Famous professional athletes/coaches you've met,ETA: not from your own favorite SEC school

Remember that time I ran across you and piggilicious

Met the hot Cal pole vaulting chick when I had a connection at Sky Harbor.

Shot my shot. I shouldn't need to tell anyone how that worked out.

Graduated high school with Warrick Dunn. Does that count?

Randy Orton. He's a a cool guy. We talked for a bit at a gym in Atlanta and did a few sets together.

Duke Roufus. Total badass and one hell of Muay Thai and MMA coach.

Those are the only two I've had conversations with. I've met others, meaning I shook their hands and moved on, but that's about it.

I used to volunteer at Nolan Richardson's golf tournament every summer. Met a lot of the coaches that attended and a few former Hog athletes.

BEST:
Tubby Smith was one of the nicest people I ever met. Took time to thank us for volunteering. Very personable and made conversation.

Billy Tubbs was absolutely hilarious. Showed up on Day 2 with the same clothes from the day before. Had pulled an all-nighter that as best as I could tell involved a bunch of pitchers of margaritas and an establishment where men like Billy can help young ladies earn their nursing school tuition.

Steve Atwater played one year and had the funniest exchange I've ever seen. Coach Richardson had a huge bull mastiff named Bear. That dog was the size of a small horse but was the most harmless animal on the planet. Big, tough Steve Atwater is absolutely petrified of dogs. Would not get out of his escalade until Rose Richardson got Bear and took him inside the house.

Mike Anderson and his wife were at my table. He is such a great guy. I really wanted it to work for him at Arkansas because he was so easy to pull for.

Tom Watson, George Brett and David Feherty co-hosted a golf tournament I played in here in KC for several years. All 3 are very good guys and spent a great deal of time with us making us feel appreciated for playing.

Met Ben Crenshaw and Jack Nicklaus at a Champions Tour event in Lutz, FL. I told Crenshaw I thought he was a really great guy - for a Longhorn. He said, "for a longhorn? What the hell are you?" I told him I was a Hog and we spent the next 10 minutes talking about old school Razorbacks like Billy Montgomery and Kenny Hatfield. Great dude.

Current PGA Tour pro Michael Kim stayed at our house when the Web Dot Com tour was in Overland Park. He missed the cut and fired his caddy on Friday morning when the hungover caddy missed their tee time and tried to catch up to Michael on the 4th fairway. Michael told him to keep walking.

WORST:
Dean Smith was absolutely WAY too important to be bothered by "the help." My job in the mornings was to greet the coaches and help them find their carts. All of them were very polite, decent dudes. As I walked up to greet Dean Smith and offer to take his bag to his cart, he ignored me and pretended to take a call.

Reggie Jackson asked me if knew what time it was...from inside his car on 64th / 1st in Manhattan.

Fellow Yankee Dave Laroche was driving- famous for the lob / soft pitch.

I froze

Willis Reed
Jim Palmer
Adolph Rupp
Dan Reeves

Dick Butkus

I’m a tax accountant and during one period of my career the tax work of clients of a well known sports agent was outsourced to us. This was before e-filing became mandatory for firms of a certain size, so as the preparer of record of a paper-filed return I had to sign my name to dozens of professional athletes’ (including a number of now hall of famers) returns each year. Some of these I met with in person, others not.

Although I’d never disclose names in a public forum, I used to privately tell some of my friends:

“(Insert HOFer’s name) pays ME for MY autograph”.