Sunday, July 10, 2016

Similar post to last, a chance meeting

Sometime in 2005 or so, give or take a year, I was on a flight from SLC to SF. It was one of the larger regional jets, a 70 seater, that had 6-8 first class seats. As I remember, memory being what it is at nearly 71, at the end of boarding this guy gets on, sits in the isle seat next to me. Middle age, younger than me by at least a decade. Nothing remarkable about him, medium build, around my height, etc. I flew nearly every week, there was nothing about this guy that indicated he was any different than the usual sales/engineer/software guy that was usually in the seat next to me.

Two hour flight, we took off, settled in, got water from the flight attendants, etc. After a bit we exchanged pleasantries. I think he actually started it. The 'What do you do, where do you live, etc'. It got around to my turn and I asked the same, what he did. "I'm retired." he said. I may have pursed my lips or raised my eyebrows. I do remember I asked "Oh, what did you do that you retired at your age?" I was expecting a software startup answer. "Football", he answered. "Oh, professional?" I asked. He nodded. "What position?" I asked, he was clearly not one of the huge players you see on tv. "Quarterback" he said. Me nodding. "Oh, what team?" "San Francisco" was the answer.


Yeah, it was Steve Young. Now, had it been Joe Montana, I would have recognized him. We chatted through the rest of the hour, he was coming from a gratis coaching and speaking session at BYU, his alma mater. 

We got off the plane together, walked down to baggage claim, no one met him, he walked with a bit of a limp. Nice guy. 




11 comments:

  1. Travel afforded you great serendipity. A side benefit I suppose. Good to know Young is a good guy.

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    1. It did, mostly in the places I was able to see. I could never match the story of my wife's dad, the Admiral, who sat next to Charlton Heston on a flight and asked him what he did for a living, then advised him to have a fallback job.

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  2. I would never recognize a sports celebrity unless it was Joe Montana!

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    1. I think I could pick out Kareem Abdul Jabbar.......

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  3. Interesting encounter... A grandson (or was it great-grandson) of Brigham Young, for whom his alma mater was named.

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    1. Ah, didn't know that. Knew he went there, but not the rest. Interesting.

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  4. Cool! Hard to recognize him without a helmet and big number on his shirt. I was on the same plane as Tiny Tim a long time ago.

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    1. Did he sing? I had stopped following or even watching pro football around the time Roger Staubach retired. He was the only NFL'er that I actually knew. In fact, he and I played catch with a football a couple times.

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  5. Steve Young was prudent to retire when he did. He'd suffered several concussions during his distinguished career --a normal-sized man getting tackled by giants can only take so much.

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    1. I remember being surprised how ordinary-looking he was; little shorter than me, moderate build, nothing NFL-like about him. Also that there was no one to meet him at the gate, we walked down to baggage claim chatting, he waved and left.

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  6. When I read this I remembered a story I once heard about Telly Savalas traveling in first class on an international flight. As the plane taxied to the terminal he looked out to see limousines, assorted dignitaries, a red carpet and a brass band gathered on the tarmac. Turning to the little man seated next to him Mr. Savalas said, 'I get so tired of never being able to go anywhere as an anonymous person'. When the door to the aircraft was opened his neighbor excused himself and exited first to the great delight of the gathered crowd. Telly Savalas had been sitting next to King Hussein.

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