After giving his talk, the substance of which I have sadly forgotten, Mr Aspel was bidden to stand in front of a long queue of be-capped autograph seekers. The thrill of getting our guest to write "Best wishes, Michael Aspel" in my book was so extreme that I decided it should be repeated and re-joined the queue.

As I faced Mr Aspel once again he hesitated only momentarily before making further addition to my book. "Best wishes, Michael Aspel."

This genial incident came to mind when I saw a tweet from Rich Kenah, the United States athlete, winner of a bronze medal in the 800 metres at the 1997 World Championships,recalling a similar quest for an autograph in his youth. The object of his attention was the United States high hurdler Greg Foster, whose death at the age of 64 was announced today.

"As a HS (high school) track geek, I stood in line to get Greg’s autograph at NJ’s Vitalis Indoor Meet," Kenah wrote on Twitter. "An usher tried to shoo me away. Greg turned to the usher & said respectfully but w/ an authority I’ll never forget that he would stay & sign autographs for every kid in line. RIP, OG & legend."

Foster had a wonderful career. Uniquely, he won three consecutive World Championships 110m hurdles titles - at Helsinki 1983, Rome 1987 and Tokyo 1991. He also won an Olympic silver medal at Los Angeles 1984 and, in 1987, set a world indoor 60m hurdles record of 7.36sec.

All of this Kenah well knows - and yet when he remembers Foster, this is what he remembers.

In Tintern Abbey, one of his most celebrated and, yes, well-remembered poems, William Wordsworth speaks of

"..that best portion of a man’s life,

"His little, nameless, unremembered acts

"Of kindness and of love…”

That moment in New Jersey would probably have been unremembered as far as Foster was concerned; but for Kenah it was unforgettable.

It is an experience with which a multitude of sports followers around the world will readily identify. While there should and must be a limit to how available sporting protagonists are to spectators and supporters, the way in which they respond to requests for autographs, and selfie pictures, is a litmus test for their popularity and reputation.

The forums.collectors.com site contains a long discussion thread from sports followers in the United States on the topic of best and worst autograph experiences, and it makes for irresistible reading.

A typical example was contributed by MooseDogPosts. His worst experience - trying to get an autograph from a Detroit Tigers baseball player along with three others after a game in the early 1980s. The player involved screamed “get out of my f***ing way!” and then spat, just missing our poster’s foot – a detail to be cherished down the years. Textbook nastiness.

But it was not all grief for Mr MooseDog. He recalls being told by a Russian friend of his to "get over to the Redwood City Ice rink ASAP!".

The reason being that the fabled Russian ice hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak, who won three Olympic and 10 world titles with the Soviet Union before going on to coach in the National Hockey League, was holding a youth goalie clinic there.

"So I grab a couple of things, including a Patrick Roy game used stick I had (signed by Roy) thinking it would be nice to have two of the greatest goalies in hockey on one stick. Almost out the door I remember I have a Russian book about the 1972 Summit Series.

"Get there and the clinic is still going on. Tretiak is on the ice with the kids, he's a huge man, the kids looked tiny by comparison. My buddy says that Tretiak is going to sign autographs after the clinic. When it ends, Tretiak sets up a table in a small area upstairs at the rink, my buddy and I wait until all the kids are done and ask if he's sign a few things for us.

"My buddy is from Russia and speaks fluently and said a few things to Tretiak and he smiled while he signed a couple of pucks and cards for him. He signed my stick and a paper picture the rink had for him.

"I showed him my book and he got really interested in it, going through the pages reminiscing about the Series, he made a few comments to a kid who stuck around, pointing out one picture of him ('see, eyes always on puck')...

"There was a full page picture of him near the back of the book and he penned a beautiful signature right in the white area of the ice and then thanked ME for bringing the book. Since I was the last one he looked around and asked 'All done?' We shook his huge hand and thanked him."

Textbook niceness.

How many will have similar experiences?

Yes, that is indeed a prompt for me to offer an experience of my own which I might yet add to the forum thread if it’s still live.

A school trip to the 1973 Men’s AAA Championships at Crystal Palace, set up by a wonderful new PE teacher who was also a national standard steeplechaser - sorry Sir, and I have forgotten your name! - offered a group of fledgling athletes - some of whom plummeted straight to earth - the chance to see some of the big names of the day.

We had  missed Dave Bedford’s 10,000m world record by a day. But never mind -  there were other luminaries to watch, like European 400m champion David Jenkins, European 110m hurdles silver medallist Alan Pascoe, and European 800m bronze medallist Andy Carter, who set a British record of 1min 45.12sec that sunny day.

I got all three of their names in my Nationwide programme pages. I nabbed Jenkins in the stand, and he was very polite, as was Carter. Pascoe signed the book balancing on his knee and almost fell over backwards when he momentarily lost his balance. "International hurdler injured after autograph request".

One name that isn’t in the programme, even now, is that of shot putter Geoff Capes. Having seen him talking to someone outside the arena - almost certainly a journalist I later realised - I waited until he had finished and, as he was strolling along, asked him if he would be good enough to sign. I won’t recount the response, but suffice it to say he wouldn’t.

And that’s what I remember.