Tell me a great story of how you interacted with an Elite athlete, whether running, shopping, etc.

I also met Bob Kennedy when I was in a running store in Utah.

I saw Mia Hamm in a Chicago grocery store and worked up the nerve to have the following embarrassingly awkward conversation:

Me: Has anyone ever told you that you look like Mia Hamm?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Are you?

Her: Yeah.

Me: I think you're awesome.

Her: Okay.

The worst part was having to pass her 3 or 4 more times as we each worked our way through the aisles of the grocery store. Still not sure why I asked her if she knew she looked like herself...very smooth.

I met ex-POW Gordon Nakagawa at a store in Monterey many years ago. He spoke softly, was very polite, smiled like a teacher, and talked to my small kids as well asking about school, playing, etc. I later read that he died of cancer a few years ago. He was one of the 500 POWs released in 1971 on live TV along with John McCain. Nakagawa is famous since he was only one of two who never signed nor voiced a confession in spite of being tortured daily.

This put a lump in my throat.

redux wrote:

Awesome! When were you there? Me, 2000-2004.

I was at UF for grad school 98-02. I have been back here since 08 as an employee.

Great institution. I had some friends in Masters and Doctoral programs in the English department during that time.

I know a few people who never left. I need to get back there for a weekend.

26mi235 wrote:

Once-removed story and football. My sister-in-law was in the airport (either LA going to SF or the reverse). She was sitting talking with this guy for a while with people constantly coming up and taking a look etc.

Finally, she said something like 'you are obviously someone that a lot of people know but I have no clue who you are.' He replied that he was Jerry Rice (at the height of his stardom); he seemed to appreciate talking with someone that was talking to him, not to some famous football player.

I recently went on a date with a girl I met at the bar. Before going to starbucks with her I put out a tweet to have everyone come to starbucks and ask me for my autograph. It worked pretty well. She asked who I was and I told her I played hockey. Man, Boston girls love to be puck bunnies.

Ran in a race with Lasse Viren- The Cleveland Revco 10k. He finished third, the way I remember it.

George Sheehan was also in that race- ahead of me. As he was coming back from the turnaround, I yelled, "Hey, Dr. Sheehan!" and he nearly stumbled trying to figure out who yelled his name.

Played tennis at Scioto Country Club with Jack Nicklaus and two of his friends. One of those friends was a friend of the family, and he graciously asked if I'd like to play with him against Nicklaus and some other guy. We beat them, and they gave me the tennis balls when we were done. Being about 15 years old at the time, I played with them until they were worn out and then discarded them.

One thing about Nicklaus: Even though he had just taken up the game, he had great form in his strokes and serve. He eventually became much better. Later, he graced the cover of one of the major tennis magazines, where they analysed his (excellent) serve within.

Last, I worked out in a west-side gym for about six months in 1995-6, and Butch Reynolds was in there a few times doing repetition squats with 225. The way I remember it, he did them for about the same time that he ran around the track- about 45 seconds.

At the Adidas meet in New York this year, Jeremy Wariner came into the stands to sit with his family - he fist bumped the whole row as he stepped over them. Then he tried to help a 7 or 8 year old girl get Allyson Felix's autograph.

I talked with Billy Mills for 15 minutes or so. He told me about some races he ran. He was a warm fellow.

I had the pleasure of meeting Leo Manzano and talking for a little while. He was really open, encouraging, and disarmingly polite.

Interviewed Mike Singletary for a magazine. Rode in his car between errands. Serious, intense, disciplined guy. Also interviewed Stanley Cup winner Martin Lapointe. Hockey players are the least sophisticated pro athletes. And while I was talking with the woman who ran the Chicago Bulls practice facility, Scottie Pippen walked through the room with no shirt on and shouted "What up, dawg!" at Jerry Krause.

Once, I was running in a 10K race, and was passed by a woman pushing a baby carriage. I was pretty angry until I found out it was Jenny Spangler. Saw her again at a cross country meet a few weeks ago. She ran just under 20 minutes, which is not bad for a 50-year-old woman.

Oh, yeah, and I met Frank Shorter while I was writing a story about John "The Penguin" Bingham. He wanted to talk about drug use in sports.

I met Bob Kennedy at a running store promotion in MA. Nice guy easy going.

I've run and lost to Lynn Jennings many times.

I ran into Bill Rogers at my favorite running spot and chatted for a few minutes.

I met Jonathan Riley before the HS state championship meet where he ran 1:51. I used to run with his HS coach in school.

The Gray Zone wrote:

Hockey players are the least sophisticated pro athletes.

Not so you'd notice. Never would have guessed!

The Gray Zone wrote:

I met Frank Shorter while I was writing a story about John "The Penguin" Bingham. He wanted to talk about drug use in sports.

What did Bingham have to say about PEDs? And as a guy who prattled on incessantly about the evils of trying hard, what's his idea of "performance enhancing"? A huge shot of propofol on the starting line?

Occupy Tardville wrote:

Met someone on a dating site who turned out to be a former Winter Olympian. Thing is, she didn't tell me this. She (knowingly I'm sure) gave away enough information for me to find out. Plus I follow certain sports closely and have a near-perfect memory. But she was a pretty big deal in those Games.

Everyone had a turn with Suzy Chapstick hell even Fred Lebow visited that cave!

... and I mean EVERYONE!!!

Met Michael Johnson in Glasgow when he was doing some kind of athletics promoting stuff. Met Seb Coe and Wilson Kipketer at an athletics conference in Glasgow and got to take part in an hour long Q and A session with them. Also briefly met Kenenisa Bekele after the World XC in Edinburgh where he won after loosing his shoe. Got to go to the athletes dinner that night too which was quite hilarious watching this mass of athletes dance to proper Scottish music.

Had a number of interactions with elites back in the day and I somewhat remember a few of them. On May 21st of 1982 I competed in Knoxville TN in a Track Meet called the Tom Black Classic. My aim was the 10K qualifying mark for Nationals, 29:13 and change. I ran 29:13.16 and was just under the qualifying mark in third place.

That was Friday night part one of my weekend plan. Part two had me flying to Syracuse NY to compete in a 15K road race with some other invited and truly “elite” runners Herb Lindsay, Stan Mavis and the humble MN farm boy Dickie Beardsley. As an aside, we stayed at the home of Ronnie Spector I think, unless my memory has completely failed me.

We all did some sort of appearance/clinic someplace or other where we went for a run. While unpacking I realized that I had neglected to bring a pair of racing flats with me as I was focused on part one and had my spikes.

The race director tried to round up a pair of NB racers for me but no luck. I was resigned to wearing my trainers when Dickie announced that he had several extra pairs with him. Unfortunately they were a size too small for me but I tried one old horribly beaten up pair he had and they weren’t bad. Dicke had labeled them 1st pl. Grandmas 2:09:37 1981. (I at first thought they were the Boston shoes that he wore finishing second to Alberto only a month earlier a race where I was a dnf.) Good karma for me.

To keep an already long winded story short, I beat Dickie in this race in his own shoes. I believe I left some blood on them as well but I gave them back to him anyway.

In July 1982 I competed in the 10K at the US v. USSR track meet in Indy. Francie Larrieu came to me and asked me if Dwight Stones could borrow my singlet. (two more celebrities there)

I got the singlet back from him and at a party with the Russian team I traded it for a Russian one. The next day the Russian athlete came to me and begged for his singlet back. I guess I got him in trouble for trading.

OK it’s a long story, but including maybe Ronnie Spector that is like five celebs.

Occupy Tardville wrote:

Met someone on a dating site who turned out to be a former Winter Olympian. Thing is, she didn't tell me this. She (knowingly I'm sure) gave away enough information for me to find out. Plus I follow certain sports closely and have a near-perfect memory. But she was a pretty big deal in those Games.

Come on man. Name the chick, jeez.

The Gray Zone wrote:

I met Frank Shorter while I was writing a story about John "The Penguin" Bingham. He wanted to talk about drug use in sports.

What did Bingham have to say about PEDs? And as a guy who prattled on incessantly about the evils of trying hard, what's his idea of "performance enhancing"? A huge shot of propofol on the starting line?[/quote]

Shorter wanted to talk about PEDs. I was asking him questions about the Penguin movement and he changed the subject. Bingham is a performance retarding drug.

In 1995 or so, I was working the finish line at the X-Country nationals at Morley Field in San Diego. After the meet was over I was cleaning up with others and noticed Billy Mills was still at the facility. I introduced myself to Billy and struck up a conversation that literally lasted over 30 minutes. We sat at a concrete park table and just talked about track and his life. If he wasn't actually interested in my life, he sure faked it well. It is one of those moments I will never forget...here I was a just a 21 year old coach and an Olympic gold medalist who had never met me, took what I considered a large amount of his time, to just sit and talk.

I recently looked up what Billy charges for speaking engagements....he could have written off quite a few thousands of dollars as "charity" for the time he spent with me that day.