A Brush With Fame 2

This one is pretty amazing.  In 1974 I worked for a real estate company called Kmetovic and Ingalls.  They were located in San Jose in the Willow Glen Area.  Fred Kmetovic and Dale Ingalls were both considered to be two of the most highly thought of and respected Realtors in San Jose.  One day Fred called me into his office and said that he wanted me to find a home for a very important client.  It turned out that the client he was referring to was Jim Plunkett.  At the time Jim was playing for the Oakland Raiders.  He was a Heisman Trophy Winner as well.  It turns out that he wanted to buy a home for his mom who also happened to be blind.  She lived on the East side of San Jose which is where Jim grew up.  He wanted to get her a better house in a better neighborhood and it couldn’t have any steps because of her blindness.  I searched the MLS for some listings to show Jim.  The day came and Jim insisted that we start at his mom’s house so I could meet her.  She didn’t come with us to visit potential homes but we had a nice meeting with her.  Jim joined me in the car and we were off to look at homes.  Jim had graduated from James Lick High School.  He was a legend at that school.  One of the interesting things that happened as we were looking at houses was that in most of them there were posters of him on the walls in the kid’s bedrooms.  It was unreal to be showing homes to Jim Plunkett and see his posters on the wall in most of the homes.  He selected one of them and when we returned to the office he handed me a card for his attorney.  Told me which house he wanted and said to work with his attorney on the details.  It was a great day.  Mission accomplished.  Jim secured a nice home for his mom and I was able to meet and work with him and find out that he was a great person.  Very humble and engaging.  I think he immediately became one of my all-time favorite players and I was gratified when he eventually was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.  This encounter was obviously more than just a brush with fame.  I had the occasion to work with Jim through the escrow to complete the escrow.  What a memorable experience.