06/18/2026
Some memories never leave you...
This week's Throwback Thursday takes me back to the 1970s.
As a kid growing up in Maywood, New Jersey, I was a complete sports fanatic. If I wasn't playing baseball, football, street hockey, basketball, or whatever game the neighborhood kids could organize, I was following my favorite teams. The Yankees. The Giants. The Rangers. If a game was on, I was watching it. If it wasn't on television, I was listening on a transistor radio.
We didn't travel very much when I was growing up. My dad was an educator and my mom was a homemaker, so getting on an airplane was a pretty rare event. Usually once a year.
One of the perks of my father's job as a high school principal was an invitation to a national principals' convention that was often held in warm-weather cities around the country. As part of the program, they would sometimes arrange meet-and-greets with professional athletes.
For a sports-crazed teenager, this was better than the vacation itself.
On one of those trips, I had the chance to meet Bubba Smith.
At the time, Bubba was one of the most recognizable players in professional football. Standing next to him, I remember thinking he was larger than life. As a kid who spent countless hours watching games and memorizing players, meeting someone I'd only seen on television felt like meeting a superhero.
Looking back now, what strikes me isn't just meeting Bubba. It's how vividly I still remember the moment all these years later. The details of many days fade away, but certain experiences from our youth become permanent snapshots in our minds.
This was one of those snapshots for me.
Funny how that works.
