Kentucky freshman Aaron Bradshaw checks out other signatures on the shoe Walter Brock brought to Versailles before adding his autograph Sunday. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Kentucky basketball players joined forces in a three-day, six-city autograph tour last weekend and raised over $15,000 for flood victims in Mayfield according to UK coach John Calipari.
The “La Familia Autograph Tour” had two stops in different cities last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The players split up (Antonio Reeves, DJ Wagner, Joey Hart and Rob Dillingham were not part of the tour) and signed autographs for fans who paid $60 to have one item autographed by all four players.
Walter Brock and his 12-year-old daughter Ellie were at the stop in Versailles Sunday. They had been in Shelbyville Saturday but freshman Aaron Bradshaw was not there and they came to Versailles Sunday to obtain his signature.
Brock normally goes to the UK father-son and father-daughter camps and obviously gets autographs from UK players and coaches there.
“We had some stuff that Aaron hadn’t signed yet because he has not been around. We drove to Shelbyville yesterday and he wasn’t there. We had to turn around and go back to Louisville so she (Ellie) could see Walker Horn, her favorite player,” Walter Brock said.
He brought the most unique item to be signed — a Jordan 3 shoe — by Bradshaw.
“I have the whole team now that has signed that shoe,” he said. “I had a pair sitting around and thought I should get them signed by the team and that’s what we did.”
He also had three basketballs he had the players sign.
“I have several balls at home. I sell a couple of balls to help pay for trips to camps that we make,” he said. “It’s always good to get a couple of extra balls signed.”
He’s always been a Kentucky and Ellie said her dad “kind of made me be a UK fan” at an early age.
“When she was very young, she proclaimed herself a Louisville fan and then all it took to change that was taking her to a couple of (UK) games and she switched over real quick,” Walter said.
He was not bothered by the $60 price for this tour even though last summer UK coaches and players did free autograph stops across the state.
“This is a good price, especially when you get four players. In my case, I basically paid $60 a piece for one player (Bradshaw),” he said.
Brock used to run his own memorabilia company and did signings with former UK football players Chris Rodriguez and DeAndre Square along with another one with former UK basketball player Tony Delk.
He had reached out to one of his contacts about doing a private signing with Bradshaw but admitted the cost was “pretty high” and he decided against it.
“About $60 an autograph is what I would have had to charge people to do that (Bradshaw) signing and I would have had to have sold 80 something autographs just to pay him,” Brock said.
That math comes out to about a $5,000 appearance fee for Bradshaw.
“This price was not an issue for me here (at Versailles). You know in the four players you are getting a (NBA) lottery pick (Bradshaw) and one of most popular players in the state of Kentucky (Reed Sheppard),” Brock, who also got autographs from Jordan Burks and Grant Darbyshire, said. “So it is not a bad deal at all.”
He now has a basketball signed by every UK team starting the 38-1 2014-15 team.
“I got one ball signed by five different teams as well as Tyler Ulis, Tony Delk and a few others. It is finally full,” he said.
UK Autograph Tour
Larry Vaught Photos
One Response
No comment on the Croatian kid? Onyenso should get major backup minutes at the 5 and 4 spot. Bradshaw looks like the odd man out.