Mike Ditka

I really don't have a lot of Ditka items in my collection. Like I have mentioned somewhere I was able to meet him in person a couple of times and listen to his motivational speech and get an autograph. I have read and own most of his books, and they are always a good read. Da Coach was a perfect fit for The Chicago Bears at a time when we needed him.

The picture's not the greatest, but some of the items I own besides the books are: a bobblehead, a 1989 Legend's Starting Lineup (that's the action figure behind the bright flash), a 12 in cut-out of Ditka during his playing days, a replica of the infamous striped sweater he wore in 1985 (Pro-Line, new and in wrapping), a dew crazy videotapes called the Grabowskis and Iron Mike (which were dance videos that tried to copy the success of The Super Bowl Shuffle), a puzzle made from a copy of Ditka's Restaurant Menu....what else?

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.

Brian Urlacher's Thoughts on Super Bowl XLI

FUNNY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pwyn8ObSg

The Books

My most recently aquired book is the one entitled "Payton", written by Connie Payton and Walter's kids Jarret and Brittney. My own daughter went to a book signing and had Connie Payton personally autograph it for me....I LOVE THAT! There have been some good books published in the few years....Somebody wrote a "Tales From The Chicago Bears Sideline" book in 2002 and Steve McMichael followed up with his OWN "Tales From The Sidelines" in 2003. Obviously Steve had his own opinions...I bought the '63 Championship book at the Bears Convention last year in 2005 and Maury Yeamons (author/player) autographed it for me. I have yet to read it in it's entirety, which is the case with a few other of my books. Ditka has a new one...came out last Christmas..."In Life, First You Must Kick Ass"...I am looking forward to reading that one soon.

And, of course there was the 2000 "Never Die Easy" that came out shortly after Payton's death. I also own a few older books...the Ditka and Mcmahon books from the Super Bowl Era, "Calling The Shots" by Mike Singletary and "Stop Action", a 1972 book by Dick Butkus. I have the infamous "I Am Third" book about Sayers and Brian Piccolo...I have that in hardback, soft cover, as well as VHS, DVD and Special Edition Emmy Award DVD. My music video collection will have to be a whole 'nuther topic.

These aren't all of my books, just some. I will try and remember to add some later. The photos with the weird arrows were "borrowed" from Amazon.com

Posters - Yeah, I Have Posters....

....too many to hang on the walls, anyway. Many are "new" and still in tubes. I'm not a real fan of collecting posters and then putting scotch tape all over the corners, or poking holes with pins, or even using that tacky, putty stuff. I'm just sure that stuff HAS to eat away the original finish on the poster...So, most of mine are nicely framed. There's a ton of posters out there in the world; I just buy the ones that float my boat. My all time favorite is THE one above.

The eighties and the Super Bowl were responsible for the creation of dozens of posters...some of them were related to popular TV shows or Movies at the time. Others like McMahon's General MaCarthur were historical. I like my Chicago Vice (spinoff of Miami Vice) with McMahon and Payton.


The Honey Bears were nice...I have a 1977 and 1978 poster of the "squads".

Then there's Super Bowl stuff and posters right after like "Junkyard Dogs", "Black and Blues Brothers","Back with a Vengeance"...


And of course all of the Walter Payton posters...I have 3 from his Hall of Fame Induction. I also have generic posters with logos and helmets, Urlacher posters, etc..It's a never ending collection...