OT - the way it was

[Mark Padgett]

In the current annual baseball thread, I mentioned two off topic items. One was that I once shook hands with Bobby Hull and the other that I once "worked" with Billy Williams of the Cubs. Both occurred back in the 60s when pro athletes weren't paid a bazillion dollars and sometimes had to work in the off-season to support their families - that's how it was back then.

Bobby was doing a promotion for the company for which my dad worked. It was a wholesale food distributor and Bobby would make appearances at locally owned grocery stores and sign autographs. He would also promote the brands of canned goods distributed by my dad's company. My dad took me along one day on his route and Bobby was at one of the stores we visited. My dad introduced us and I got to shake hands with Bobby. I was a huge fan of his and it meant a lot to me.

As to Billy Williams, we both worked at a huge car dealership in the Chicago suburbs. He worked in the fall and winter there selling cars. I worked after school and weekends in their mail room (they were one of the first car dealerships to use a direct mailer program). Sometimes Billy and I would eat lunch together in the lunchroom and we would talk baseball. We would tease each other because I was a big White Sox fan. He really was a nice guy and he sold a lot of cars, many because he was a "celebrity".

Did any of you guys ever have a "non-sports" meeting with a pro athlete?