Had to be around 1994, I was tossing a Bears football around with a buddy of mine when an angry man about 40 yards away started yelling at us to get off the field. Scared outta our wits we start to leave the area, I took a quick glance to make sure he wasn't following us, and then I see him wave us over, and I took other glance and realized this wasn't a security guard but was Walter Payton. He asked if I lived close and if we wanted to go home and get something for him to sign. My friend and I ran faster then the wind, we get back and sure enough there he was sigining autographs for other people. When he saw me and my friend, he excused himself came up to us signed our hats. He finished sigining a few things for the remaining people. After that he came back up to us and started tossing the football around for the next ten minutes. As a kid at the time I was on cloud nine for weeks and to this very day I still tell the story to my friends like it was something that just happened. The day he had the press conference when he was sick was the first time I truly cried over something related to sports and I suppose that will be the only time as well.

Just saw the recent thread on Walter Payton after I posted this, wasn't trying to be redundant, I'll be more careful next time. It's good to see people still talk about him so much, though. It's still hard to imagine he's no longer with us.