It all came together like pieces of a puzzle. First piece was that someone gave me two tickets for the Carolina Game. On a whim, we decided we would try to go to the Dean Dome to see the JV play which was scheduled to play 3 hours before the Varsity team. We parked and walked to the Dean Dome.
Entrance A looked locked up so we walked around to Entrance B and noticed a door open. We again took a chance. There was someone standing in the door so we asked if it would be alright for us to go watch the JV game. The man kindly said that we could go in and sit anywhere we wanted for the JV game. We sat down in the very first row! When the JV played, we could feel the vibrations in our legs from them playing. It was awesome!
The JV team is pretty much "unknown" to the general public. They play often to very few people. I would say in this 21,000 + capacity dome that there were at most 200 people watching the JV team. Here they are during a time out.
I'll post a more extensive post on the JV team on a later date, but ... I was taking photos of the JV boys and saw him ... See Eric Montross in the back ground of this photo .. the big bald and beautiful man wearing the red tie?
I must have taken a dozen or more from Row A. Then the JV game ended. After being asked by a few people if I'd take their photos, we talked about just going over there and saying Hi. I was very nervous, but after conversing with an usher
(these are the Ushers before they started ... Ushering) I was all convinced to walk over and take my once in a lifetime opportunity.
After all what is the worst that can happen? I could pee on myself, pass out, or he could just be downright rude. I was certain that he wouldn't be rude and I certainly didn't have to go to the bathroom ... so the worst that could happen was me turning 1,000 shades of red and passing out. Then what would happen? Can you imagine Eric Montross picking little ole me off the floor? *gasp* I would have passed out again!
So we walked over there and after standing there for what seemed like 10 minutes (but probably was really only 2 or 3) .. a man moved as if he were standing in our way. I motioned and said that I was trying to speak with Eric Montross. He got Eric's attention and when Eric stood up ... I thought I was going to pass out right then and there. I forgot he was 7 feet tall! I was looking at a giant! He reached out his hand for a handshake and .. I must say that his hands were very soft and warm. I was expecting a hard-roughed hand shake and I got a nice warm soft hand instead. It was a pleasant surprise. I told him a couple of stories about how I gave him the largest coke we had back in 1990 and how my camera had a "find Eric" button on it. He had wonderful eye contact and I felt about 10,000 shades of red. I guess it didn't come out though. After my stories, I asked if he would mind if I took a photo with him. I was thrilled when he said yes! He even made sure that the photos came out so that I wouldn't be disappointed when I got home.
Funny thing is that I was standing a step or two up .. otherwise my face woudln't have been in the photograph. I think I'll stay on cloud 9 million for a while simply beause of my two hand shakes, but then ....he touched my back! I showed great restraint because I really just wanted to rub my hand over his head .. :O So there ya go, the story of how I got to meet my favorite basketball player of all time!
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