BearFanatic34's Chicago Bears Collection

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Christmas

Yeah, I have Christmas stuff...hat, stocking, helmet lights for my tree...Mostly, I just have ornaments...about 35 of them and growing. The holiday manufacturers are Hallmark, Russ, Memory Company and one called Scottish something or another (they hit the market strong last year with glass ornaments)...

Telephones, Clocks, Lamps

I always wanted a phone made out of an actual full sized Riddell Helmet, but the prices I saw on Ebay were always too high....and then, I got lucky.

I won an auction on a phone that was actually used at Madison Square Garden on April 28-29, 1987 for the NFL Draft (Certificate of Authenticity)...The Bears drafted Jim Harbaugh in Round One and Ron Morris in Round Two. The phones provided that day were made by Nardi Enterprises, Inc. and each team was provided only ONE! Some other teams phones were auctioned in the $1,000 - $3,000 range....I lucked out at around $100.00...

Here are a couple of phones that I actually use.....

My birthday was last week and my wife bought me a nice digital scoreboard clock...Needless to say, I LIKE IT! It took some wall rearranging, but of course I was able to do it. I also have a rigid plastic "pennant shaped clock" and a regular round clock...plus an alarm clock (not pictured) and a half dozen different wristwatches (also not shown at this time)

I really had no intention of ever collecting lamps, but they ARE functional. If you pay close attention to some of the "room" pictures you will see them. I have three. One is a made from a 1983 "Huddles" Teddy Bear and another appears to have a late 1970's plastic Bobblehead as a base. I also have this new 17" touch lamp.

And, have I mentioned my latest compulsion.....NIGHT LIGHTS....LOL

I also have lighted pens and a lighted mug. I can put on quite the light show without conventional lighting.....

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.