Uconn Vs. Florida 12/2/13

Tonight the Gators invaded Storrs for a game in which would deal either squad their first loss of the season. Luckily for me, my Huskies won on an incredible buzzer-beater by Shabazz Napier.

My main goal for the night was to meet the legendary Billy Donovan(head coach at Florida, and former Providence College star). Over the last two weeks I have met Roy Williams, and Rick Pitino, so I was really hoping that Donovan would be in the mood to sign after a tough loss. He was the last one out to the bus, and was very kind, taking time to sign whatever people had for him. I was really happy that he did it, because it was absolutely freezing outside, and he is a New England legend.

I had him sign a nice photo, and a magazine. I had my dad get another magazine signed for me. I picked out all championship related pieces for him.

 

I want to give a shout out to my buddy who picked me up a team photo to get signed. Most players stopped for us, but Donovan's son was actually pretty mean. He had signed coming out for one guy, then came back  and actually swore at us when he walked by. I won't get into anymore detail. Only one other player said no.

 

On this photo are: Will Yeguete, Patric Young, Scottie Wilbekin, Eli Carter, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Michael Frazier II.

It was kind of strange to have other people 'graph Uconn, because since Drummond and Lamb left nobody really goes. It was nice to meet up with 7 or 8 of the old regulars.

Total Autographs for 2013:973

Hall of Fame Tip Off Classic + A Surprise 11/23/13

After doing pretty well at this event last year, I knew I wanted  to come back, but after last year's tournament when this year's teams were announced, I knew I just couldn't pass it up. Powerhouse schools North Carolina(My favorite all -time non Uconn team) and Louisville were the two headliners for the weekend. Last year, I was able to do both days of the tournament, but this year I only had Saturday, so I had to really make it count.

I didn't print many photos because honestly it gets pretty expensive, and I didn't want to risk wasting everything if I didn't have access to the teams.

I didn't know if the teams would be staying at the hotel at the casino this year, because last year they did not. To my surprise, when I showed up, there were tons of other 'graphers in the lobby, and they told me I had just missed James Michael McAdoo, North Carolina's best player. That wasn't a great start, but 5-10 minutes later, I was able to get a coaching, and all around basketball legend, Roy Williams. I love UNC Basketball, and to meet someone with 700+ wins was pretty awesome.

I really didn't think he was going to do it, but I walked with him for a few seconds and he was actually very nice.

Later on inside, at halftime of the Louisville game, he literally signed and took pictures with around 100 people. I could have gotten another autograph, but I wanted a picture more, and was lucky enough to get one.

To make things flow more easily, I'll keep talking about what North Carolina items I got done, then Louisville.

I was able to get Hubert Davis(Former Tarheel/NBA Player/ESPN Personality). He was also very nice.:

Other UNC Players I got include:

Nate Britt:

J.P. Tokoto:

Joel James:

Brice Johnson, Followed by another Johnson and Kennedy Meeks:

Desmond Hubert:

Denzel Robinson:

Former coach Joe Holladay:

I struck out on McAdoo all day. I missed him early, he signed after the game but it was a mob, and he denied like three other times I saw him.

I am not kidding when I say this, after I met Roy Williams, it was probably less than a half hour later when I met Rick Pitino. I have been wanting to meet him for quite some time now, and the assist goes to my dad on this one. Luke Hancock had walked by and I was going to get him, but decided not to, and in that time, apparently Pitino had walked by and down to the side My dad told me, and I was able to catch up to him, and he was very nice. He signed, and took a picture. I had to take a selfie because I was the only person with him, and it came out blurry, but it is still cool to have.

Way later on, after the games I finally was able to get Hancock. The reason I was so focused on getting his autograph is because I had the championship Sports Illustrated from this year with him on the cover. He was the Final Four MVP.

I was lucky enough to meet Louisville's best player, Russ Smith:

I was able to get Kevin Ware as well. If you can recall, Kevin was the player who suffered the gruesome broken leg in the NCAA tournament last season:

I also met a few other good Louisville players, Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell:

For the tournament, there were a bunch of other basketball related people in town.

Hall of Famers Mel Daniels, Bob Hurley, and Nacy Lieberman all signed during the games. I had met Daniels and Hurley before.

After the games I went back up to the hotel because I knew a number of people would be arriving.

1)Shaq(I was going to his event later in the evening)

2)Dick Vitale(Would be arriving for tomorrow's game)

3)Sage Steele of ESPN(Hosting the Shaq event)

4)Dan Schulman of Sunday Night Baseball(Calling tomorrow's game with Dick Vitale)

I saw Shaq, but he was getting on the elevator and ignored everyone.

Sage Steele was very nice:

I never saw Dan show up, but I had a great encounter with Dickie V. Regular readers of my blog know that the last time I met Dickie was in 15 degree weather at Uconn 2 years ago for the College Gameday game of the week when Uconn lost to Syracuse. The marker was basically frozen, and he was rushing and it came out terrible. 

Anyway, this time Dickie V was in no rush, and signed for me no problem. He even asked his wife to take a picture of us to put on Twitter! His phone and the lighting worked out slightly weird, so I downloaded the photo and fixed it up just a little bit.

I had a photo of him with me, but I was in such a rush when he came in that I couldn't get it out so I had to get him on a photo sheet:

As I was getting ready to leave to head to the Shaq event, a few of us noticed that someone familiar was walking through the lobby, and someone said it was actor, Richard Woods. They were wrong, because it was JAMES WOODS, but once they said Woods I knew exactly who it was. James is famous for his movie/television roles, and lately of course for voicing himself on Family Guy.

He was really nice, and the guy with him was being annoying and rushing him, but Woods took care of everyone. I literally used my last photo sheet on him. Talk about lucky.

So after that, I headed to the Shaq event. Overall it was a funny and insightful interview type show, and I really enjoyed it. He left pretty quickly afterwards, signing for maybe 7-8 people out of probably 80 who crowded the front of the stage. I got close a few times, but just couldn't get him.

Overall, this was a really, really great day. One of my best 'graphing days ever.

Total Autographs For 2013:964

I do have one mystery autograph. It was someone who was with the UNC team:

EDIT: Thanks to a reader, this autograph has been identified as that of former Tarheel, and long-time NBA player, Eric Montross:

Uconn Vs. Detroit 11/14/13

This is my first post in a month, so it feels good to be back. Now that the semester is finishing up I should be able to string along a solid stretch of entries during one of my favorite seasons. College Basketball season
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Thursday night marked the return of college basketball to Storrs, and that meant that hopefully I could add to my Uconn collection. This season, Uconn has at least 4 future NBA players, Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels, and Omar Calhoun.

Hall of Famer, and former coach, Jim Calhoun was in attendance, but he actually left with a few minutes left in the second half so I didn't have a chance to see him.

I couldn't get down court side by the game(I sometimes can, but this is rare) so I missed everyone coming off the court including former Uconn star, and now coach Ricky Moore who I had a Sports Illustrated of.

After the game was rough. There is a specific technique to 'graph Uconn after the game that I try to follow, but things just didn't work out how I hoped this time.

I was only able to get Shabazz Napier on some magazines. I did see Ryan Boatright at one point, but he left through the locker room and I wasn't going to go back outside and risk missing Shabazz.

Total Autographs for 2013:938

Actor/Comedian/Future Host of Late Night Seth Meyers

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Nights like these are what keep me going in this hobby. One of my all-time favorite comedians, Seth Meyers was going to be at Uconn for a stand up show. To start off, I had gotten to the venue before the act for once(at least I thought at the time), but had a lot of time to kill. I decided to walk around the building a number of times(a rather large building), and for a long time it was going well until I turned the corner at one point and saw a car that wasn't at the stage door prior to my last trip around. It wasn't the typical celebrity ride, so I wasn't sure exactly if it was Seth's car, but at the end of the night it turned out to be.

If you remember from a lot of my other entries, I have NEVER gotten an act at Jorgensen before the show. In fact the only time I have gotten anyone before a show was when I got Kendrick Lamar and Steve Aoki back in the Spring(that event was in the Pavilion). I was annoyed that I missed Seth before the show because I was the only one out there at any given point.

Flash forward to after the show. I go back to my spot and there are AT LEAST 50 people waiting in a line. It was insane. I feel like this was in part my fault because when I met Donald Glover last fall nobody really knew about the spot until they saw me and another guy I know, then when I saw Kenan Thompson, the crowd was much bigger than Glover, and tonight was literally just incredible. I was just thinking the entire way home, "I have created a monster, that eventually will make my 'graphing attempts fail."

Anyways, when Seth came out, the crowd cheered, and he ran over to the end of the line.

He said,"I'll just run down the line because I have to get back to New York for a play!" He then proceeded to run down the line slapping everyone's hand. When he got to me, I held out my photo and marker. He bypassed it, and I think he just missed it. He got to the end of the line, started walking to his car, and I gave it one more shot. He heard me, turned around, ran over to just me, signed my photo quickly, waved and was on his way. I am so happy that the time paid off, and him coming back over to me is a memory that I will have forever.

I meet a lot of cool people, but I truly enjoy Seth's work, and he could have easily just waved and been on his way. I can't wait to see him in his biggest gig ever when he becomes the host of Late Night next year when Jimmy Fallon moves up to The Tonight Show.

As far as the show goes, he KILLED his set, and had the crowd laughing the entire time. He talked about politics, his new marriage, and even did some Weekend Update stuff.

Total Autographs for 2013:935

One of my favorite Seth Meyers videos:

B.o.B. and Ace Hood 10/6/13

This Sunday marked the return of a concert to my campus, and for weeks I had been waiting in anticipation to see B.o.B. and Ace Hood perform, as well as to meet them.

I ended up going with one of my friends from work, which was really good, because I probably would have gone crazy waiting the amount of time I did for them to show up. We got to campus around 1, expecting them to pop up around 3-4. The plan was to meet them, get something to eat, then head back for the concert. As many of you may know, this hobby often throws curve balls, and the plan ended up not going how we thought whatsoever.

After waiting a long time, we just decided to call it quits for a while and get something to eat. We were actually able to eat where there was a view of the dressing room, so if we did miss them coming in there would still be a chance. After killing time eating, they had still not shown up, so we decided to just walk around for a while longer.

The concert was set to kick off at 7:00, but by 6:30  neither artist  had shown up yet. We decided to just cut our losses(time mostly) and just get in line to get in. The line was ridiculously long, and all of a sudden my buddy Dennis said he saw a blacked-out Escalade go around the corner. We walked over quickly to see what was going on, and it was actually what seemed to be a manager/crew heading in. None of the people were the artists, but we knew that they would most likely be arriving soon after, so we went back to our original spot. 5 minutes passed, and an identical vehicle pulled in. Another minute or so went by, the driver opened the door, and Ace Hood stepped out. He came right over to us when I asked him, and he was as cool as can be. He had no problem signing my two CD's.


Another 5 minutes passed, and a huge Mercedes van pulled in, and it was obvious that Bobby Ray was arriving. He stayed in the van for maybe ten minutes, then came out and signed no problem as well. He even chatted with us. He was really nice to us, which I had heard would be the case, but may also have to do with what was going on in the van.

All in all it was a long day, but we got to see an amazing concert, meet two great artists, and accomplished what we came to do.

Total Autographs for 2013: 934

Here are each guys' biggest hits if you don't know them. If you are a kid or sensitive to language, please don't watch(Airplanes doesn't have any bad language):

Patriots Cornerback Kyle Arrington 10/1/13

I know it has been a while since I've posted something for the readers, but I'm finally back! Not that there have been many opportunities, but even if there were, I have been incredibly busy with my junior year of school, and when I'm not doing school work I'm usually at my job so there just isn't much time for 'graphing. Luckily for me I finally found an event that could fit into my schedule.

A few weeks back someone I knew a little bit from high school said that Kyle Arrington would be signing at a benefit that went towards a local football team. It wasn't free, but hey I'm not exactly pouring money into the hobby these days anyway. I thought I would be able to rack this event, but it was actually pretty strictly run. I probably could have gotten 2 and been scolded, but it just wasn't worth it.

There was also a raffle for a signed pair of sneakers worn by him, so maybe I will get lucky with that.

Kyle was very nice, and really enjoyed the photo I brought. He seemed really humble, because he was literally introducing himself to everyone.

I was happy to go to this because I only get 3-4 chances every year to meet football players.

If things go the way I hope I will have new entries up Sunday, and another in about 2 weeks.

Total Autographs for 2013: 930

Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma 9/3/13

About 2 weeks or so ago, I got a text from my cousin that Uconn Head Coach, and Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma would be signing autographs 20 minutes away from my house to promote a new package store in the area. He has a line of wines, so this is actually a common occurrence throughout the area, but this was the first one I could make it to.

The only issue surrounding this was that I'm only 20, so obviously I wouldn't have been able to go into the store, and I had the brilliant idea of shaving my beard this weekend, so I was not exactly looking 21+. I brought my dad with me, but age would not matter even a little since there was a tent set up outside the store in the parking lot. Thankfully in 6 months, I will be able to 'graph the casino floor at Mohegan, and other events like this without even wondering.

Anyways, Geno came out exact at the scheduled time which was nice, and he seemed pretty happy to be there. My regular readers will remember that I met him on > 6/20/12 and > 6/19/13.

We each got one item signed, and I was thrilled to finally get the 39-0 Sports Illustrated signed:

The "Perfect Season" Sports Illustrated is such a busy cover, so I just went with the gold Sharpie that the store had for him. I'm going to add some of the girls on it as I see them.

Total Autographs for 2013: 929