Your first star interview

[spinning27]

I am not sure if this was the absolute first big-time guy I interviewed one-on-one, but I remember interviewing Tony Gwynn in the Padres clubhouse when I was in college. Asked him for some time, he pulled up a chair, and we talked baseball for 20 minutes at his locker. It was great.

 

[JLawson]

My big would be UNC coach Roy Williams this summer. Nice and easy interview at a small press conference in Nevada. Funny guy.

 

[marchmadnessallseason]

Did he mention The Stone Balloon?

Mench did mention "The Stone Balloon" when I asked him about his most memorable times at college. What do you know about that place BYH?

Unfortunately, that place is closed down now. Before I went to UDel, it was one of the first things I had heard about--and now, without it, the on-campus bar scene is pretty poor here.

 

[Mayfly]

My big would be UNC coach Roy Williams this summer. Nice and easy interview at a small press conference in Nevada. Funny guy.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Remember that.

 

[Mayfly]

Did he mention The Stone Balloon?

Mench did mention "The Stone Balloon" when I asked him about his most memorable times at college. What do you know about that place BYH?

Unfortunately, that place is closed down now. Before I went to UDel, it was one of the first things I had heard about--and now, without it, the on-campus bar scene is pretty poor here.

You still got Klondike Kates and Deer Park for Mug Night. Can't go wrong those places. PM me marchmadness. Mench is a great alum from there.

He can tell a great story and have you hanging on. You need to open him up though. He is a little gruff off the bat, but once you peel him open, you can dig pretty deep.

 

[marchmadnessallseason]

Did he mention The Stone Balloon?

Mench did mention "The Stone Balloon" when I asked him about his most memorable times at college. What do you know about that place BYH?

Unfortunately, that place is closed down now. Before I went to UDel, it was one of the first things I had heard about--and now, without it, the on-campus bar scene is pretty poor here.

You still got Klondike Kates and Deer Park for Mug Night. Can't go wrong those places. PM me marchmadness. Mench is a great alum from there.

That is true--Kate's has great nightly food deals too...and four friends and I leased a house for this year literally within 40 seconds walking distance of Deer Park.

 

[SoCalDude]

When I was in junior college, the student newspaper advisor took me to the L.A. Forum one afternoon to interview the Lakers PR guy, who was an alum. We were sitting in the Press Lounge and Jerry West walks in to have lunch and watch a game on TV. So I stumbled through an interview with him, too. That was in 1972.
The first day at my first real job after college in August 1975, the boss sends me to the high school gym. He says to look for a guy named Red Doss, who will have an announcement. So I go to the gym, Wilt Chamberlain is there playing volleyball. The announcement was of a new coed volleyball league, called the IVA (International Volleyball Assn.). Asked Wilt a few questions. League folded after one season.

 

[friend of a friend]

Jim Ryun

 

[spnited]

Joe Namath, July 1969 ... under circumstances that scared the shirt out of a 19-year-old who had been in the business for 5 months and had done nothing but high schools sports.
There is a big-name New York columnist (then football wirter) to whom I am eternally grateful for taking some kid he didn't know (except for having seen my byline on a story about his kid's high school team) and helping me through what could have been an impossible situation.

 

[Huggy]

Roberto Duran in 1997 for a soon-to-fold Canadian adult magazine. (The story ran in the final issue.) He was promoting some salsa album he had out at a men's entertainment establishment. This place advertised in the mag so they helped set up an interview with Duran.

I was a little nervous but I was a huge boxing fan and this guy was an icon of my youth, my father's all-time fave fighter (until he turned his back on Leonard) on TV all the time laying waste to overmatched challengers and the guy who beat Leonard, savaged Davey Moore and troubled Marvin Hagler.

He was pretty good answering questions through his interpreter until I asked him why he never fought Alexis Arguello. He turned those jet black eyes on me (like Charles Manson's Joe Frazier reportedly said) and said in OK English, "Why don't you ask Don King why I never got a forking fight with Arguello?"

 

[PhilaYank36]

After that question, did he say "No mas?"

 

[Batman]

My first year or so out of college, Pete Rose was doing a meet and greet at a local casino and we managed to arrange a one-on-one interview.
It didn't go too well.
I only had 5 or 10 minutes with him, so I tried to do more of a news angle. Hall of Fame weekend was the following week, so I asked him what it was like seeing guys he played with like Schmidt and Nolan Ryan go into the hall while he's left out. Later, I asked him something about the gambling allegations.
He didn't snap or anything, but his answers were a little testy. I don't think he liked some young punk from Podunk throwing things like that at him. And, to be fair, my questions were probably as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.
After the interview, I followed him and the casino PR guy upstairs for the meet and greet. It was around a blackjack table, and all of Pete's small talk with the PR guy -- for the entire hour -- was centered around gambling. Not on sports, but just playing blackjack, poker, whatever. It was kind of creepy. If I had had more experience, it's pretty obvious what my lede should've been. Instead, the story was pretty shirtty.
At some point, I asked my editor if it was OK to get an autograph and he said sure. My dad was a huge Phillies fan and I thought it'd make a great birthday gift. The card I brought with me was a pretty worthless card from one of those Toys R Us Fleer sets from the late 80s, but Pete kept saying how the autograph was going to decrease its value. He did sign it. But I'm not sure I earned a place on his Christmas card list.