A First-Person story from Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim

as appeared on his 9-30-2002 mailbag site.

Summer 1992. To earn some extra cash before the fall semester of college, I worked the locker room of the New Haven tournament. (Think I feel old? Kafelnikov had to qualify.) Anyway, I was a glorified towel boy, duties including making sure the showers were stocked with enough ATP Tour-brand bath gel. First day he arrived, Edberg, a top seed and defending U.S. Open champion, approached me and extended his hand: "Hi, I'm Stefan." Rest of the week, he treated me like an old friend. Edberg beat Mal Washington, I think it was, to win the title. He got his check, gave his speech and left town. As I cleaned up the locker room one last time, I came across an adidas bag stuffed with new shoes, a new sweatshirt and a racket. Atop it was a note: "Jon, thanks for everything. Good luck at school, Stefan."