Bears Tenth Annual Fan Convention

I attended the Bears 10th Annual Fan Convention held at the Hilton & Towers Hotel at 720 S. Michigan Ave for the first time. I must say that as much as I liked being there, it was definitely disorganized and left a lot to be desired.

I arrived to the Hilton and checked in and received my placard for attending and received another Scratch & Win ticket to see if I would get either Richard Dent or Gale Sayers signature later on that evening. Considering I won Ernie Banks when attending the Cubs Convention back in January, I did not think I would get lucky. Sure enough I wound up with Gale Sayers on my game piece and was glad, as I wanted Gale to sign my authentic throwback jersey. I walked around the basement of the hotel where a majority of the convention was to be held and waited in line to get into the 2 Minute Drill. This is an area that has authentic souvenirs from the Bears locker room for sale at a discounted price. As I have more jerseys, I knew that the wife would kill me if I bought anything. I finally got into the room where the 2 Minute Drill was being held and looked at the vendors who were there. I actually stumbled on Gale & Richard both signing mementos and attempted to have both men sign things I had brought with me. Then I found out from some extremely rude people that you had to purchase what they were selling in order for Richard or Gale to sign for you. Man that sucks!!!!! I talked with Gale from a short distance and double checked with him about the new Hall of Fame being opened in Omaha NE, as he is one of the inaugural members being inducted. I also talked with Richard to remind him of the time we met in San Francisco and I showed him the picture we took. Richard said to find him later when he was signing for free as he was working supposedly right now. I agreed to look for both of them later during the convention.

At this point I started to make my way to the Grand Ballroom for the opening ceremonies. Having attended the Cubs Convention, I learned that if you want to be inside, you must get there early enough to make sure you get a spot picked out for yourself. I got in and talked with some other fans as we waited for the start of the show. Finally former players started walking across the upper balcony without being introduced. That I did not understand. Do the people who organized this event believe that the former players deserve to be introduced one at a time and walk in to the reception of the fans versus just having them walk in and sit down? The ceremonies continued and Lovie Smith of course received a thunderous round of applause. Really not much was said other than the fact that Lovie still has not met all of his goals which was to consistently beat Green Bay (Lovie is doing that well), winning the division (2005 & 2006 North Champions), NFC Championships (2006 & 2007 defending) and yet the Super Bowl was elusive this time. After every thing was over for the ceremonies, I attempted to catch the players coming off the balcony and was told by the rented police that you had to have a media pass in order to get close to the players. I found that outrageous as I know that there were regular fans getting autographs from the players who were not members of the media.

I proceeded back down stairs and found my way back into the autograph hall and got in line for Gale Sayers. I finally got up to Gale and had him sign my jersey for me and let Gale know once again that I will do everything I am able to in order to attend the induction ceremonies for the HOF in Omaha later this year. I was attempting to figure out how to get into Richard Dent's line and waited patiently until I saw my opportunity. I convinced the girl that was working the line to let me in so that I would be able to have Richard sign my photo. Got up to Richard who recognized me and chuckled that I was able to work it to get to him.

So for the day on Friday on my autograph hunt I did pretty well. I had got Jack Johnson who played for the team back in I believe it was 1953, then I caught Patrick Mannelly, our current long snapper as he was walking into the hotel, then I stumbled upon Anthony Adams, who is a defensive lineman that was just recently signed. Plus Gale Sayers and Richard Dent as well. I think I did pretty well and headed back out to Palatine where my family and I were staying with some friends.

Saturday morning I headed out early to get downtown once again. Found a family at the train station in Palatine who were heading to the convention as well and volunteered to help them get started. Got to the hotel and got started once again on my quest for autographs. I did well to start the day. I got in line for Allan Ellis, Kurt Becker and the honorable Bob Thomas. It was great to meet each of these players and to talk with the all for a quick minute. Allan had actually worked for the company that my dad ran and Allan remembered the name and company. I told Bob that my brother just got appointed to the bench of the Superior Court in San Bernardino CA and Bob was glad for me and my brother. Then of course Kurt was a member of that incredible 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. After getting these autographs, I was able to get in line for Jim Osborne, Ronnie Bull and Dan Jiggetts. It was pretty cool to meet two former players that I remember from when I was a child and another legend that was a running back for Da' Bears in Ronnie Bull. As I attempted to work my way around for some other autographs, the security teams were telling everyone that unless you have a wrist band, you were going to be escorted from the autograph hall. Man what kind of bullshit was this that these clowns were spewing? As the day continued I heard members of the Bears staff state that they were not prepared for a sell out to the convention and things were extremely chaotic at this point. Man to say the least I was pretty pissed off about this circumstance.

So after I grabbed some lunch, I actually found Walter Payton's family signing their book "Payton" for the fans. I actually have the book however, did not think that they would be in attendance. Found out from other fans that they announce that the Payton Family would be in attendance on Thursday which was the day I was driving from Omaha to Chicago. I worked it out to get Jarrett to sign my Bears football that I was having most players sign. I also found out that Jarrett will be playing Canadian Football this year for the Montreal Alouettes. So now there is a good reason to pay attention to the Canadian league this year.

After getting Jarrett's signature, I made my way to head out and found a long line of people waiting in line to get wrist bands for the 1:30 pm signings. I had be told earlier that they were all given out and yet the fans I was talking to all were convinced that there were still wrist bands to be had. I asked a member of the security/Bears staff what gives and they worked it out so that I was able to get in line for James "Big Cat" Williams to sign for me as well. Patrick Mannelly was with Big Cat, so I just had Patrick sign my copy of the 2006 year book. After this was done, I looked around and decided it was too much of a mess to want to wait any longer, so I headed out. I just hope that someone in the Marketing Department for Da' Bears gets their shit together for next year and will learn to always prepare for a sell out versus not being prepared so that fans will have a better experience. I am not sure I will go back again and hope that if I do decide to go, that there will not be the problems that I had encountered.