ProCase Sports

The Chicago Bears used to hold a fan convention at the Hilton hotel in Chicago for a stretch of ten years. Every year ProCase would set up a booth at the convention, and sell framed pictures and memorabilia.

One player I got to know well shortly after he arrived in Chicago was Robbie Gould. Robbie became a good friend of mine and my family’s; occasionally he would come to our house for dinner. I have pictures of Robbie teaching my son and daughter how to kick field goals in our front yard. Our neighbors had no clue that the guy in our front yard was the kicker for the Chicago Bears.

At the 2005 Bears convention, Robbie and his sister were walking around the convention, and stopped by my booth to say hello. Almost no one recognized Robbie without his jersey on, considering it was his first season on the team. We invited him and his sister to sit down and hang out behind our booth for awhile. Even if a fan did recognize Robbie, no one would be able to see him behind our booth because some of our displays set up on the tables in front of him were too large.

While Robbie Gould was sitting behind or booth, a boy who I’d guess is about eight years old and his father came up to our booth. The boy’s father asked if I had a picture of Robbie Gould, because Robbie was this young Bears fan’s favorite player. I had a notebook with 8×10 photos of different players in it. I handed the book to the boy and told him there were a few pictures of Robbie in there. The boy picked out a photo and his dad gave him money to pay for it. I asked the boy what his name was and asked him to hand me the photo so I could put it in a protective sleeve. He had no clue Robbie was sitting right behind me. While I was getting the change I owed the boy, I slipped the photo to Robbie and asked him to personalize it for the young Bears fan. Sixty seconds later I handed the photo back to the boy in the sleeve with a personalized autograph from Robbie Gould on it. I’ll never forget the look on the little boy’s face when he saw it. He showed it to his dad and his dad had a strange look on his face. I’m sure he was thinking, how did you do this? I noticed the boy had a camera, so I asked him if he’d like a photo with Robbie. Robbie stood up from behind the display and I introduced the boy to his favorite Chicago Bear. That was priceless, the innocence of a young boy meeting his favorite player is something I’ll bet he’ll remember forever!