Jack Gets His Autograph (from Maurice Jones Drew)

by Guest Blogger on Mar 4, 2008 4:50 PM PST in Football

We reached out to 'lvucla' after a reader of ours emailed us this story. Again a huge thank you to lvucla for being kind enough to share this beautiful story with rest of the Bruin Nation. If any of you who are reading this know how to get in touch with MJD please make sure he sees this post. GO BRUINS. - BN Ed.

A couple months ago my son and I sent an 8 x 10 picture of Maurice Jones-Drew to his PR firm in hopes it would get personally signed. Weeks went by, and I even asked Jack, my son if he thought Maurice would sign it and send it back. Jack told me Maurice is very far away, and he probably gets "millions" of letters and it probably wouldn't happen. I honestly had no clue if it would really get personally signed.

Well, low and behold, it came! It even said "To Jack" which was great. I was going to frame it and hang it in his room so he could wake up and see it. However my best friend had the best suggestion ever. He said that it would be way more exciting for Jack if he was actually able to get it from the mail box himself. It has been really cold here, so I had to wait until it "warmed" up to take him to the mailbox without wearing gloves.

Well, thanks to my best friend's suggestion, I put the picture back in the envelope and put it in the mailbox. It was truly an incredible moment for me as a dad.

What you will also notice is we are covered in snow (30 degrees) and my son is wearing a sweatshirt and was totally fine. (I don't want any child abuse allegations!)

The quality of the video is not as good as I hoped for on you tube, but you get the picture. It was an incredible father/son experience.

-lvucla

lvucla graduated from UCLA in 1992. lvucla and Mrs. lvucla run a small legal practice in the very small town of West Branch, Michigan which is in Northern Michigan. Jack is 5 years old and loves the Bruins. To no surprise, Kevin Love is his favorite Ben Ball warrior. GO BRUINS. -BN Ed.

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Awesome!!!!!!

Jack Dresses Like Champ TOO!!!!!!!!!!!

by rfirpo on Mar 4, 2008 5:00 PM PST reply actions

Great story

Thanks for sharing.

by OutOThsWrld on Mar 4, 2008 5:09 PM PST reply actions

Great story all around

Fantastic story. Great to see UCLA living on with the kids. Great parenting. And great to see MJD reach out to the community like that.

MJD never ceases to make all of us proud. He got no hype from the "analysts" while Reggie got all the love. He just put his head down and worked hard and put up better numbers.

MJD signs autographs. Reggie has goons bring guns to depositions.

Glad to see a guy from my little corner of the East Bay doing so well, and doing so well after wearing blue and gold.

by norcald503 on Mar 4, 2008 5:38 PM PST reply actions

Great parenting, indeed.

Warms my heart. Lvucla, Jack, and MJD, you are credits to Bruinness.

by Bruinut on Mar 4, 2008 6:19 PM PST up reply actions

That's great!

Thanks for sharing. What a great thing to do for your son. It's nice to hear stories like this. Cute kid, he looks so excited. I'm also from the East Bay and share your sentiments norcald503.

What a contrast with an article I read yesterday about Nomar Garciaparra reluctantly signing autographs and barely acknowleding anyone, merely grunting when fans asked questions. There are good guys out there and MJD sure seems like he is one of them. I remeber approaching some Dodgers when I was a kid. Garvey, Lopes, Cey and Reggie Smith were so friendly and accomodating. I still cherish that memory. My dad was beaming just seeing how excited I was. This stuff means so much to kids. Very cool indeed.

Welcome to the bruin community Jack.

by Bruins095 on Mar 4, 2008 6:05 PM PST reply actions

Awesome

by SpaceMonkey on Mar 4, 2008 6:34 PM PST reply actions

This is awesome

MJD is the Afflalo of the Football team during my years here. I was crestfallen when that whole Dennys thing came out and was relieved when it was revealed to be bogus because MJD by all accounts was as great off the field as he was on it. Just like AA. That picture would be a great thing to hold onto in the years to come as well. Fantastic potential sentimental value there.

by Tydides on Mar 4, 2008 6:37 PM PST reply actions

Bruin Pride Worldwide

This is the single best post I have ever read at this community. Much love and props to Mr. lvucla and Mrs lvucla. Keeping the fires going in frigid Michigan! Your boy is adorable!

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Mar 4, 2008 7:00 PM PST reply actions

Really cool

Thanks for sharing!

GO BRUINS!

by kjmcdonald on Mar 4, 2008 7:01 PM PST reply actions

That. Was. AWESOME.

I have a little boy and a little girl myself, and stuff like that is too cool not to praise.

Personal story: I am a foodtv geek. I once went to an Emeril Lagasse book signing with my then four-year-old son in tow. My boy loved watching Emeril on TV with me, but was predictably shy and closed-mouthed when we got up to meet him.

Lagasse came around the table, crouched down, and autographed a kid's cookbook for him, got him to say "BAM!" with him, and then gave him a hug goodbye.

We were the last ones in line. There were no cameras. He was already staying a half-hour past the scheduled signing period.

And he was kind to my boy.

Back to Bruindom: HUGE props to MJD (or his staff, whomever) for taking the time to show even that little bit of kindness to a young Bruin.

The little things DO count -- especially to the littlest eyes.

"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008

by Meriones on Mar 4, 2008 7:21 PM PST reply actions

BAM!

I love that show M. And yeah agree w you re this video/post. I teared up a little watching it (I can only imagine the Dads here on BN can relate to it even closer).

by Nestor on Mar 4, 2008 7:25 PM PST up reply actions

Mr. BB and I are more "Good Eats" fans

Our kids will probably grow to love Alton Brown. That's a good story about Emeril. You can tell more about a person when the cameras are off than when they are on.

by bruinbabe2000 on Mar 5, 2008 10:07 AM PST up reply actions

This is great

That was a really heartwarming video. Those father-son (or mother-daughter, grandmother-grandson, whatever) moments are what the bruin family is all about.

And that was really nice of MJD to send this kid an autograph. Reminds me of when I got to see Kevin Smith in Westwood, and he not only gave out autographs, but joked around with fans for hours and hours ....

by Dante on Mar 4, 2008 7:40 PM PST reply actions

Shows

Just goes to show the "class" of the Bruin community. What great programs come out of UCLA, the coaches, the teams, the alumni, students and fans. U CLAss.

by Blue Critter on Mar 4, 2008 7:54 PM PST reply actions

Great clip!

Thanks for sharing - that was a wonderful clip. Is there any way to get word to MJD that the clip is here, b/c I think that would be neat for MJD to see how happy he made that adorable little boy. (Cute outfit, too!)

by belle411 on Mar 4, 2008 8:44 PM PST reply actions

I have a feeling he'll see it.

Those footballers are an internet savvy bunch.

by CafeLA on Mar 4, 2008 10:38 PM PST up reply actions

Adorable

Future Bruin in the making. Thank you for sharing! The smile on his face was priceless.

by freesia39 on Mar 4, 2008 9:21 PM PST reply actions

Theoretically, the link could be sent to him

Through a Facebook message.

by jaffa on Mar 4, 2008 10:47 PM PST reply actions

Or through Myspace

He is one of my Myspace friends.

by bruinbabe2000 on Mar 5, 2008 6:54 AM PST reply actions

Cool Story

The kid's excitement when he says "Maurice" is priceless...

by gorams77 on Mar 5, 2008 7:45 AM PST reply actions

Reminds Me of Last Year

when my son got AA's autograph after his last home game. We patiently waited and found AA alone in the media room doing a live radio interview via a cellphone. When he finished, AA spoke to my son who was as star-struck as one could get,took a couple photos and, of course, signed the game program which happened to have his picture on the cover. Pure, unadulterated class. I wish I had a video camera to capture the moment, however, everytime I see the framed photo in my son's room, I can't help but smile.

by 78Bruin on Mar 5, 2008 8:14 AM PST reply actions

Photo@ $15; Jack's "MAURICE!"=Priceless

How cool and classy MJD is, and what a terrific kid Jack is!
This is the stuff, this is the magic, that the UCLA Bruins have. Thanks, lvucla's, and thanks, Maurice.

Love My Bruins

by Bruingirl83 on Mar 5, 2008 9:31 AM PST reply actions