Basketball Hall of Fame Tip Off Tournament (Ohio State,Washington,Seton Hall, + Hall of Famers 11/17/12&11/18/12)

A few months back I won tickets to this tournament, which had 8 teams, the notables listed above in the title.

Day 1 was immensely better than day 2, mostly due to teams sitting in the stands watching other teams in the tournament.

After I got to the arena, I learned that there would be about 5 signings throughout the day on the concourse. This was both very exciting and somewhat disappointing, because I of course would have printed up 8x10s of all of the hall of famers.

I started off my day by meeting Hall of famers Artis Gilmore and Mel Daniels, meeting two hall of famers at once was really cool.

(Since I am at school, some photos are blurry, they will be fixed over Thanksgiving)
Like I said, I wish I had better items, but the pic with was cool anyway.

 

To carry on with the Hall of Fame theme, later on I met Bob Hurley:

 

Celtics Legend, Satch Sanders was also on hand, it was awesome to meet an 8x Champion.

Kara Lawson, of the Connecticut Sun was also there, she is also an Olympian so that was interesting:

In between all of these signings, I went to work with some of the teams in the tournament.

My main focus was Ohio State, and I got everyone who I wanted over the weekend, except for Deshawn Thomas.

I got Head Coach, Thad Matta 2 different times. 1 was after their game coming out to watch Washington, and 1 was at halftime of the Washington game when he was going back in.

             

Former Duke player/Syracuse football player, Greg Paulus, is now a video coordinator at Ohio State. He told me he would sign after the game, and he did not disappoint.

Aaron Craft was very nice. He signed whatever people had:

I got 2 guys in a program(Evan Ravenel, and Alex Rogers)

I did a team sheet as well:

From Top to Bottom: Lenzelle Smith Jr, Sam Thompson, Evan Ravenel, Alex Rogers, LaQuinton Ross

I only tried for Washington on Day 1. Aziz denied me, but I was able to get C.J. Wilcox to stop:

I got Head Coach, Lorenzo Romar, during the Ohio State game in the tunnel:

On day 2, I only got 2 autographs.

First, I got former player-turned assistant coach, Shaheen Holloway:

Shortly after, I got Fuquan Edwin during warm ups:

All in all, for not graphing the hotel at all, and just from being at the arena, I had a successful first go at this event.

Total Autographs for 2012:1131

Uconn Vs. Vermont 11/13/12

I went over to last night's game against Vermont, and came away pretty happy. Right away I noticed that Jim Calhoun was in attendance again, so he was my main target post game, as I had brought my 11x14s for him.

After the game, he came out rather quickly, and I got him to sign my photo, as well as a picture with him, which I had never seen before!

(Per usual, I will post better scans once I make it home to the scanner)

After that, I found my way back inside, and waited for Ryan Boatright, and Deandre Daniels as they came up.

Boat was nice as always:

After that, the only player really left was Shabazz Napier, who I never have high expectations for, but his family was there so he was VERY nice. I mean he is a polar opposite when his family is or isn't there.

I got a picture with him as well.

Total Autographs for 2012:1099

Uconn Vs. American International 11/1/12

I did the Uconn Vs. AIC exhibition for the second year in a row tonight, and I didn't go home disappoointed.
Here is a link to LAST year's game:http://gbautographs.blogspot.com/2011/11/back-on-blog.html
Upon arriving to Gample Pavillion, a security worker informed me that the girls' basketball team would be signing autographs in a room inside the arena. This was pretty cool, because I had  never  graphed the girls, and many of the Uconn girls go on to play in the WNBA.

I ended up going through the short line twice, and I got 2 huge posters signed by the entire team.

After the game, I was walking towards the door, when I saw former head coach, and legend, Jim Calhoun walking towards the locker room. I remembered where he parked in the past, and he came out after a little bit. He was very nice tonight; Not to say that he isn't nice, but he was more talkative than in the past.

I wasn't expecting to see him, so I got him on a ticket:

After I got Mr. Calhoun, I snuck my way back inside, more to get out of the cold than anything, and got a few guys. My main targets were Shabbazz Napier, and freshman Omar Calhoun, who had a hell of a first game, exhibition or not.

I was kicked out before Shabbazz came up, but I was able to get Brendan Allen on 3 photos(2 pictured, because I gave one to a friend:)

While I was getting him, Ryan Boatright came up, but I had left my other photos on a seat towards the other side, so I got him on my poster:

The last player I got was Omar Calhoun:

I left soon after this, because I had gotten the majority of what I needed, plus a few nice surprises.

Total Autographs at this game:31

Total Autographs for 2012:1090

Providence College Vs. Assumption College 10/27/12

I kicked off basketball season today in Providence, R.I. for a rare game at Alumni Hall.(Providence usually plays at the much,much larger Dunkin Donuts Center). This was an exhibition game, and Providence is generally very easy to graph. I was mainly focused on freshman, Kris Dunn, who tore up the CT high school circuit last year.

Overall, this was an easy outing. The only issue during the whole time was a little uptight security at the beginning  moving us about 4 times to make room for various "special groups". Those seats never even filled in, but I ended up finding a more convenient spot anyway.

I got 5 Kris Dunn graphs, I gave one to a friend:

Kris was nice, seemed a bit shy.

Ricky Ledo:

Vincent Council:

Bryce Cotton:

Coach Ed Cooley:

-I had asked Josh Fortune to sign after the game, and instead of signing the ticket on top of the pile, he signed the photo -_-

Total Autographs for 2012:1059

Rap Artist/Actor/Comedian Donald Glover A.K.A. Childish Gambino 10/25/12

What a crazy day. I put way too much time into this, but thankfully in the end it was way worth it. I went over to Uconn after my last class finished at 5 tonight, and waited in back of the venue for a few hours. Even up until 20 minutes before the show, Donald was nowhere to be seen, so I just went in and found a good spot. I was disappointed after waiting hours to no avail, but I sure as heck wasn't going to give up my shot after the show.

I went back to my spot, actually a better spot than earlier on, and a guy who was in charge of the event(uconn employee not Gambino's crew) talked to me.

Guy, "Can I help you?"
Me, "I'm just waiting for an autograph."
Guy, "Oh that's cool, you know it's going to be a while right?"
Me, "Yeah I'm used to this kind of thing."
Guy, "Okay, I mean like 45 minutes long."
Me, "Yeah no problem."
Guy, "Hey bro do you have a marker?"
Me, "Uhhh yeahhh?"
Guy, "Cool. Can I borrow it when I bring him out?"
Me, "Yeah of course."

After this I thought my chances were GREAT. I was the only one. Another guy I graph regularly with showed up which was cool.

Soon after that, a security guy came out, and said we had to stand on the side walk. (About 30-40 feet away from the door, if not more.)

I explained to him that the head guy thought it was okay for me to be there, but he wanted no part of that and had to be a tough guy.

Meanwhile, my buddy and I go over to the sidewalk, and as the show is getting over, more and more people started coming over asking if we were waiting for autographs. 99.999% of these people were drunk and just wanted pictures. They were being super loud, so my heart sank a little.

The Uconn police along with on site security tried to tell us that he came out already, which is never true. When we didn't move, someone came out and said that Donald would not be signing anything at all. Obviously after waiting so long, I wasn't going to leave.

Donald came out, and I called him over twice.
He came over, and the ink started flowing.

He had a realllly crappy black sharpie which was dead. I was the first person to get him so my album came out really bad, but I gave him my blue sharpie and said, "Just keep it for everyone."
He was happy about that and let me dip a good 3-4 times, he shut me down silently though after a while, but I ended up with 6 items which was incredible after my long, long day.

The album, which was with his bad marker:

I then had him do the album artwork sleeve:

Photos:

"I hate this photo haha, I'll sign it over my face."

When I got home, I noticed that he signed my photo package for some reason. I'll cut it into something.

Total Autographs for 2012:1058

John Smoltz(Trade)

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't had many successes to report lately, but since baseball season has ended opportunities are few and far between.

I thought it would be cool to post this John Smoltz card that I traded for a few months ago. It didn't take all that much to get it, and I think it is very nice. I actually got it from a reader who wanted one of my extra autographs from this summer. One thing I really like about this card, is how it is only numbered to 120.

Stay tuned to the blog as I may have a musical success to report Thursday, and maybe something HUGE over the weekend.

News Legend, and Multiple Time New York Times Bestselling Author, Dan Rather

Tonight media legend, Dan Rather was at my university to lecture about the upcoming election. The lecture was pretty decent, and he offered some funny anecdotes. I had known about this event for months, so I had plenty of time to get my hands on a lot of his books for good prices.

I was kind of worried about getting everything done, but Mr. Rather held a signing after the lecture, which made things easy.

Dan was very accommodating, and enjoyed making conversation with everyone.

In total, I got 4 books, 1 magazine, and a picture with him. 

When he saw the magazine, he said,"Man, that was a long time ago now."

Total Autographs for 2012:1052