Where did you meet a Bull?
Car dealership, school event, out and about... tell me your story!
“This Saturday at the Schaumburg Sportmart, come on out and meet world champion B.J. Armstrong of the Chicago Bulls!”
“Visit us this weekend at the Carson Pirie Scott State Street store and meet Chicago Bulls players Bill Wennington and Randy Brown!”
“The season is over, but the fun is just beginning at Sportmart! Join us at three Sportmart locations and meet Ron Harper, Steve Kerr and Luc Longley of your world champion Chicago Bulls!”
We’ve all seen or heard the ads: a local business’s lure through its doors by holding a meet-and-greet with a famous athlete. And when the Bulls were winning, EVERY player was a famous athlete.
In April, I took a look at the many places where Bulls fans met members of the Luvabulls. Here is a look at where we met the Bulls players, courtesy of ads in Newspapers.com.
Share your own stories in the comments!
Best,
Jack
Where We Met the Luvabulls
In 1991, the Tribune asked and answered a question to underscore a point that likely few in Chicago had considered but many would recognize: “What’s the toughest job…
Summer 1984 — Michael Jordan — Faces Nightclub
Location: Rush Street
The rundown: This was one of the earliest chances for Bulls fans to meet rookie Michael Jordan, if not the first chance, provided they attended the charity event at Faces, which included an appearance from the Bears dance crew the Honey Bears, run by future Luvabulls leader Cathy Core.
Certainly there were plenty of “Come out and meet…!” events for the Bulls between 1984 and August 1990, but this is a fun one to get us started.
August 1990 — Stacey King — CarFone
Location: Schaumburg
The rundown: This was the opening of a new Ameritech store. You could also meet the Luvabulls, as I noted in the Luvabulls story.
April 1991 — Stacey King and Dennis Hopson — CarFone
Location: Downers Grove
The rundown: This was a similar event as the one in August of 1990, but for a different location — Downers Grove this time — and with a second Bull, Dennis Hopson.
September 1991 — Pippen, Paxson, Armstrong, Hodges, “and others!” — Disney World
Location: Disney World
How it worked: This is a crazy promotional contest, with five lucky fans winning a “Fan Appreciation Vacation” to Disney World, where you could meet Scottie Pippen, John Paxson, B.J. Armstrong and Craig Hodges fresh off the ‘91 championship. Winners received:
roundtrip airfare from Delta
four nights at Disney’s Contemporary Resorts
Q&A breakfast session with the Bulls
Private one-hour hors d’eurves and cocktails with the Bulls
This is quite a crazy prize!
December 1991 — Will Perdue — Target
Location: Niles
Note: The ad says that this is Target’s “Chicago Bulls Center.” I searched newspapers.com and Google and I can’t find out what this is, so I wonder if it’s a segmented part of Target where they placed all of their Bulls merchandise. This was popularized by Chicagoan John Beachum at Carson Pirie Scott.
How Carson Pirie Scott became the #1 destination for 90s Bulls gear
Bulls fans had to have the gear the next day. We just had to. The locker room hats. The caricature shirts. We watche…
November 1992 — Scott Williams and Rodney McCray and more — Carson Pirie Scott
Location: Randhurst
Other perks: We’ve got a lot more Bulls universe people showing up! Let’s just get the rundown:
Luvabulls
Benny the Bull
The Bulls Brothers
Johnny “Red” Kerr
Bob Love
I’m actually surprised they saved all of that for the fine print, especially considering that McCray was in his first year on the team and came in a trade in September, and considering they bought an entire page for the ad.
Another note: I love the three-peat prediction.
March 1993 — Scott Williams — The Gallery of Homes Custom Home Tour
Location: Geneva
Note: Between the font of “THE CHICAGO BULLS,” the stars border and the size of the photo, this is easily my favorite “Come meet a Bull!” ad.
June 1993 — Will Perdue — North Riverside Park Mall
Perks: You could win a car from Anderson Bros. Ford! Not too shabby.
June 1993 — Scott Williams — Carson Pirie Scott
Location: Chicago — State Street
Note: I’m not a fan of this ad design. Did Scott Williams die? This looks like a funeral card.
July 1993 — Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, B.J. Armstrong — basketball camp
Location: Elmhurst College
Perks: I never attended a Bulls basketball camp, but I always heard from people who did that even MJ showed up at his own camps. So this was definitely a way to meet Jordan, or Scottie or B.J.
Other perks: Autographs and photos with the players!
July 1993 — B.J. Armstrong — Sportmart
Location: Schaumburg
Other perks: Buy the official Bulls 1993 championship video, just $14.96!
March 1994 — Will Perdue and Corie Blount — Target
Location: Perdue at the Wood Dale Target, Blount at the East Schaumburg Target, both on March 13
Who else you can meet: This was a multi-store grand opening, and if you were a soaps fan more than a Bulls fan, you could catch James DePaiva of “One Life to Live” at East Schaumburg with Blount, or John Callahan at Wood Dale with Perdue.
Other perks: Hit the McHenry Target to see the Luvabulls do “informal modeling.” Once again, I am nervous to ask what this means.
December 1994 — Bill Wennington, Corie Blount and Larry Krystkowiak — Sears
Location: A bunch of Sears in the greater Chicagoland area.
The rundown: Sears remodeled five locations in 1994 and held grand re-opening events at a range of their stores on Sunday, December 4, 1994, with a host of Chicago athletes past and present. Among them: Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers!
That said, I don’t see a correlation between the five remodeled locations (Golf Mill, Chicago, Woodfield, Merrillville, Ind., Michigan City, Ind.) and the locations of the athletes. Here is who you could have met:
BULLS
Corie Blount — Oakbrook
Larry Krystkowiak — Golf Mill
Bill Wennington — Stratford Square Mall
BEARS, present
Trace Armstrong — Charleston Mall
Kevin Butler, 2 locations — Chicago Ridge, Orland Square
Mark Carrier, 2 locations — Chicago (Harlem & North), Ford City
Jerry Fontenot, 2 locations — Vernon Hills, Fox Valley
Jeff Graham — Chicago (Lawrence Ave.)
Chris Zorich, 2 locations — Chicago (62nd & Western), Chicago (79th)
BEARS, past
Dick Butkus, 2 locations — River Oaks, Park Forest
Gale Sayers — Chicago (Irving Park)
Glen Kozłowski, 2 locations — Michigan City, Indiana, and Merrillville, Indiana
BLACKHAWKS
Bobby Hull, 2 locations — Woodfield, Spring Hill Mall
WHITE SOX
Don Pall, 2 locations — Louis Joliet Mall, Northfield Square
July 1995 — Will Perdue — Target
Location: DeKalb
Other perks: You can also meet… Barbie? “Barbie, everyone’s favorite doll, will be live and ‘in person,’ signing autographs for all of her fans.” Have fun everyone!
March 1996 — Buechler, Harper, Kerr — Elek-Tek
3 Elek-Tek locations:
Jud Buechler, March 29, Willowbrook
Ron Harper, March 31, Rolling Meadows
Steve Kerr, March 31, Lincolnwood
Note: I do not remember Elek-Tek at all. But they had some pull!
April 1996 — Randy Brown and Bill Wennington — Carson Pirie Scott
Location: Chicago — State Street
Other perks: This is a really solid prize raffle. Along with meeting Brown and Wennington, visitors could win:
Bulls playoff tickets
A spot as an honorary ballperson at a Bulls game (for kids 10-17)
An authentic black MJ jersey
A $250 Bulls merch shopping spree
May 1996 — Dennis Rodman — Borders
Location: Chicago — Michigan Avenue
The rundown: The famed Dennis Rodman Borders book signing for Bad As I Wanna Be!
"Bad As I Wanna Be" — the media chaos of Dennis Rodman's bestselling memoir
“I introduced them to Dennis the other day. I said, ‘I hope you don’t think Dennis is a role model.’ And Marcus said, ‘Yeah, I want red hair.’ I said, ‘Nah, no red hair, no earring.’ I think they’re fascinated by some of the things they see from kids at school or other kids. But every question they’ve had about him, I corrected them.”
October 1996 — Phil Jackson — Barnes & Noble
Location: Chicago — Old Orchard
The rundown: The Bulls memoir market was in full stride, with Phil’s Sacred Hoops following up Rodman’s Bad As I Wanna Be.
November 1996 — Luc Longley — Sportmart
Location: Lombard
Other perks: The day before the Longley meeting on Sunday, you could have gone and met Cubs catcher Scott Servais! This would have been fun in ‘96, because it’s always fun to meet players. But this would have historically relevant two years later when the Cubs won the wild card with Servais as their everyday catcher.
April 1997 — Steve Kerr — Carson Pirie Scott
Location: Chicago — State Street
Perks: Meet Steve Kerr!
Fine print: You might not meet Steve Kerr.
June 1997 — Harper, Kerr, Longley — Sportmart
3 Sportmart locations:
Ron Harper, June 21, Lombard
Steve Kerr, June 21, Schaumburg
Luc Longley, June 22, Vernon Hills
Note: I love this ad! This is great layout. Interesting that Luc gets the featured spot. And a huge get for Sportmart with Kerr, coming off his Finals-winning shot.
Other perks: You could get free tickets for an autograph if you were among the first 400 people to show up to the venue the day before.
December 1997 — Randy Brown and Steve Kerr — The Sports Authority
Location: Geneva
The rundown: This was an ad for a grand opening of a new Sports Authority in Geneva, with lots of perks, including the meetings with Brown and Kerr. This ad is a small bit of a full-page ad, so along with Harry Teinowitz (from WMVP, the future ESPN 1000) and professional ball spinner Tayna Crevier, Blackhawks players Tony Amonte and Keith Carney would be there just after Kerr.
The store was also raffling off gear signed by Troy Aikman, Joe Montana, Ken Griffey Jr., Penny Hardaway and Wayne Gretzky.
And for the South Park fans among us…
FREE HAT!
January 1998 — Randy Brown, Jud Buechler, Bill Wennington — NTB
3 National Tire & Batter locations, all on Jan. 17:
Randy Brown, Crestwood
Jud Buechler, Mt. Prospect
Bill Wennington, Palatine
The rundown: This was a launch of four new NTB stores. The fourth featured Bears running back Raymont Harris, the Ultraback fresh off his 1,000-yard season. Bear Down!
August 1998 — Ron Harper — Finish Line
Location: Woodfield Mall
Note: Tough time for the Bulls, and for Ronnie Harp, who was the only starter signed for 1999, joined only by Toni Kukoc among the team’s top six players. The club had 11 free agents, including Jordan, Pippen and Rodman, and by August, Phil Jackson was gone, the lockout was underway, and the team had hired Tim Floyd as “Director of Basketball Operations,” which would become head coach in January.
In other words, Harper surely was hit with “WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN??” questions from every person in line for an autograph.
September 1998 — Randy Brown — Sears
Location: River Oaks Center
The rundown: Another grand re-opening tapping into the allure of the Bulls, and another tough time for Bulls players to be out in the public, as the same questions that Harp would have faced in August were surely asked of Randy in September.
April 1999 — Toni Kukoc — Highland Park Ford
Note: I dig the ad! An eye-popping design. Unfortunately this was during perhaps the worst season in Bulls history, and held just a week after Toni and the Bulls scored an NBA-record-low 49 points in a loss to the Heat.
It’s the end of the road for our dynasty Bulls. Until next time!
I had the great fortune of using the LAX Bathroom at the exact same time that Steve Kerr was in there. This was early Oct, right before the 15-16 season (when they would go on and win 73 games -however, Luke Walton was filling in bc of back surgery, if my memory serves correct).
I don't fancy talking to other men, especially strangers, in the bathroom.... but it was freakin' Steve Kerr!!! I didn't know what to do. So anyway, I'm washing my hands, he comes and washes his RIGHT NEXT TO ME. And I use the dryer just a split second before him. Now, he can't get the dryer to work. Keeps waving his hand in front of it. I'm standing there still so I do a quick swipe for him and ofc it activates the hand drying mechanism. He looks up at me, nods, says "thanks" .... I smile and say "hey, you gotta have great touch" with a slight wink. (I really hope he understood the joke... bc he's got great shooting touch, get it?) we both laugh. Had a very very brief conversation - as again, I'm not trying to bother him in the restroom, incredibly nice guy though (no surprise). I wished him good luck on the upcoming season, and "hope you have a speedy recovery, coach, hope to see you back out there soon." Was a truly pleasant experience. My favorite celebrity encounter ever.