Bear Encounters

I wanted to hear some stories on peoples least favorite encounters with any current or former Bears.  Mine is below:

It has to be Curtis Conway.  I was probably 13 years old, hanging outside Halas Hall on a day off school, Teacher's Institute day.  I was the only kid there just looking to get some autographs of players on some cards.  Curtis Conway was getting back from lunch and I asked him for his autograph.  He had the nerve to tell a 13 year old kid, the only kid there, he didn't have enought time to spend 3 seconds to sign his name to a card.  Ever since then I have disliked him for not spending the 3 seconds it could have taken. 

Any other good one's, or should I say bad one's.

One summer day back in 1988 I ran into Iron Mike Ditka, literaly ran into him at the Mall  out in Vernoon Hills.

I was with a buddy of mine, running around the mall acting stupid and such when I was blindsided and knock flat on my Arse by Da Coach. Now, back in highschool I was a little smaller then I am now but still, I was a 5'10, 200 pound aspiring football player and the funny thing is he didn't budge one inch and I of course, took the brunt of the collision. He helped me up and asked if I was OK, I said yes and sorry for running into him and he just laughed and said "Son, Ive had women hit me harder then that" he winked at me and went on his way.

All my pal could do was laugh and call me a dumbA$$, sure, it was a litlle emBearassing but hey, I got to meet, talk to and actually touch Da Coach !!!!  

Talk about a 16 year old having a Bear Chubby !!

I created a thread here a couple of weeks ago about a conversation I had with Matt Lawrence and he seemed like a very good dude.

I think that's the only Bear I've ever actually talked too.

haven't lived in town for a while, used to be a bar off Clark St. called Kronie's, not sure if it's still there or not.  Anyway, bunch of us were there one weekend and ran into Kevin Butler and a few of his friends at the bar - it was pretty shortly after the Bears received their Super Bowl rings and he had his on.  I asked him if I could see it - he actually took it off and handed it to me - heaviest ring I ever felt, he even let me try it on.  Butler was just a real cool guy, fun, and that was a cool experience.

Also ran into Walter Payton a few times - he used to run in Arlington Hts when he lived in that area in his younger years, would ALWAYS wave or say hello; after he retired he had an office in the same building that my dad worked in at the time.  My mom actually gave him a ride one time to chase down a UPS truck that he needed to get something off.  The man was the nicest person you'd ever want to meet - Sweetness was the perfect nickname for him.