TUPATALK: Fate and serendipity, Part 3

Note: This is the third part of a series recalling some of the well-known or significant athletes and sports personalities I've encountered in more than 30 years of full-time journalism.

Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

One final experience that stands out in my Southern California reporting days involved actor Craig T. Nelson ("Coach"), while he was a celebrity host at a golf tournament to raise money for police widows. I was there for fun, not work. Before the event got underway, my editor and I sought Nelson's autograph.

Nelson declined but said he'd accommodate us after the opening ceremony.

I thought skeptically, "Sure," and I melted back into the periphery of the crowd to watch the formalities, including a military jet flyover.

After the ceremony, I fixed my eyes on Nelson and saw him look around, scanning the crowd and looking for my editor and me. I made my way to him and he graciously gave me an autograph.

I can think of only two times in about 37 years as a reporter I sought an autograph.

Back in 1981, I jumped on the opportunity to interview actor Charlton Heston during a visit to our campus. After the media session, I asked him to sign his autobiography, which I had given to my mom.

The only other interviewee from whom I sought a signature was former NFL quarterback Joe Kapp -- in an experience I wrote about in a recent column -- as I was leaving. He had been my boyhood sports icon.

I've just got to share a couple of memories from that season of 1969. The Vikings hosted the Cleveland Browns in the 1969 NFL championship. I recall early in the game, there was a busted handoff between Kapp and 230-pound fullback Bill "Boom Boom" Brown. After being knocked off balance, Kapp bounced forward and bulled through the middle of the defense for seven yards, dragging defenders into the end zone.

Later in the game, Kapp scrambled to his right and took off. A 240-pound Cleveland linebacker hunkered down to stop him -- or force him out of the bounds. Kapp was having none of that. He ran full blast into the linebacker, launching himself just before the collision and ramming a knee into the left side of the linebacker's chest. Both players went down hard. The would-be tackler fell straight down and lie prone face down and would be taken out. Kapp bounced up within a couple of seconds and ran back to the huddle. I asked him about that play.

Most interestingly, he told me about how he came to throw a NFL record seven touchdowns against Baltimore. In the 1968 playoffs, Baltimore had beat up Kapp and the Vikings pretty badly. Joe told me he watched that game film over and over and over again during the offseason in preparation for the Week 2 meeting in 1969. Bud Grant even pulled him a couple of times before he set (tied) the record, but injuries to the two backup quarterbacks allowed him to come back in and make history. That record is still intact 54 seasons later.

I would recommend to those who haven't, to pull up a couple of old highlight films on Kapp. There's never been any quarterback like him since -- the epitome of almost inhuman ruggedness and raw determination. At the Vikings' award banquet for the 1969 season, Kapp was called up to receive the Most Valuable Viking Award for the season. He stood at the podium and turned it down, stating that there were 40 Most Valuable Vikings. He left the trophy on the table and went back to his seat.

His was an autograph I yearned for.

But, it's not signatures but memories scrawled on the heart that are the real prizes.

Thinking back on my college journalism experience, I also had the chance to interview the United States collegiate record holder in the steeplechase (Farley Garber), a linebacker from the original USFL, national and world-record champions and Olympic distance runners Doug Padilla and Paul Cummings, and Weber State football coach Mike Price, who later coached at Washington State and UTEP. In fact, I recall driving south to Provo to interview one of them -- it might have been Cummings -- in the shoe store where he worked.

I've just never been shy about interviewing people despite their standing. I recall back in the summer of 1990 when I was left in charge of the newspaper in Moreno Valley while my editor vacationed.

That also happened to be the week that Iraq invaded Kuwait.

From our little weekly, I called the Iraqi embassy in Washington, D.C. to get a quote from an Iraqi official. And, I got someone to talk.

One more thing before I leave Moreno Valley.

My mom had believed I should set my sights on being a nationally-prominent sportswriter. She was still alive when I landed the job in Moreno Valley, which was less than a two-hour drive from some major publications (L.A. Times, San Diego Union-Tribune and Riverside Press-Enterprise, to name some of the main ones).

But, there has been no miracle elevation for a guy who didn't launch into his first full-time newspaper job until his early 30s.

She passed away (age 55, cancer) while I still labored in Southern California. I'm happy I made it to at least the desert outskirts of the Promised Land -- flowing with ink and (more) money -- while she was still alive, even though I never entered it.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TUPATALK: Fate and serendipity, Part 3