How Many Boys do you have peter?
This story was shared by: Devin Moore
One of my many memories of my father’s work involves a presentation that he and Rob Strasser made to Michael Jordan in my family’s kitchen. I came home one afternoon to find my father and Rob scrambling around my kitchen and family room. My mother told me they were having a meeting with Michael Jordan and I need to stay out of the way. What?!? Here in my house? That couldn’t be right, could it? Oh it definitely was.
My Father and Rob had put together a very important presentation on a large pad of white paper set on an easel in the corner of our kitchen and were checking and rearranging pages before Michael arrived. Finally the doorbell rings and sure enough there is MJ on my front porch. This was amazing. Michael freaking Jordan was at my house and no one was going to know. This was long before cell phones and selfies. I wanted to call my friends so badly, but I did not want to miss a moment of this visit. I remember when Michael came in my father introduced me and I shook his hand, thinking good lord he has huge hands, no wonder he can palm a basketball. Anyway, MJ comes into our kitchen, takes a seat in my favorite chair, and the presentation begins.
Now this meeting goes on for a while, and MJ is following along and engaging, but after about 30 minutes he seems distracted. I think my father was nervous they were losing him. Michael keeps looking off to the right at the stairway every few seconds and making faces or smiling. After about 10 minutes of this, he finally stops the meeting and says Peter I had no idea you had so many kids. To which my very confused father did not know how to respond. Well it turns out that my youngest brother Hagen, and seemingly every neighborhood kid within biking distance had been sneaking peaks of MJ from the stairway. Each would take a turn poking their head around the corner and catching a glimpse then pulling back before being seen, or so they thought. Michael had seen them and that had been the distraction.
Well my father called all the boys into the room and one by one they got to meet MJ and shake his hand. He was very gracious and smiling the whole time. And every one of those boys floated out of the room ecstatic to have met one of their heroes. The meeting carried on, eventually ended after about two hours, and Michael left.
I had the pleasure of meeting Michael a few other times at our country club when he played with my father and his friend Ron Garland, who convinced him to join the Golf Nuts Society (member number 23), but that is a story for another day.
…Thanks for sharing Devin
