My Dad took me to a Sox game in 1975. I was 9. After the game, at a stop light, Luis Tiant pulled alongside us in a gold Cadillac. My Dad scrambled to get something for him to sign and the light turned green. Luis reached down, picked up a ball and tossed it to him through the windows. The ball was signed by that whole 1975 team. Evans, Rice, Lynn, Yaz, Tiant, Bill Lee, Zimmer, Fisk, Petrocelli. I don't display it because it was signed in ball point pen and faded a little, so it's tucked away in a box somewhere.
I have a 1977 ball with all those sigs and more. My mom was the Avon Lady to the wife of Charlie Moss, the long time Sox trainer, who got the ball signed signed to give to me. Interestingly, my brother has a 1967 Impossible Dream season signed ball.
My other two items are a 2004 championship hat signed by Emeka Okafor and my Dear to Dream hard cover book that I was able to get signed by Jim Calhoun.
Oh, I almost forgot, I have some Sports Illustrated UConn Championship magazines that I framed, with Emeka's signature on one and Diana Taurasi on another one. I bought two so that I could frame them together since one side of the cover had Emeka on it with Diana on the other. In that frame I have two other UConn Magazines, but I can't remember what those are since they are packed away. I think one was a pre-NCAA Tournament SI mag and the other a preseason one.
I also have 3 mags framed set from the 1999 championship season with Khalid El-Amin on one cover and I think Ricky Moore on one of the others. I think Rip is on the 3rd one. Wow! I have to find some space somewhere to put those up. My current wife has become a big UConn fan and would love to see those hung somewhere in our home. Her late brother was an artist so there's not a lot of available wall space. Maybe my combo home office-spare bedroom would be a good candidate.
Though one of my favorite memories is one of the times me and HooperScooper went into Gampel Pavillion to watch the team practice when we saw JC look up at us and shake his head when clearing everyone else but us out of the building. I think it was Pat Sellers at the time, whom we had gotten to know (we knew Tom Moore as well), vouched for us. I think JC recognized us since we had done this yearly pilgrimage at least once or twice before. After receiving the stare of death, we looked at each other and laughed. I'll never forget that. I think he took a long look at me and shook his head when he signed his book years later...just kidding about that last part.
So many fun UConn memories. Maybe someone should start a thread on that topic or best sports memories if one has not already been started. I have a few others that come to mind but I've written far too much already.