OT Brush With Greatness

[Ish]

Sparred with Michael(call me Dynamite) Dokes when he was in Golden Gloves(ran from him was more accurate), played basketball with Buster Douglas at the gym on Shrock Rd. in Columbus about 6 months before he whooped Tyson and met Vic Janowicz(friend of a friend). Vic was a super nice guy.

[Zombo]

Unequivocally UNgreat leader of the free world. One of the greatest college QBs of all time. I can play this game too. Take a joke.

I thought I took it pretty well.

 

Over-sensitive much?

 

Zombo

[wargograw]

No. There was no point in the comparison. But carry on.

[Tour2ma]

Sparred with Michael(call me Dynamite) Dokes when he was in Golden Gloves(ran from him was more accurate)...

 

I remember seeing Dokes as an amateur in the Pan Am games IIRC... Fast? OMG fast... 2nd coming of Ali fast...

 

I remember him in the games' finals vs. amateur boxing god, Teofilo(?) Stevenson and thought he beat Teo. I remember the judges saw it differently, but I'm not sure Teo did.

[TexasAg1969]

While in grad school I played pickup basketball with later all-pros Lester Hayes (Raiders) and Pat Thomas (Rams). On the first occasion I had probably the best nothing-but-net day I ever played in my entire life. Later times -eh- not so great. Hayes had been a member of the undefeated Houston Wheatley basketball state champs. Pat Thomas was only about 5'10", but he could stand flat footed under the basket and slam dunk it. Unbelievable to see for a slow, white elevation challenged outside shooter like me.

[flyingfooldoug]

Some years back, the city of Warren Oh erected a 1/3rd scale recreation of the Apollo 11 landing site on the spot that Neil Armstrong made his very first airplane flight from. A friend of mine was involved in this and invited me to the dedication. I go to his place and who is in the kitchen having a beer? Neil and Buzz themselves. These were my childhood idols and role models and I'm drinking a beer and getting to know them... Wow!!! And I'm glad that I wasn't told they were coming in for the dedication... I may have peed my pants or something....lol. Neil Armstrong has to be the best Ohioan ever! Aldrin was very personable and has a quick sense of humor. And on the subject of great Ohioans, please say a prayer for John Glenn and family. He was just hospitalized and it doesn't look good for him. God speed John Glenn!

[jrb12711]

 

Ya, I think Johnny Manziel trumps Leader of the Free World.

 

BTW ... Politics aside ... for those of you that remember the old Letterman show on NBC, "Greatness" should be taken with a grain of salt ... Dave loved to bring celebrities down a peg.

 

Zombo

 

Manziel has been known to throw a hell of a party though...

[Canton Dawg]

By chance, I took a ride in the elevator in downtown Cleveland with Eric Clapton & Alice Cooper.

 

I helped a helpless guy gain access to the side door of the Canton Palace Theater, turned out to be Todd Rundgren.

 

Got drunk in a Florida bar playing Donkey Kong with Rob Halford (lead vocalist of Judas Priest).

 

Most recently ran into, and had a couple of beers with Massillon native Joe Vitale (drummer for Crosby, Still, and Nash).

[mohican]

I worked summers for several years for Dick Schafrath. (LT Tackle - Browns 1958-1972?) at his canoe livery. At various points current and former Browns would go canoeing. (Early 80s)

 

Once there was a sizeable group of them including Bob Golic and Clay Mathews. I was asked to follow them (what, me babysit a bunch of NFL players?) to their stop. When we all arrived I drove a group of them back to the livery. Rumors of Golic and Mathews being a couple of wild and crazy guys were, at least to my teen sensibilities, true. My other Clay Mathews, SR memory is sitting at near field level in the dog pound, and how Clay knew the people who sat there on a regular basis and during warmups would come over and chat with them for a few minutes.

 

 

My dad's cousin played for the Indians in WWII as a replacement player -He was in his mid 30s - most if not all of the regular(young) players were off in the War. After the war, when the regular players came back he ended up doing odd jobs for the Indians (or so I was told). He and my dad got along well but didn't keep in touch after Dad moved away from Cleveland. One evening in the late 80s we got a call, Dad's cousin had passed and I drove Dad to the funeral. One of the people at the funeral and then the reception was Bob Feller.

[Mark O]

I've got quite a few actually. Two quick ones... I was on the same flight from Cleveland to LA a couple years back with Jim Brown. Said hello to him at baggage claim at LAX....was very nice. Huge strong hands...felt like he broke my hand when I shook it.

 

Also, played 18 holes of golf with actor Bruce McGill. The name doesn't probably stand out...but he was D-Day in Animal House and was Walter Hagen in Bagger Vance among many, many other roles. He's one of "those guys" in a movie that you don't really know his name but he's in a ton of movies. Was a really nice guy and had lots of John Belushi stories.