Great post!!
Well, I guess I am lucky because I have met both of these greats. I met Dirk at my 2nd miggle convention in DC. He and his wife Joyce, plus all the Akron group at the time.
The thing about Dirk that made me
was his attention to details on all the figures. He had these 2 teams with him that day - Cardinals and Jaguars..... The Cardinals are still being played by someone today. But it was his Jaguars that made me want to do a better job of painting teams. The details of the helmet logo would have made NFL won't to use it for their team..... all the way down to the teeth being right with the teal inside of it.
lastly, he was the first to have facemask on his players....no not the ones we use today - his were complete;y had made with string and looked Great!
I spent some time talking with Doc before he got real sick. We would discuss the history of the game, the many ways to play. I used to have so many leagues of teams that he played alone. We shared many strategey sessions on all the skill positions on the field.... allow Doc to use some of my concepts as they were being created at the time...zone, 3-4 vs. 4-3 .....
Thanks for helping us remember them.