Not sure you can tell, but I love to write about sports; you know what I like better than writing about sports? Talking sports. I’m typically not a “big mouth”, other than when I have some drinks in me, but when it comes to sports… I could talk for days. Whether it’s family, friends, people I work with, people I run into, whatever… I’m always ready to talk sports. I ran into somebody the other day…
It was a neighborhood association party; nice space, close to home, nice spread, good food, had a beer, with the family, all good. As I was in line to get more food, I saw a guy with this NHL hat on. This hat looked like it had been laying in the corner of the garage; I mean, it was beat up. So I threw out a feeler… you like hockey? Two separate 20+ minute conversations with him later, and my wife was probably wondering where the hell was I. He was an older guy; actually, he was my dad’s age, although he looked older. Nicest guy; Chicago guy… had some pretty cool sports stories.
His first story was about the Bulls. He said it was back in the 60s, which makes sense, because the Bulls franchise started in 1966. He remembered Johnny Red Kerr was the coach, which he was. He went to see them play against the Knicks and sat courtside. It wasn’t in the Ampitheater on Halsted where they played their first year; it wasn’t at the Stadium where they started playing in their second year. I tried to look up the actual game; there were 2 neutral games played against the Knicks in the 1967-1968 season. It had to be one of those, unless it was a preseason game… anyways. He remembered this player on the Knicks, with broad shoulders, very skinny and bony, and not too great. He said he thought at the time “this guy would never amount to anything”. Well, that guy, turned out to be Phil Jackson, and I can certainly vouch for the fact that, he DID turn out to be something. The Zen Master, 6 rings, plus some elsewhere… pretty cool that he saw him play way back when.
His next story was about the Cubs. He would stand outside Wrigley after the games, trying to catch some of the players. The one story he told me was about a guy, Don Cardwell, who threw a no-hitter; I had to look him up… slightly before my time. Sure enough, there he was. He met him after the game, and when he told him his name was Don too, he said something funny that I can’t quite recall this second… haha. Another one was about Casey Stengel, who, when a bunch of kids ran up to him outside Wrigley after the game, went on a profanity based tirade; what a jerk! He said he wanted to punch him right in the face. The last one was about another pretty famous baseball player, who wanted all the kids to line up single file before getting their autograph; he didn’t wait, but this guy, looking like a movie star, signed every last one of them. His name was Roberto Clemente; how cool.
He then told me about some old Blackhawks, including another name I needed to look up: Phil Russell. My dad knew him. This guy told me, like my dad, like my father in law, that back in the day, the saying was: we went to see a fight and a hockey game broke out. Yeah, there are still some fights today, including this past weekend with the Hawks, but nothing like back in the day. Would have been great to be at one of those old school brawls.
Anyways, we could have talked all night. So cool to hear old, personal experience stories, especially about my teams. Lots of Chicago sports history out there; would love to hear more about it all, but at least I got a little lesson this past weekend. I told him about my website; maybe he’ll check it out. Maybe I’ll run into him again, and can gather some more cool stories; great talking to you Don.
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