Celebs both well known and obscure that you have more than just met | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Celebs both well known and obscure that you have more than just met

I have a list but I’ll keep this to Big East. I have gone to most BETs. In 1986 I was a bit underage drinking in the pub that is part of MSG but opens to the outside sidewalk. Charley’s I think it was. The quarter finals just ended and BC was eliminated, and Gary Williams, his wife, and another couple came in and sat in a booth. Our group of 5 or 6 Nova students scraped together cash to buy his table a round of drinks. The waitress delivered them, pointed to us at the bar, and we air toasted across the room. We expect that’s the end of it, and we don’t go over and harass them.

About 10 minutes later he walks over to us and taps us on the shoulders and buys us a round. We chat for 5 to 10 minutes. He said that he loves tournament week in NYC and the whole Big East vibe. He is tickled that a bunch of Nova students would buy the BC coach’s group a round.

We mostly talked BET and hoops. At the time he was rumored to be going to Ohio State. I asked if he was going and he politely said “no comment” and smiled. I said “if you like this tournament so much why are you leaving?” He laughed and didn’t answer, taking the press comfortably.

He was super nice and personable. He didn’t have to come over and chat us up, leaving his table and group. He genuinely loved the interaction though and was full of energy. Nice memory. I was happy he won a title at Maryland.
 
Scot-e said:
Don Henley - kings of leon -cage the elephant- my morning jacket- Manchester O- Elton john- silver sun pickups- butch walker- basically lots of music people.
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Butch Walker is cool as he'll. He visits Charleston, SC often. Extremely underrated and a great live performer.
 
Played Hockey a few times with Dennis Leary. Drop dead funny in real life as well. Tells stories that make you pee your pants. Wonderful father who didn't allow us to swear in front of his kids. Extremely generous. Just requires he gets treated normally and not like a celebrity.
 
I was part of the executive team at Beavercreek/Vail years ago and I gave Clint Eastwood a personal tour of Beavercreek. He is a great guy.
 
My neighbors in chapel hill briefly (they moved about a year after I got there) were the authors of the Animorphs books. Very nice couple. Was cool because my brother read the books as a kid and they were part of what got him into animals and wanting to be a veterinarian...which he eventually became.
 
RON said:
Played Hockey a few times with Dennis Leary. Drop dead funny in real life as well. Tells stories that make you pee your pants. Wonderful father who didn't allow us to swear in front of his kids. Extremely generous. Just requires he gets treated normally and not like a celebrity.
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I remember one summer I would see him all the time at the Community Field basketball court in Litchfield playing street hockey with the guys from the bike shop.
 
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Interesting topic. I am not a celebrity chaser because I pretty much keep to myself, but, I have met a couple.

20 years ago, I was at a county convention and met Dubya (President G.W. Bush) when he was the governor, just before he announced he was going to run. After he spoke, he left the podium and walked down our aisle and for no apparent reason, he stopped at our row and talked to us for a while. We talked and shook his hand, he was very friendly.

I met Earl Campbell on several occasions; twice at the same car wash! He was very down to earth, very nice and engaging. One time, he was eating a McDonalds breakfast and asked us to wait until he got done to get a picture with him. After he got done, we just sat on the bench next to him and talked for quite a while. He was alone and didn’t rush us off nor was he in a hurry to go anywhere. This had to be one of my favorite encounters.

This next encounter wasn’t really a meet or greet or even a get acquainted thing, per se, but it was a moment that both of us knew happened. In 1982, at the Springfield Creamery’s 2nd Field trip (an outdoor Grateful Dead concert) in Veneta, Oregon is where it happened. With thousands of zombied deadheads jumping around in circles listening and dancing to their own imaginations, the moment happened.

I made my way up to the front of the stage just to take it all in and experience the experience. With 30,000+ in attendance, you would think that it would be shoulder to shoulder up there, but, for some reason or another, I was standing alone in the middle of a 20’ to 30’ radius looking up at the stage. As I was watching Jerry Garcia play, we made eye contact. I know, so you made eye contact, big deal…yea…you may be right. But, none the less, we made eye contact, and we both knew it. He gave me a thumbs up and I returned one to him. To me, that was awesome! Afterwards, Jerry just kept on playing. After all these years, I would have to say that this is still one of my favorite moments.
 
Huskybass said:
I played 3 on 3 hoop behind the Jungle with Earl Kelley. He was pretty good.
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He can still play and shoot like its 1984. I’m not kidding
 
Not me, but my dad went to college with Don Ho. Got into a lot of trouble together.
 
I dated a beautiful little Asian girl when I lived in NYC way back when. Her uncle was president of South Korea.

She was adorable. He was assassinated.
 
Went to high school in Glens Falls, NY with Jim “Hacksaw” Duggan of WWE fame.

Nice guy from a solid family. His Dad was long time Chief of Police in GF. In high school Jim‘s nickname was “Moose”. He was was big time football recruit and NYS scholastic wrestling champion. He graduated HS in 1973 and surprised everyone by snubbing all all of the then football blue bloods (ie. Penn State, Michigan, Syracuse, the Ohio State, etc) to attend Souther Methodist University during its pre death penalty glory day$ where played OT and was all Southwest Conference headed to the NFL before he sustained a knee injury. A family member later confided that at SMU he would be paid cash for every “pancake” ( a play where he flattened a defensive player during a game). Duggan tried playing in the Canadian Football League but his knee couldn’t hold up so he tried pro wrestling and made millions of dollars. I heard him speak 18 months ago about his life in pro wrestling and he honestly spoke about its crazines
 
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K.C. Jones. In the late 90s, he coached the New England Blizzard women's team that played at the Civic Center. He had an office upstairs from Coach's restaurant. I was in the bar the Thursday of Big East tournament day. It was during the late afternoon game and it was quiet in there.

A guy walks in and sits right next to me and starts talking basketball as he can see I am into whichever game was on. Told him I was a UConn grad, etc...A few minutes later K.C. walks in. He was meeting this other guy for lunch. We talked basketball for an hour or so and then K. C. said goodbye and left.

After he left, the other guy asks me if i knew who that was. And I told him I did. He asked why I didn't say anything. And I said something like "I assumed he knew who he was." He laughed.
 
After reading this thread and reading a lot of names of "famous people" that I hsve no idea who they are,, I realized that I may have met a lot of famous people but I did not know they were supposed to be famous.
 
Was shopping at Amy navy store in LA. About 3 other people in store. One of them was Tom Hanks. Well- when he checked out they forgot to take off a security tag and the alarm went off. I yelled “stop that man!” We all laughed including Tom because he knew we knew it was him. Nice guy.
 
Mark Fidrych was a big supporter of the Baseball Association in town. He came to a number of my little league games.

I met George Steinbrenner at Fenway in 1996. He was sitting in the grandstand behind home plate. My 8 year old cousin ducked the security guard and got his autograph and I just had to go up and get him.

Met Greg Kite when I was 6 or 7 at a basketball clinic.

Both Rashamel Jones and Andre Dixon run Clinics at Sports on 66. I talked UConn sports with both.
 
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I met Big Bird in kiddie lit. (Carl Spinney)

My brother in-law (whose a UConn grad) is a good friend of the Bushes. Was an ambassador under Dubya but very close to both 41 and 43.
 
Pierce Brosnan and his girlfriend/wife sat on the couch directly across from my wife and I at the Admirals Club Puerto Rico Airport (highlight of her trip).

Went to college in Boston. Out at bar in mid 80's. Run into MLB player Steve Howe in town playing Sox. After the customary getting to know year other BS, Steve retreats with my roomates to the bathroom for marching powder.
 
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So, in 1987, when I was working for "he who cannot be named" in NYC, and managing one of his NYC projects (100 CPS) I frequented the neighboring bar at The Ritz. One evening I was sitting at the bar after work and a guy sat next to me and we struck up a conversation. His introduced himself as "Bob" and he was from CA. We talked for probably an hour and had a great conversation. We shook hands when he left and then Norman the bartender, who perhaps makes the best Martini in Manhattan, asked me if I knew who that was. I said "Bob", and he said "Yeah, Bob! Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead!!" Probably the reason we had such a good conversation about anything but music or the Dead was because I had no idea who he was! Norman confirmed that the Dead stayed at the Ritz everytime they had a show in NYC. And yes, I knew my boss and attended many meetings with him in his office at 725 5th Ave during the 18 months I worked for him.
 
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I was at Hilton Head in the mid 90s when two of the players from the Family Circle tournament walked up to me, saying, "Hi Tom, how's it going. Haven't seen you here in a couple years. We're going for breakfast, wanna join us?"

Confused, but not stupid, I joined them. They asked me about my team's state championship, mentioned my town, and seem to know me fairly well.

Still confused, I paid for breakfast, and we all got up to leave. They started laughing and said, "You're wearing a name tag, and a jacket from your school saying state champs. This was fun. Same time next year?"
 
Ewekon said:
Rob Lowe a number of times as a college buddy was a producer for his flick Bad Influence and Rob would come by his place a lot. 5 or 6 times in very late 80s before its release when I flew out for work a lot. He had a different girl every time, every one an L.A. 10 and young. All but once arrived with an amount of what appeared to be baby powder; but was not.

Somehow Paul Newman and I had the same "Y" schedule in the early - mid 90s to the point where we had a "hey how are ya" deal going. He was a towny in Westport when younger and could be seen pretty often with JoAnne at the town music shed .. Levitt Pavilion.
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I only saw Newman once at the old Y even though I used to play weekday lunchtime basketball there from 88-93. I think it was a Friday of Thanksgiving weekend and he had a reserved badminton game so they kicked 15 of us out of the gym. I was miffed (didn't know who was playing badminton) until a guy walks by me in the hall and took off his sunglasses to reveal the crystal steel blue eyes. Definitely a movie star.

My mother & brother ran into him at a grocery store years earlier. It was my 10yr old brothers birthday so Mom encouraged him to ask for an autograph. Paul responded, sorry kid, I don't sign autographs but I'll buy ya a six pack"
It is almost a scene that coulda been in Slap Shot.
 
I never met Newman, but, I was with my gf at the time (1978) at a gas station in Fairfield, and I go inside to pay for gas and get some sodas. I come out and my gf says, "I just turned down a beer from Paul Newman." I say, "What? When?" Turns out he was just finishing filling up as I was going inside. I didn't even notice. My gf got out of the car, went up and asked him for an autograph, and (according to her) he said, "I don't give autographs, but if you want, we can grab a beer."

She might have saved his career and reputation, given she was 17 at the time.
 
storrsroars said:
I never met Newman, but, I was with my gf at the time (1978) at a gas station in Fairfield, and I go inside to pay for gas and get some sodas. I come out and my gf says, "I just turned down a beer from Paul Newman." I say, "What? When?" Turns out he was just finishing filling up as I was going inside. I didn't even notice. My gf got out of the car, went up and asked him for an autograph, and (according to her) he said, "I don't give autographs, but if you want, we can grab a beer."

She might have saved his career and reputation, given she was 17 at the time.
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He was an admitted problem drinker. Lost a son to addiction that went to Staples when it was a campus (awesome).

Could be seen drinking at the long gone Damian at the RR station and the old Mansion clam house.

The good old days of being 18 legal as a HS senior. Never caused any problem " that I can remember".
 
A few of my high school teammates and classmates have gone on to play in the pros in a few different sports. My class valedictorian who was in most of my classes for 4 years played for years in the NHL after attending Dartmouth and had a stint with the Bruins, for any Boston fans. I have kept in touch to varying degrees.

If we're talking about playing against guys, I have a couple and my High School has an unusual string of NFL front office executive types for a relatively little known Catholic school.

Also, my best friend from 8th grade into High School, who moved out after sophomore year after getting in some trouble here, was part of a powerful political family in the Philippines, and was apparently a direct descendant of Imelda Marcos (great nephew I think, not grandchild but something like that).

I can't really think of many others, I think many of my examples would be sports related if I thought of any more.

I do recall taking a flight home once from my cousin's wedding and my girlfriend (we were about 20 at the time) happened to get seated next to Tim Dwight, at the time playing for the San Diego Chargers. Average player, WR/KR but they seemed to chat it up way more than I liked. I'm sure it wasn't anything serious but being a jealous youngster I definitely gave her some cold looks the rest of that day.
 
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If we go by more than just met (as the title says to do):

- the scout who signed mike trout (7 years after my interaction with him) said I had a“good swing” (after tearing apart everyone else in my hitting group).

- after Donyell gave another boy and I directions the locker room in gameplay (we were 7) Kevin Ollie introduces himself to us, then took us around to meet every single player in there. Boo willingham gave me a coke and his wristband.

- I played pickup ball against Jose Juan barea, and won. He talked a lot of smack. I dared him to stop pulling up and come drive into the lane (aka my “yard”). I won.

also played pickup with Shawn James. Who lead the nation in blocked shots at least one year (Maybe at both D1 schools he attended). I scored on him. but a really nice kid. Lots of fun trash talk. Nothing real serios

I talked to multiple high level college coaches about an article I wrote for an age limit for the NBA draft (pre 2005). Most of them were really good about it Despite it being for a college project. Jeff Jacobs was too fwiw.

former Sox OF Sam horn was really nice when I was at a showcase scouting players, including his kid.


I spent multiple days with different team USA national teams during internships. Got to meet elite d1 college baseball coaches. Tim Corbin is like the nicest person ever. Got to spend time with guys like David price, Strasberg, jp arencibia, Justin smoak, Pedro Alvarez. Smoak bought me a jack and coke while we drank with Alvarez and Ryan flaherty. Grabbed a sandwich with them at my favorite sandwich shop earlier in the trip as well. Strasberg was such a nice kid for a guy who was labeled basically the pitching god, so quiet and humble. And tyson Ross hooker me up with tickets a decade later and I got to see kershaw on my Birthday

had lunch with Jim Lefebvre during that same internship and he just talked baseball and shared incredible stories. Great dude.
 
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