Autographs

Would you like to see my autographs?

Never having the right photograph, notebook, trading card for a Chicago Bear to sign, I decided to always come prepared with blank 3x5 note cards.  Many I have obtained in person through Training Camp, Family Day, all the Fan Conventions and public speaking events.  The rest I have purchased.  I study my signatures quite in detail, and I realize that their are counterfeiters out there.  However, I have sincerely confident that I have the real deal.  I am still seeking a Halas and a Payton that look real and good.

Adamle, Mike Albrecht, Ted	1975-1976 1977-1981	Kurek, Ralph	1965-1970
Anderson, Neal	1986-1993	Landry, Greg
Atkins, Doug	1955-1966	Leggett, Earl	1957-1965
Austin, Reggie ?	2001-2002	Livers, Virgil	1975-1979
Avellini, Bob	1975-1984	Luckman, Sid	1939-1950
Azumah, Jerry	1999-2004	Lujack, Johnny	1948-1951
Bashnagel, Brian	1976-1984	Marshall, Wilber	1984-1987
Blanda, George	1949-1958	McAfee, George	1940-1941, 45-50
Booker, Marty	1999-2003	McCall, Bill	1952-1959
Boso, Cap	1987-1991	McCaskey, Mike	Owner
Bratkowski, Zeke	1954, 57-60	McCaskey, Virginia	Owner
Brown, Bill	1961	McKinnon, Dennis	1983-1985, 87-89
Brown, Ed	1954-1961	McMahon, Jim	1982-1988
Brown, Mike	2000-2004	McMichael, Steve	1981-1993
Brupbacher, Ross Buffone, Doug	1970-1972 1966-1979	Miller, Jim	1998-2002
Bull, Ronnie	1962-1970	Moorehead, Emery	1981-1988
Butkus, Dick	1965-1973	Morris, Johnny	1958-1967
Butler, Kevin	1985-1995	Musso, George	1933-1944
Cadile, Jim	1962-1972	Nagurski, Bronko	1930-1937, 1943
Caroline, J.C.	1956-1965	Obradovich, Ed	1962-1971
Carrier, Mark	1990-1996	Olsen, Greg	2007
Carter, Virgil	1968-1969, 76-77	Osborne, Jim	1972-1984
Casares, Rick	1955-1964	Pace, Orlando
Chambers, Wally Coady, Rich	1973-1977 1970-1974	Pardee, Jack	Coach
Columbo, Marc	2002-2004	Parsons, Bob	1972-1983
Colvin, Roosevelt	1999-2002	Payton, Connie	Walter's wife
Connor, George	1948-1955	Percival, Mac	1967-1973
Covert, Jim	1983-1990	Peterson, Adrian	2002-2004
Daniels, Phillip	2000-2003	Petitbon, Richie	1959-1968
Dent, Richard	1983-1993, 1995	Phillips, Reggie	1985-1987
Ditka, Mike	1961-1966	Plank, Doug	1975-1982
Dooley, Jim	1952-1954, 56-57,59-62	Pruitt, Mickey	1988-1990
Douglass, Bobby	1969-1975	Pyle, Mike	1961-1969
Edinger, Paul	2000-2004	Rivera, Ron	1984-1992
Evans, Vince	1977-1983	Roach, Nick
Flanagon, Jim	1994-2000	Robinson, Marcus	1997-2002
Flutie, Doug	1986	Ryan, Buddy	Coach
Fortmann, Dan	1936-1943	Salaam, Rashaan	1995-1997
Fortunato, Joe	1955+1966	Samuel, Khari	1999-2001
Frazier, Leslie	1981-1985	Sanders, Thomas	1985-1989
Gault, Willie	1983-1987	Sayers, Gale	1965-1971
Gayle, Shaun	1984-1994	Schroeder, Gene	1951-1952, 54-57
Gentry, Dennis	1982-1992	Singletary, Mike	1981-1992
Grabowski, Jim	1971	Sprinkle, Ed	1944-1955
Grange, Red	1929-1931	Stelz, Craig
Hampton, Dan	1979-1990	Suey, Matt	1980-1989
Harper, Roland	1975-1978, 80-82	Taylor, Roosevelt	1961-1969
Harris, Al	1979-1984, 86-87	Terrell, David	2001-2004
Hartenstine, Mike	1975-1986	Thomas, Bob	1975-1984
Hester, Devin	2006	Thornton, James	1988-1982
Hill, Harlan       1954-1961 Hull, Mike	1968-1970	Tomzak, Mike	1985-1990
Jackson, Vestee	1986-1990	Turner, Cecil	1968-1973
Jiggets, Dan	1976-1982	Turner, Clyde	1940-1952
Johnson, Leon	2001-2002	Urlacher, Brian	2000-2013
Jones, Dante	1988-1994	Waddle, Tom	1989-1994
Jones, Stan	1954-1965	Wade, Bill	1931-1966
Kavanaugh, Ken	1940-1941, 45-50	Wade, Bobby	2003-2004
Kramer, Erik	1994-1998	Williams, James	1991-2002
Kramer, Erik	1994-1998	Zorich, Chris	1991-1997
Kreutz, Olin	1998-2004

Kurt Becker 1982-88, 1990

New additions ^^^^ in the 1968-1976 time frame:  Mike Adamle, Rich Coady, Ross Brupbacher and Mike Hull

    

I have all my autographs stored in a nice leather binder, and it appears I have many duplicates.

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary the Gallery of Sport Art, Ltd created a souvenir print that looked like this:

and they also offered an autographed version

The autographed version is valued in excess of $1,000, if not more.  Apparently they did not sell all of those they had, or there was some sort of defect on some of the prints.  So, I guess they cut out some of the autographs and sold them individually.  I bought as many as I could at VERY, VERY, VERY reasonable prices, and they all come with a photographic Certificate of Authenticity.

                                                  

My autographs are truly a gem when it comes to the whole of my collection.  I have obtained MANY of them in person, at Training Camp, Fan Conventions, Private signings and Public speeches.  If any Bear player came to town, I was there to get autographs. 

Oh, and I finally got THIS one.  I am now happy.

              WELL, IT's 2024 and I finally found the Holy Grail 3x5 auto, and fortunately, MY NAME IS JIM!  No COA, but I have seen enough Halas signatures that it is genuine....

TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2006

Autographs

I have been very fortunate to meet and greet a few of my Chicago Bear idols in person. It started around the Super Bowl time, ...(Actually, before I was a Bear Collector, I did meet Jack Concannon and some of the players from his time at a celebrity basketball game in the late 60's early 70's)...Around 1986... Ditka was in town doing a "motivational" type speech, and I was able to meet him. I had the same opportunity with Walter Payton and Mike Singletary. Each time I attended a speech, however, I never had anything decent to get an autograph on...It was always a wrinkled up dinner program or some scrap of paper...That's when I switched to 3X5 blank notecards, because they are quite effective, and easy to carry and protect.

Don't get me wrong. I have some sweet 8x10 photos autographed by Butkus, Sayers and Ditka as well. Actually, Ditka came back to my town in 1995 just for autograph signing, and I got him to sign the infamous "flipping the bird" photo. He wrote "You're #1" on it, which was pretty funny.

The last ten years, or so, I have been getting my notecards signed at Training Camp or The Fan Convention. If I get a few per year, I am happy. I keep them stored in a nice flip photo album that has a Chicago Bear pewter front.

Besides Butkus, Sayers and Ditka....just from flipping through my book, I have:

Dennis McKinnon, Emery Morehead,Tom Waddle,Erik Kramer, Jim Covert, Rick Casares, Matt Suhey, Mike Tomzcak, Chris zorich, Jim McMahon, Neal Anderson, Bob Avellini, Ron Rivera, Dennis Gentry, Shaun Gayle....Those are the more known ones...I have dozens more.

The fun is just remembering the when and where you met each player when you got his autograph. I am not an autograph hound like you see many places. If I get one, I get one. It's difficult as a 48 year old male to get the players to sign. They think you just want to sell their graph, I think.

One year I took my 20 year old daughter and her friend on a hot day to Bourbonaisse...They were attired in halter tops...LOL...They were able to get me a dozen signatures.

Hey, a Man's gotta do, what a Man's gotta do...it was a tad bit exploitive, but they had fun too.

The program pictured is from Bears' Training Camp, the last year it was in Platteville, Wisconsin...It is LOADED with top notch signatures of the majority of the team and coaching staff, including Urlacher.