OT: Most Famous Person From Your Town

[StickierBuns]

Tom Izzo and Steve Mariucci.....both Yoopers.

Met a ton, too many to mention.

[Montana Tom]

The only famous person from my home town of Glencoe, Minnesota isn't a real person: Jolly Green Giant LOL

But that I've met? Wow...lot of water under this bridge.

Jimmy Connors...I had several meetings with him negotiating his appearance contract in Vail/Beaver Creek. He turned down an asset worth $600k at the time (about $1.2mm today). Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Amy Grant...ditto, but by contrast, she was incredibly sweet. Worked closely with her brother-in-law to negotiate the appearance contract. This was long before she was married to Vince Gill. I was single at the time and she tried to fix me up with a friend of hers living in Aspen...they went to Vanderbilt together.
Jamie Lee Curtis...She was ahead of me in a slow Security Line at LAX...she's funny as shit
Colin Powell...got to meet and chat with him at a national conference where he was speaking...got a great photo with him. Class act. Wish he had run for top office.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band...I hired them for a gig in Beaver Creek CO and 20 years later they played at our County Fair in Montana; we reconnected and got photos.
John Davidson...we were negotiating to host Hollywood Squares at Beaver Creek (they ended up choosing Hollywood Florida)
Tommy Smothers...he was in town for a concert with his brother. He got in early and I went and picked him up and brought him to a marketing department party at our boss's house...he was super down-to-earth, doing yo-yo tricks. He gave me his business card...he owned a vinyard and Dickie his brother owned a winery. His card said "Farmer". We had dinner with both of them the next night, and I thought Dickie was a prick.
Miss USA 1976. Barbara Peterson from Minnesota. I was Santa Claus at their house. She was gorgeous, but I thought her younger sister was hot.
Chris Gardner, the author of the book "In Pursuit of Happyness" (intentionally misspelled), turned into a movie with Will Smith. He and I hit it off because we were both single dads.
President Gerald Ford...I have a photo of him handing a small American flag to my oldest daughter when she was 4.

[ncvike]

Not sure if this is my hometown or the town I currently live in. But...

Hometown: Billings, MT: Not a lot of people from there. Probably Dave McNally, Hall of Fame pitcher
Current town: Denver, CO: Probably either Tim Allen or Don Cheadle
Most famous person met: Probably David Stern, whom I met and spoke with at a wedding. He was the commissioner of the NBA at the time. Met John Hickenlooper at the same wedding. Also met beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

Also can't forget that my niece's best friend's babysitter knows the members of Wilson Phillips. Top that.

As a huge O's fan that's cool about Dave McNally

[badgervike]

I grew up in Bloomington and was friends with one of Bud Grant's sons (Bruce). Spent time over at his house so knew Bud. Met most of the Vikings from the early 70s (PPE, Tark, Foreman, etc). Played Legion ball with Kent Hrbek who was from Bloomington (different HS). He was a pitcher back then.

I'm a Badger booster so know most of the Badgers in the NFL including the Watts, Wilson, etc. Friends with Barry Alvarez.

Live in a neighborhood with Mark Johnson and Bob Suter (before he passed away)...members of the Miracle on Ice team. I talk to Mark Johnson on a regular basis.

Sat next to Mohammed Ali on an airplane. He was pretty far gone at the time. He gave me an autograph photo card as he shuffled off the plane. It was amazing to me how quickly all the people knew he was at the Atlanta airport. Baggage handlers, etc. were talking about it before I could even get to baggage claim. I also sat next to Kristi Yamaguchi for a flight. She had a summer home in the Brainerd area.

Had dinner one night in LA with Heather Locklear and her mother. She was meeting her mother for dinner at a restaurant and was running late. By the time she got there, we had a long chat with her mom at the bar. She invited us to join them and we did. She was actually very nice..

Met Brian Boitano in Colorado Springs where he was training for the Olympics. Sat down at the hotel to have breakfast and he joined me. Nice guy.

Apollo Astronaut Frank Borman was on our board when I worked in corporate America. Got to know him fairly well. Funny story about him. He was in Madison and we went out to dinner at the fancy French restaurant in town known to be presumptuous. He asked the waiter about one of the dishes...and the waiter responded with a "well..you probably haven't traveled to many places" speech when describing the dish. Borman looked at the waiter and said "Well...I'm one of 8 people that have been to the moon so yes..I've traveled extensively". The waiter stopped me when I was on my way to the bathroom to ask if that was true and I assured him it was.

Don't know if this counts as famous but I was booked on a flight and had a middle seat. I tried to change it with the gate agent but the flight was full. Just prior to the doors closing...the plane was less than half full including both seats on either side of me. In walks the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders to fill up the airplane..including one on either side of me. They were quite fun and invited me to their event that night in Phoenix but I had other commitments.

Met quite a few more on my travels. I spent a lotttt of time on the road.

Edit: Also met Prince at First Avenue in Downtown Mpls when he was in the "Artist Formerly Known As" era. He was paying homage to the venue that gave him a start and trying out some new music. Some guys I played with way back when were opening for him. They invited me backstage to meet him. To be honest, I didn't really have a big desire to meet him. The private individual was far different than the public persona. He was all business behind the scenes. Even the "artist formerly known as" served a business interest. His previous recording contract specifically called out terms for Prince or any other name used by Prince...so he used a symbol...to break his contract. Don't know if he came up with that but I thought it was brilliant. I talked to him for about an hour. Fascinating dude.

[JustInTime]

I’m think we have 6 degrees of separation covered.