig....Smoke was a smallish halfback and he remembered and commented on the size of Gehrig's thighs and how very strong he was....This was 1922 and if you have that picture Smoke is top row, second from the right.....as close as I will ever get to my favorite player Lou Gehrig.......

I assume you meant Baseball HOF
But I've met Rocket Richard , Jean Beliveau, Johnny Bauer all great guys....

[T3s]

For a few years in the late 1980's there was an annual televised awards show called the "Jim Thorpe Sports Awards." I lucked into tickets one year, watched the show and then when it was over everyone hung around and mingled, included the various athletes - Riddick Bowe, Emmitt Smith, Jackie Joyner, Jim Courier, etc.

I moved around in the crowd getting signatures, shaking hands and just generally being in awe. At one point I look around and notice an older man in a red jacket sitting alone by himself in the front row. Right away I see it's Stan Musial. Stan Musial! No one's paying any attention to him at all and he's just kicking back watching the scene. I walk over and all I can say is something like "Wow, you're Stan Musial!" He says "that's right!" and then pulls out a stack of postcard sized cards with a full colored photo and lots of stats and info. He asks if I'd like an autograph and even had a sharpie ready to go. We had a brief chat and I moved on. Felt like I'd found hidden treasure.

It was cool to see all the great athletes, but as a baseball loyalist, having a chance to meet up with Stan Musial was easily the highlight.

[Santo10Fan]

I used to work at a valet parking lot one block from Wrigley Field. It was a mom and pop operation, just my boss and I would park around 30-40 cars in a grid. When I first started in 2005, he told me Ronnie occasionally would pull in the driveway and he'd fetch him a couple beers from the garage fridge, as we were on Ronnie's way back to the Kennedy expressway.

Sure enough, after one of the games that summer a black, 2004 Chevy Tahoe with full tints pulled over into the driveway and beeped a couple times. My boss immediately began waving and told me to go intercept it with a couple MGD cans out of the fridge. The window rolled down and there was Ron Santo. His setup was quite unique-all the vehicle's controls were on the steering wheel, just like the hand grips on a motorcycle. So imagine driving on cruise control with the brakes and all! He slipped me a sawbuck. I still wish I would have got to interact with him more than the three times I saw him that year. But I think I deduced why he never really came through again.

Much to my horror, I grabbed one of those MGD cans for my walk home one night, cracked it, took a sip and recoiled-it was absolutely disgusting. I checked the expiration date and it was well past one year. I figure it was about 18 months from brewing. I was so embarassed. I had been giving Ron these absolute shit beers. As the years have passed though, there's no doubt. He will always be my favorite vintage Cub-RIP

[vthobby]

My earliest was Charlie Gehringer at HOF Weekend. He would not sign for anyone. I was about 16 years old and loved old baseball stats so when i approached him and his wife my friends were howling and saying "forget it, you are wasting your time". I started telling Charlie all of his stats (like he forgot! ha!@)......he kept refusing until his wife said something like "just sign the damn ball Charlie so this kid will go away!". Signed a beauty on the sweet spot and I was forever immortalized by my buddies!

Peace, Mike