We decided to take advantage of a rare reunion of the 1985-86 Hartford Whalers this past weekend.  Over the course of 2 days there were 3 events which would allow us a chance to secure autographs.   First was the Whalers Golf Classic held at
Tunxis Plantation.  Although there was no
definitive list of players to attend, all expected Ron Francis, Kevin
Dineen,  Arial;color:white""> Joel Quenneville, Wayne
Babych, Dave Babych, Paul Lawless, Chuck Kaiton, Dana Murzyn, and Bob Crawford
from the 1985-86 Whalers team as well as many other Whalers legends.  Mike Liut was listed as tentative all week up
until the morning of when he was scratched from the full weekend.

We arrived early enough and there were no other autograph collectors so it was golden. 
Every single player we approached was welcoming and accommodated all our
requests.  After a few hours we were able
to secure jerseys, a commemorative reunion shirt, a mini helmet, and some other
items signed by every player in attendance. 
Unfortunately we never saw Dineen or Francis and I’m not sure if they
ever played or even showed up for this event. 
We left a little earlier than the end as the Jonas Brothers were doing a
softball tournament a few towns away.

We arrived at the New Britain Rock Cats stadium and the place was packed.  The Jonas Brothers
were already there with their “Road Dogs” softball team playing the “GOATS”
which is the acronym for Greatest of All Time, a team composed of ESPN
staff.  The event started as an idea
while they talked on the air and ended up as participating in the Allstate
Campaign Against Texting While Driving. 
The access to the team was so restricted and with 100s of girls already
there clamoring for autographs, we knew there was little to no shot but toughed
it out.  In the end they boarded the bus
without any autographs however we do have some left over from last time we got
them at their hotel.

Next up was the Arthritis Foundation Hat Trick Reunion Dinner with the Whalers Alumni at the Marriott in
Hartford.  Scheduled to appear were again
all the 1985-86 team members scheduled for the weekend but in addition we had
hoped to see Gordie Howe and his 2 sons. 
As the players arrived again, all were very accommodating with the
exception of Ron Francis who was really moody and seemed not into doing this at
all.  In the end we did get a couple
jerseys signed and a stick so it was well worth it as we had already heard that
he wouldn’t even be participating in the next morning’s main event.  Next up was Gordie Howe who immediately put
marker to jersey and signed a couple jerseys for us and a vintage Whalers
hat.  Wait til you see this hat. It
reminds me of a 1960’s pimp hat, super retro Whalers hat.  Once he started picking up steam and signing
multiples Marty Howe (Gordie’s son) stepped in and asked him to stop.  Kevin Dineen was the best and signed all our
items as well as some vintage 80s hockey Whalers’ gloves.  In the end we did walk away with a few Gordie
Howe jerseys unsigned and a few Ron Francis jerseys unsigned but we got
everything else done so it was surely a success.

Last of the events was the Whalers Reunion Fan Fest held at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.  Traditionally a football stadium, the event
was set up inside the concourse.  We had
really studied up on this event and I was actually very impressed on the plan
they had in place for autograph rules. 
The rule was that the first 3000 people would get a limited edition
poster and for the $5 donation entry fee you’d get all autographs (except
Gordie Howe) for free. Gordie was only to be signing his book (no exceptions)
and the book price was $30 and to get it signed, personalized, and a photo with
him was an additional $40.  Obviously
most Whalers fans knowing that all the rest in attendance were signing for free
thought that was far too steep but I can understand and respect the logic.  Apparently the $40 fee was for charity.

Anyhow, if you wanted to bring in additional items for the Whalers to be signed you were allowed only a maximum
of 4 items and after your poster you were only allowed to have ONE of those 4
items signed per player.  That means if
you had 4 Kevin Dineen jerseys you were stupid to bring all 4 as he’d only be
able to sign 1.  This concept was
inventive as it definitely cuts down on a lot of ‘dealer’ merchandise brought
in as well as cuts the time way down on signing as they were to only be signing
a max of 2 items per person.  The fees
PER ITEM were $10 for cards and photos and $20 for jerseys and sticks and
again, this was a ONE TIME fee, not per person so you pay $20 to bring a jersey
in and you could have gotten 20 signatures on that for that $20.  All in all I thought this was a clever system
and knowing the rules planned accordingly. 

We arrived HOURS before the gates opened and heard that Ron Francis was definitely not going to be there for the
signing but had signed 300 posters before he left so we wanted to make sure
we’d secure our Ron Francis signed posters so we posted up as one of the first
in line to get in.  Once the gates opened
we were greeted with our free poster which was NOT signed by Ron Francis.  When I asked they first said they’d be coming
soon and then later was told they weren’t going to be showing up and they had
no clue.  Inside the stadium there were
also representatives from the Hartford Colonials football team and we got some
autographs from them.  There were also
cheerleaders and mascots from various Hartford, CT teams and many tables had
free gifts for those interested.  Dealer
tables had a fair assortment of items to buy. 
Food was overpriced and to be expected when sold by the venue.

As soon as we entered the autograph area we found out that was where they had the Ron Francis pre-signed
postersmso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#292727""> so we were able to exchange our
unsigned poster for these signed ones. 
Knowing that most of these items were going to end up possibly helping
local and internet charity auctions, we had a full staff to obtain signatures
and paid the fees up front so that we could get our jerseys and other items all
fully signed by the 85-86 Whalers.  Once
in line we tried to stream-line the system by putting all our posterscolor:#292727""> in one pile and just flipping em up for the players which
worked out great.  For the jerseys,
banner, and stick that we had signed by the 85-86 team it was sometimes awkward
as they had players from all generations mixed in with the 85-86 players so a
few times we had to ask players who didn’t play that season NOT to sign the
item.  Once we explained they understood
why but it was awkward for me as I can’t remember the last time I had to ask
someone NOT to sign for me, lol.

While obtaining our autographed jerseyscolor:#292727"">, stickcolor:#292727"">, bannercolor:#292727"">, posterscolor:#292727"">, etc. we were able to take mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"">video footage of the items being signedcolor:#292727""> and chat and take photos with the playersmso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#292727"">. 
I have to say, these guys are super cool and super nice.  They seemed to really be enjoying
themselves.  If you recall my explanation
above to how the autograph fees and system was set up would have been a great
system, well it would have but it was never enforced and countless people were
pulling tons of items out of duffle bags and backpacks circumventing the
autograph donation fees.  This caused a
pretty big slow down of what should have been a well oiled machine of
autographs.  When you add that to the
fact that they only expected about 2,000 and over 5,000 people showed up for
this event you can just imagine how long the line got.  It was amazing how backed up it got.  In the end, we flew through the line in just
under 15 minutes having secured every player on the posters as well as just the
85-86 team on several items.

Next up was our decision on what to do about the Gordie Howe books.  To be
honest, $75 leaves little to no room for a profit on resale and if he insisted
on personalizing which some people do at signings, we’d really be lucky to
break even but I did want to get a one on one to chat with him so I figured I’d
play it by ear.  We knew we had at least
an hour til he started his signing which was going to be separated from the
main signing line so we went out and got some lunch.  I wasn’t about to pay $5.50 for a hot dog
there.  We took a run for the border and
secured some fresco tacos at Taco Bell! 
Got back just in time to be like 5^th in line for Gordie Howe
and we were able to buy 6 books at $30 which he pre-signed in silver.  Good thing too cuz silver always
smudges.  I paid the $40 to get one
personalized “To Mike” and got my photo with him.  I asked if I could buy more books and Marty
Howe let me know they only brought 200 books so they weren’t sure if they’d run
out so I explained I’d be happy to buy whatever was left at the end of the
show.  After waiting hours til the event
was over they still had about 80 books left but he tried raising the price up
to $50 per book.  Why the hell would I
pay $50 then when they were $30 an hour ago. 
Wasted my time!  Oh well, we
definitely had a great day and ended up with some unbelievable autographs and
proof.  I also got my photo in the paper
of me taking a picture with Joel Quenneville (Blackhawks Stanley Cup winning
coach and former Whaler). 

Some links relating to the story:
Please click “LIKE” here and view our Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Autograph-Pros/132715813417963

Please click “SUBSCRIBE” here on our youtube page:

https://www.youtube.com/autographpros

View our Whalers autographs here with more to be added next week:

http://www.autographpros.com/advanced_search_result.php?search_in_description=1&keywords=whalers&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0&Submit=Submit