Idiotjed Wrote:
What drew me in was show creator Rob Thomas who also created "Cupid", the man knows how to spin a yarn.
I've probably told this story more than anyone cares to hear, and it really is a blatant case of namedropping on my part, but I went to high school with and played on the same basketball team as this very same Rob Thomas.
He moved to my hometown of San Marcos, Texas from Washington state (near Seattle, I believe) back in 1978. The first time I met him was actually at the now-defunct San Antonio Spurs Summer Camp for Unathletic Caucasian Teens and Pre-Teens. He bailed me out of a pretty tight spot, in which I unwittingly threatened my roommate with the extremely unintentionally homoerotic, "I'm gonna get you in bed tonight!," which obviously drew enormous laughs and ridicule from the other campers...except Rob, who intervened on my behalf by piping in with, "You guys know what he meant." Rob was a year older than me, and a big guy, so the other smaller kids did not challenge him for making such a statement.
It wasn't until a month or two later, on the first day of Jr. High that I ran into him again. It was my first day of 7th grade and his first day of 8th, and I pretty much looked up to him as a big brother figure all the way through high school. In fact, when he graduated, I "inherited" his uniform number (25) for my lone varsity season.
I ran into him a few times in the years that followed, after he transferred back from TCU (he went on a football scholarship, but his career was cut short by injuries). He formed a variety of local bands, such as Public Bulletin and Hey, Zeus (before the X album of the same name), and also dated current CNN Headline News anchor Linda ("Cinnamon") Stouffer. She was another local girl, and her dad worked with my dad. My dad hated him because he went to Duke, and rightfully so.