Share a time you met a famous athlete...

[orioles93]

Orioles fan fest the one year, met Chris Tillman as he was coming out of the bathroom lol. Didn't realize it at first. Got an autograph.

[edtiques]

When I was a kid in the late 60's I used to deliver newspapers to former Red Sox pitcher Bill Spanswick. He was most famous for being on Tony Conigliaro's rookie card.

[frankbmd]

I took my young daughter to the movies in Century City to see a Cosby film.
We happened to end up sitting in front of Magic Johnson. He recognized me before I recognized him.. My daughter was never convinced that it was him.

I’ve always felt glad that we were sitting in front of him, rather than behind him.

[egri]

One of my track coaches in high school was a former Olympic sprinter (for Jamaica in 1992).

Not professional, but I used to work with a guy who tackled Antonio Brown in college; he was the kicker, Brown was the punt returner. We used to joke about that tackle was what made him start going crazy.

The judge that my mom used to clerk had paid his way through law school by playing minor league baseball in the Tigers organization. He never made the majors, but was a very well-respected judge.

[ocjack]

Mid-80's, bought Freddie Solomon a drink when he was sitting at a near-by table in a San Francisco restaurant. As we were leaving, we passed his table, he stood up to thank us and we spoke for a few minutes. I patted his arm as we left, and it felt like I was hitting a brick wall. The man was solid muscle. And also, a down-to-earth guy. Also, passed too soon.

[drcy]

When I was young my dad would tell me that when he a young science student at the University of Minnesota he got to meet legendary Danish physics Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr, which for a science student is the equivalent of meeting a movie star of the President. My dad said that the Danish Bohr's accent was so thick he had no clue what Bohr was saying.

When my dad later had Alzheimer's, I told him about the incident and he could no longer remember it. He said "Is that true?," and I said, "Sure, you used to tell me about it often." He thought for a second then said "That's a pretty good story."

Bobby Murcer's dollar bill from Seaside NJ

[Writehooks]

In 2016, Mike Tyson attended the IBF convention in Beijing. I write for an English-language daily in China and had interviewed Iron Mike several times before. When I arrived at his hotel, there was a phalanx of security guards trying to keep a couple of thousand screaming fans at bay, but Tyson's people had left word that I was coming so after showing my credentials I was escorted to his suite. Mike was tired from the long flight and really in no mood to talk much, but invited me to accompany him and his entourage on a short hike on the Great Wall the next morning. I thanked him, but said I couldn't make it because I'd scheduled a sparring session for a young female boxer that I was training. "She can spar anytime," he said. "Bring her along."
At 10 the next morning, me and my fighter -- a 105-lb southpaw with a 3-0 pro record --boarded the bus with Tyson and his 14-man posse for the 90-minute ride to the Great Wall. Mike couldn't have been nicer, taking the time to ask my fighter about her goals and encouraging her to keep training hard. Our "hike" on the Wall was cut short because of the thousands of fans who showed up hoping to catch a glimpse of "The baddest man on the planet", but once again the security detail did a great job and we were able to spend about half an hour at the site. When we returned to the hotel, Mike invited me, my fighter and her father up to his suite, where he posed for photos with them and autographed two pairs of gloves.
My fighter retired in 2019 with a record of 8-2-2 (4 KOs), but to this day she says meeting Iron Mike is the greatest thing that ever happened to her ...