Meeting Chris Chelios

OK, ladies ... with the off-season upon us, sometimes its a little hard to come up with things to post (and some of us have things that prevent us from writing up our regular weekly posts like vacations, family visits, etc.), so I've come across some friends and blog readers who have recently had some interesting hockey experiences that I've asked them to write about for our enjoyment and over the upcoming weeks, I'll be featuring those stories in place of some of the regular features.

This week's story is from Melissa who was lucky enough to meet Chris Chelios recently!!  THANKS, Melissa, for being kind enough to write up your story and send pictures along!!

Hello there, fellow hockey lovers!! : ) Stephanie asked me to give you a little recap of meeting Chris Chelios! Those of you, who know me, know how big of a Red Wings fan I am—afterall, I’m from Michigan!

I received an alert on my facebook saying Chris Chelios would be signing autographs at a Verizon Wireless store a few towns from where I live. It worked out perfectly because I play soccer on Thursday nights in that same town so all I needed to do was show up a bit early, meet him, and then go play soccer!! None of my teammates who I usually carpool with were excited about meeting him, so I decided to go by myself! Sometimes doing things on your own is best!

I stood in line and met the people in front of and behind me. They are pretty much professional autograph collectors. Been down to the Superbowl dragging helmets all over the place for autograph’s kind of people! I asked them if they thought he would take a picture with me because I didn’t bring anything for him to sign! Pictures to me are more important because you can have those forever and you’re actually IN the picture! Just getting an autograph that’s not personalized doesn’t mean much to me! They had all met him before at previous signings and said he was such a nice guy and he’d be willing to do that. Before we were finally (after waiting outside in the heat for 30 mins—it wasn’t that bad) let in the building, the guy behind me gave me a Detroit Red Wings puck and told me I could have him sign it and keep it! I was shocked! People are really so nice! As you can see from the photos, I did get to meet Chris, who is really nice and very tan! And I got his autograph on the puck the gentleman behind me in line gave me! And I’m also wearing my soccer shorts…..

I asked him if we could get our picture taken and he said of course!—I was only shaking a little bit, but I’m pretty sure he couldn’t tell! I was totally playing it cool!! Haha! I asked Chris about his golf game because I’m a big golfer! He said that he doesn’t play golf and doesn’t like it! I have never met a hockey player who does not play golf! Anyway, I thanked him for his autograph and the picture and he smiled and said, “You’re welcome!” And it was a genuine smile! He seems like a really nice guy!