As a kid it was all about Buffalo sports teams, and it still is. Gilbert Perreault is and always will be my all-time favorite hockey player – nobody electrified the crowd like he did. He’s the reason I first put on ice skates and annually flooded our backyard to practice ice skating. I was at the game when Wayne Gretzky (finally) beat Phil Esposito’s scoring record, though few recall that Perreault recorded a hat trick that night as well. Humble, and incredibly talented, he’s still revered today as one of the NHL’s best stick handlers ever to play the game. In his storied 16 year career, the Buffalo Sabres is the only NHL team he ever played for. Voted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990, Perreault was also dubbed one of the NHL’s top 100 players ever to take the ice. My memories of seeing him and the Buffalo Sabres live are treasures, and my quest to obtain every game of his on video that I can continues to this day. 

Everybody wanted to be like OJ Simpson as a kid, not so much as adults. His undeniable skill was mimicked (but never equalled) whenever we played a game of neighborhood football. He galloped and juked around some of the NFL’s most feared defensive lineups and still managed to rush for over 2000 yards in a single season. We chased him around Bills practices hoping for an autograph, though that never happened. During the 1990’s while living in LA, OJ was still making news – though for entirely different reasons. While working the night shift as a digital photo retoucher in Hollywood, I would come home every morning and fire up the VCRs recording the days events from multiple local Los Angeles TV channels. What I originally imagined taking a couple of weeks lasted over 9 months! Being the completest I am, the task was started and must be finished. Everyone thought I was nuts, until a co-workers mother (who happened to be Danial Petrocelli’s secretary) found out I had the entire trial on videotape, professionally edited, 100% commercial free. The rest is history. Go OJ, go!