The other night I was watching a show and I started to notice that I had met a few of the people they were talking about and that got me thinking about all the people that I had met in my life through work, travel, and other means.
Obviously through business I have met hundreds of people including many of the top names in the consumer electronics, consumer products, and retail industries but that isn't what I am talking about for this purpose today. I wanted to remember and share with you the celebrities or important people I have been lucky enough to have met over the years.
These are all people that I have had conversations with that lasted longer than twenty seconds in a meet and greet line. A few I have met and shared a moment with more than once. A couple of them I can actually call friends. I thought you might like to know who they are and how we met. Or maybe you don't give a rats ass so this would be your time to move on.
Since I was speaking of business, let's start there. Like I said I have met hundreds of people through work, many of them fairly famous in their own right but you wouldn't know who I was talking about if I said their names. These three were important to me and so I will share a story about them.
Above right is Sol Polk one of the founding brothers of a long gone chain of tv, furniture, and appliance stores in the Chicago area called Polk Brothers. He was a mostly cantankerous s.o.b. but for some reason he liked me and would often come out to the store I managed to spend time with me. As a twenty year old assistant store manager it was pretty heady stuff to have the founder come visit you. The gentleman in the middle above is the legendary retailer Sol Price. Sol started and failed multiple retail operations until he hit a homerun with a club called Price Club in San Diego. Every other club that came after this was an idea stolen from him. Costco, Sam's, and others used his concept to go after his business until he ultimately sold it to Costco. I met him at an open house for a new location in Southern California and for whatever reason he loved hanging out and talking to me. I learned a ton from him about the club business and I always appreciated his taking the time to speak with me whenever our paths crossed.
The man shown above upper left is my hero and mentor. His name is Ray Gates and I know you have no idea who he is or have ever heard his name but he was the person that came up with the brand name and then was named president of it and taught me so much about how to be a leader and manger of people. We met when I was promoted to the company headquarters in New Jersey. That company, that he named, was Panasonic. Ray was brilliant, humble, a visionary, and the quietest human I ever met. He took a young man under his wing and gave me entry to a part of the business world I could never have gotten to on my own.
He would come over to my cubicle and ask me if I thought Kmart would give him an appointment since I was the manager for the Kmart account. The first time he asked me that I looked at him like he was kidding. He was an icon in the industry and we were doing over $100 million dollars a year with Kmart, and this was in 1983, so yes I was pretty sure they would find the time to meet with him. Linda and I had the opportunity to meet with he and his wife socially a couple of times as they invited us to their condo for a Sunday dinner a few times. He was the best I ever worked for.
I have met scores of people in the broadcasting industry over the years having come up in the radio business and then getting an opportunity to do tv on some home shopping networks through business but these three were my favorites. Brent Musburger on the left above I met when he was doing the nightly sports on CBS Chicago in the early 1970's before he went national. I interviewed he and two other local sportscasters for my high school newspaper column. They were gracious and pleasant but Musburger took the time to show me around the station and the studio and let me sit in the chair on the set while he explained how thing worked. It was a fun day. Bob Brenly, above middle, is a former player who at the time I met him was doing color for the Chicago Cubs tv broadcasts. My best friend Tom Barnicle and I just happened to go to a Cubs game when they were doing their broadcast from the bleachers and we sat one row behind and across the aisle from them. In between innings Bob would talk to us telling us stories and just being unbelievably nice to a couple of soon to be drunk older men. Turns out we were in the tv shots about 20% of the game.
The guy upper right above is named Ralph Faucher and unless you were a White Sox fan in 1971-1972 you have never heard of him. those two years he broadcast the White Sox games on tv and radio with Harry Caray. I met him when he hired me to be a salesman for a radio station he was the manager/owner of in a suburban Chicago town. About three months after going to work for him he bought another station in another suburb and he asked me move there to be the sales manager/station manager/play-by-play person for football and basketball. It was my first professional job in radio and he was so much fun to work for. He gave me direction as to what he wanted me to do and then he left me alone. I learned a ton and had a great time and while I moved on to another industry after a couple of years he still asked me to to play-by-play and had me emcee a concert that led to another celebrity meeting.
I'm standing outside a hotel in New Orleans waiting for a business associate to come down and suddenly I'm aware of a guy, slightly shorter than me, alone smoking a cigarette. I glance over and am shocked to see it is Don Henley. (Above left) I do my best to not stare and he walks over to me and is looking past me towards the side street. I look to see what he is looking at and I see a cat coming up out of the sewer. He says to me "holy crap, that is the biggest rat I've ever seen." I realize he's right and we both shudder and turn away from the view. We made small talk for about ten minutes until his party showed up. He shook my hand and I wished him well. A pretty cool moment.
Until I was eight I thought the only people who made records were Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Andy Williams. Those were who's songs my parents played every day until I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and the whole world changed. Andy Williams was by far my mother's favorite and to this day I can still remember the words to every song he ever recorded. I was on a flight from New York back to Los Angeles in the mid 1980's and was bumped up to first class when it was still easy to get that privilege as a frequent flyer. My seat mate for the entire trip was Williams himself. He could not have been nicer and we talked about his career, my job, and other things like we were long lost friends. Unfortunately I forgot to get him to give me an autograph for my mother but she was thrilled to hear the story of my adventure with him.
One of the jobs Ralph Faucher from my radio days asked me to do in 1977 was emcee a concert the station was hosting in DeKalb for an up and coming band from Seattle that I had never heard of. I showed up at the venue and went backstage to talk to the people operating the concert and to introduce myself. I spent then next thirty minutes hanging out with Ann and Nancy Wilson and their bandmates from Heart. I brought them onstage and then sat in the orchestra pit to watch and listen and was an instant fan. They were outstanding. After the concert they invited me backstage again and I sat with them while they relaxed and enjoyed some adult beverages and a bit of some happy weed. Later in life in another industry I had the opportunity to do the same with the Go-Go's.
Most of my celebrity meetings have come in the world of sports. Starting with the upper left is Indy racecar driver Kevin Cogan. I met Kevin through a friend in LA and we spent many days and nights socializing including with Linda and his wife multiple times. Next to him is former golfer Ted Tryba. He was the professional in our group when I was lucky enough to play in the Bay Hill Pro-Am in 2000. Besides being a nice guy it turned out he was from my dad's hometown of Wilkes-Barre, PA. Top right is Nancy Scranton another former professional golfer who was paired with us at the inaugural Best Buy Charity Classic in 1994. We had a blast and we would catch up whenever I ran across her at a golf outing later on.
In the middle left is Natalie Gulbis another pro golfer. We met when I was consulting for a golf club company and she decided to use our putter for her only win, the 2007 Evian Masters in France. She was a frequent visitor to our booth at the PGA show in Orlando and she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. In the middle is former Chicago Bears president and CEO, Michael McCaskey. I actually met him when he sat in the middle seat next to me from Chicago to Dallas where he was headed for an NFL owners meeting. As an owner he was not so good but we laughed for two hours on the flight and had a blast. Speaking of the Bears the middle right is Ron Rivera former linebacker. I met him when a friend and I were playing golf in the Chicago area and he joined us after coming from practice in Lake Forest. He could hit the golf ball a mile but his direction was so-so. He needed to spend more time on his short game too but he could get mad and swear like a champ. We enjoyed his company for the afternoon and he bought us a beer afterwards.
Just below him above is one of the all-time great running backs in the NFL, Gale Sayers. I was a huge fan of his while I was growing up and you can imagine my surprise when I found myself sitting in the waiting room of True Value headquarters alone with just he and I. We were both waiting to see a buyer as he had become a sales rep at that time and as was usually the case with True Value buyers we cooled our heels for almost forty minutes. He was very nervous about his meeting as he had just started in sales and I talked him off the ledge and calmed him down. I assume it went well because he would always come and say hi to me whenever we were together at trade shows.
The gentleman bottom left is the great Stan Mikita of the Chicago Blackhawks. Stan was another hero of mine as a kid and I was lucky enough to get to know him on a personal level through one of the officers in our golf league who was friends with his daughter. Stan came to a few of our outings and always stayed afterwards to have a beer with us and talk hockey with everyone that approached him. One of the all time good guys. The guy on the bottom needs no introduction but just in case you have never watched tv, he is Arnold Palmer. I met Mr. Palmer multiple times through is association with Rayovac Batteries when I was working there. One of the finest human beings to ever live and he had more great stories to share than anyone I've ever known. He is the only sports celebrity I've ever met or seen who received a standing ovation every single time he was called up on stage to speak.
I was sitting, alone, in the gate area at Phoenix Airport waiting for my flight which was not scheduled for another two hours. I opened my book and started reading when I suddenly felt the presence of another person sitting across from me. I looked up but they were reading a newspaper and their face was hidden so I went back to my book. After a few minutes I heard the paper shuffle to close and I looked up again to see Bart Starr sitting there. Without looking at him I said, "As a diehard Bears fan I have to tell you that you broke my heart way too many times." He laughed, introduced himself and for the next ninety minutes we chatted like two old friends. It was one of the best afternoons I ever spent in an airport and I became a huge fan of Bart Starr that day. His stories of playing against Dick Butkus still make me laugh out loud when I remember them.
Annika Sorenstam was an amateur when I first met her at the 1992 US Amateur Championship at Kemper Lakes in the Chicago area where I was working as a marshal for the tournament. I was lucky enough to be assigned to her group all five days and while we didn't speak to each other very much we got to recognize each other. She was painfully shy but she was the best golfer I had ever seen. She lost her championship match after making a furious comeback on the second eighteen. When it was over and everyone was crowded around the winner she had walked off to be alone behind the green and was crying. I went over to her and asked if she was OK and she shook her head yes. I told her that whatever she decided to do going forward, she would be one of the greatest women golfers ever. She smiled, hugged me, and said thanks and I walked away to leave her alone.
Fast forward to 1994 at the Best Buy outing and I was walking down the sidewalk next to the clubhouse when I reached the corner and nearly knocked over a young lady. I grabbed her to keep her from falling and it was Sorenstam. She recognized me and smiled, gave me a hug, and asked if I was going to be in her foursome. I told her I wasn't high enough on the pay grade for that since she had already become one of the bright stars of the LPGA. She said good-bye and went on our way. The following January I'm at a roulette table in Las Vegas for the CE Show and suddenly she and her father sit down at my table next to me. We were both surprised to see each other and she introduced me to her dad and said "this is the guy I told you about from the US Amateur." We enjoyed our time playing until I had to meet some people and we said our good-byes. One of the most down to earth and personable people I've ever met.
Finally, on the right is Ernie Banks. Mr. Cub, for this Chicago fan, was the greatest player in my lifetime for the team I loved. When I was nine years old my dad took me to a closed door sale he was working in his role of salesman for Tappan Appliances. It was way the heck outside of the city and it took us nearly an hour to get there. Being that it was a school night I was surprised he asked me to go but I was happy to come along. When we got there he took me into the office and introduced me to the owner and they then escorted me into another office in back where sitting there in a sport coat and turtleneck was Ernie Banks.
I almost passed out. It turns out he was there to sign autographs for two hours and my job was going to be handing him the baseballs to sign. I could not believe this was happening to me. I sat there next to him for the whole evening and handed him ball after ball while he signed and chatted with the people parading by the entire time. It was the greatest night of my life and my dad became my hero that night. What a gigantic thrill for a young kid and it was something I will never forget.
I know this was long but thanks for letting me stroll down memory lane. It was fun for me and hopefully you enjoyed the stories too.
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