Glenn Shepard’s Personal Blog

I’ve never watched the show, but caught a glimpse of a familiar face on it while changing channels last night – John Sally, just as he was being voted off the show. The world knows John as a powerhouse basketball player who played for the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan, and later for the L.A. Lakers with Shaquille O’Neal, among others.

But I remember John from college, when we sat beside each other in one of our management classes, because seats were assigned alphabetically and Shepard followed Sally.

I used to kid him about the gold chain he wore with the word “Spider” in giant gold letters, and he kidded me about the earring I wore in my left ear, the leopard skin bandanna, and the narrow leather tie (it was 1984).

We all knew John would become an instant millionaire once he entered the NBA, and wanted the life he had. While he went on to the Detroit Pistons after college, I became a management trainee for Cintas, the uniform company.

A quarter of a century later, I’m just starting to approach the prime years of my career, and his are past, at least for his basketball career. Though he’s been in several movies from Bad Boys with Will Smith to the recent Confessions of a Shopaholic, I doubt anything will ever compare to the glory days of 30,000 fans screaming his name.

I hated seeing him with the C-list celebs on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here!, because he’s a good guy who’s better than that. I can’t imagine why he did that program.

Guess Garth Brooks said it best when he sang “I thank God for unanswered prayers”.