Golden greetings and silver salutations! It's almost Super Bowl time! This time of year has me feeling nostalgic and I wanted to share something I used to do as a child.
I was sport obsessed growing up. Not only did I collect cards, but I used to write letters to players and send cards asking for autographs. I used to read Sports Cards and Tuff Stuff magazines (kudos if you ever read those) and read articles about who would sign.
Sending letters to active players was very hit or miss, but there was a little known trick that I learned. If you mailed a letter to a player, care of the Hall of Fame of ANY of the four major sports, they would forward it on to the player's home. Retired players were much better signers and I did a LOT of writing. I wrote to all the major sports and loved sending letters to Hall of Famers!
Since it is the end of football season, here are some of the best NFL names I was able to get autographs of through the mail:
First off, the man who needs needs no introduction, the Juice:
The MVP of Super Bowl 1 and 2, Bart Starr:
Roger Staubach, a multiple time Super Bowl champion:
The great Johnny Unitas. He was known as "The Golden Arm" (not to be confused with @goldenarms) and was a 10 time Pro-Bowler.
Sometimes I would write to guys just because they were in the Hall of Fame and I happened to find a card of them (the Swell NFL H.O.F. set was amazing for this). I used to love writing to guys with silly nicknames.
Check out these guys:
Clarence "Ace" Parker was a former NFL MVP, who also even played for the Philadelphia A's in the MLB. He lived to be 101 and he was the oldest living NFL HOF player ever. Another fun fact about him is that was one of the last living players to play against Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig retired in 1939!
Morris "Red" Badgro was a multiple time All-Pro, who like Ace Parker, also played in the MLB. He was born all the way back in 1902 and I was able to obtain his autograph. It is just such a cool thing to think that my letter passed through his hands at some point.
The 3rd man in the nickname photo is Dante "Gluefinger" Lavelli. This guy was a multiple time Pro-Bowler who was a part of 3 NFL Champion teams. He played so long ago, that the Browns were a good team...the BROWNS! Also, he played minor league ball in the Detroit Tigers system. Apparently, all great NFL players in the past also played pro baseball.
Thank you for walking down memory lane. If you would like me to show some autographs from other sports, let me know.
Have a great day and keep supporting #SteemSilverGold and #TheAlliance.
Source: Some stats are from the Wikipedia.com page of the respective players.
happy memories
Haha love it! I did the same thing @mikeshuh! I used to have a book with all known addresses from every sport. I learned that if I sent 2 cards, and offered to let them keep one of the cards, and included a SASE, it improved the odds of getting an autograph back. Sometimes they would even sign them both, and include a letter saying thanks, that was signed too!
I got back a Dale Earnhardt autograph once, with a handwritten letter to me. That was awesome!
I used to send a SASE with every letter. That was the most expensive part! It was great when they would write a little note too. That is crazy that you got a letter Dale Earnhardt! Do you still have it?
No, before he died, a very close friend of mine was a huge NASCAR fan and I gave the card and letter to him as a gift. He still has it framed and we discuss it quite often haha.
Awesome I’ve been getting a lot of sportscards lately also bringing back childhood memories that’s what got me back into it I posted about it the other day check it out!!
I looked, and I had already seen and commented on your post! I guess you planted the seed in my head to do this post ☺
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