Celebrity Saturday--Larry Csonka

Left to Right: Brianna, Jennifer, Ronda, me (in white), Larry, Wendy

With the recent return of American Gladiators, I thought Larry Csonka--a former host of AG--would make a great celebrity subject for today.

I met Larry Csonka in 1992--it was my senior year of high school, and I was weeks away from graduation. A group of us gals were on a journalism field trip, and we went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. 

There was another carload or two coming, but we happened to arrive at the restaurant first. We sat at a nice big booth and and asked if the booth next to ours could be saved for the rest of our group. We were told that it already was reserved. For Larry Csonka. 

Again ... "Who?"

Come to find out ... Mr. Csonka was a bigtime football player for the Miami Dolphins back in the day. He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and everything. You can look it up. 

I didn't know much about football at the time (still don't, actually), but I knew my dad liked the Dolphins at one time, so I thought I'd grab the camera in case there was a photo op. Yes, folks, even in high school I often carried a camera with me. Except I think I actually had to go to the car to get it--now it's usually in my purse or the diaper bag. 

If I remember correctly, Mr. Csonka was in town to speak at an ETSU athletic event. He and his entourage came in and ate. We said hello and asked for autographs and a photo. He obliged. After the group photo (above), he signed these kind of bio cards for each of us gals. I was really surprised at what he wrote on mine, and I bet he wouldn't have written it if he'd known I was only 17. He wrote, "You made my knee hot." Can you believe that!? I still have the card in a scrapbook somewhere.

After all of that, we got our checks and paid for lunch. A few minutes later, our server brought back our money and informed us that Mr. Csonka had taken care of the bill for all of us! Wasn't that nice?