The Ken Dryden Experience (Part One)

I have been collecting autograph's since I was a kid. Whenever I spoke to anyone about who they wished they had in their collection or who was impossible to get, the answer was always the same. Ken Dryden. The man has never done a sit down autograph session in his life and I was told he was tough to get even in person. Most of the time when you hear things of this nature the rumors are often false and the athletes are usually fairly good with autographs. Well the rumors are true to a certain degree. My sister was nice enough to let me know that Ken Dryden was a guest teacher at her University (Mcgill) this semester and this was most likely my best chance to ever meet him. My first thought was I had picked the wrong university to attend (Concordia) and second was I could add Ken Dryden to my monopoly project which was really a once in a life time type deal (Super nerd excitement). So my sister being the kind younger sibling she is, agreed to come with me and show me where his class was taking place. We waited until the class was completely over and the room only had Mr. Dryden left. We approached him and explained we are big fans and politely asked if he could sign for us. He really seemed taken off guard and explained "Well...why don't we start with just one autograph...you know I don't sign at shows and things of that sort." He was very polite but seemed to be against autographs. I presented him with a Sports Illustrated that he was on the cover of and he responded 'Oh no! See guys I really can't sign that, I don't sign anything that could have monetary value'. This was extremely disappointing to me as it came off as he believed we were in it strictly for resale which could not be further from the truth. He also declined to sign the monopoly board(From the Monopoly Project post). I was left with my last hope, as you could see in a previous post I was able to find a mint condition replica cardboard mask given at his jersey retirement ceremony. He kindly agreed to sign this and wanted to personalize it to me. To some collectors that maybe something that they don't like but in all honesty this was something that made it that much of a better conversation piece. This is why I am really into collecting so this was actually a bonus for me.

Overall Mr.Dryden was a very nice person and was very polite, in the end great experience!

Ken Dryden Piece

Close up-"To J-M With Best Wishes"

Here is the completed piece framed with the program from the retirment of Ken Dryden's Number at the Bell Centre.