It was last October, 1997, and the Tour was stopping at the Fleet 
Center in Boston, Mass.  I live about 45 minutes away from there in Grafton.  
I saw the commercial on TV and begged my mom to take me.  I was kind of 
surprised that she said yes, because I knew the tickets would be expensive.
When we arrived at the Fleet Center, it took us a few minutes to 
find our seats.  But when we did, was I surprised.  Our seats were 5th row 
floor seats!!!  I was so excited!!  Then the gymnasts came out to warm up.  I 
was about 10 feet away from the people I liked and admired most!!  And 
right in the front of the mats was Dominique Moceanu!!  I was so excited, I 
actually started to cry.  I just kept screaming, "Mom it's her!!!  It's really 
her!!" My mom was like, "Be quiet, you're making a fool of yourself."
After about an hour of the show, including a great floor routine by
Nique, there was a short 15 minute intermission/warm up period for the
gymnasts.  During this intermission, everyone took pictures, but I 
forgot my camera at home.  But I did remember to bring my Nique autobiography and 
a pen.  Everyone was crowded in the front row, which was as far as the 
guards would let us go.  We were all watching the mag 7, and other great 
athletes warm up for the second part of the show.  Dominique was waiting to warm 
up on the beam.  While she was standing and waiting, me and some other 
Nique fans started sceaming out her name hoping she would look up at us.  
When she did, I held up my book and said, "can I have your autograph?"  She 
said, "sorry, we're not allowed."  And gave everyone a sympathetic smile.
After the 15 minute intermission, the guards sent everyone back to 
their seats.  After everyone was seated, I walked up to one of the guards and
asked them if the could get Nique's autograph for me.  Of course, he
refused.  Nique was still warming up on the beam, so I sat down to 
watch. She had trouble, and fell, on every single move. A few minutes later,
after the show started up again, Nique mounted the beam.  And she hit every single move!  
I was so proud of her.  She even nailed the landing of her dismount, which she 
hasn't done in a while.  I couldn't stop screaming.  She was so awesome!  After 
the show was over, I bought a poster with the Mag 7 on it.  It 
is hanging in my bedroom now.  I look at it at least 20 times a day!!  I 
will never forget that night, even if I didn't get an autograph or anything.  
It was by far the most exciting night of my life!

Jill - kuras@pop.ma.ultranet.com 

  The show was fantastic.  I had such a wonderful time.  I didn't get to
meet any of the gymnasts, but thats ok; I really didn't think I would anyways.
But I do have an interesting story to tell, well at least I think it is.  
     When I woke up Saturday morning, I was already counting the hours.  10,
9, 8, the day wouldn't go by fast enough.  I couldn't wait.  After a long,
long wait, at 4:30, my friend, Sam, her mom, and her friend, Lisa, came to
pick up my mom and me.  We went out to dinner and then drove for about 30
minutes into Hartford, where the show was being held.  We parked the car in a
nearby parking garage and headed over to the Civic Center.  I bought a
program, and Sam bought a poster.  Since we bought our tickets at different
times, we weren't in the same section, so we split up to find our seats.  Our
seats seemed pretty good; we could see everything really well.  I brought
bonoculars so I could see really well.  We watched the gymnasts warm up.  Then
they played a song about the Mag 7; it was kind of clever.  My mom and I
couldn't find Sam anywhere.  We knew that they were in the section right next
to us, but we couldn't find them.  As we continued to look, I found them,
right in the front row, not more than five feet away from the mat.  I couldn't
believe it.  The even got their tickets after we got ours!  I was still really
happy to be their, reguardless of where I was sitting.  They started the show
with some gymnasts form gymnastics clubs that  were in the area.  The first
performer was Ben (?) and he goes to my school!  That was pretty neat.  He did
really well for being first and all.  They started off by introducing each of
the gymnasts one by one.  Then they a group number with everyone.  They held
Dominique Moceanu in the air and danced around her at one point.  That was
neat.  Then they did some individual routines, including Dominique on floor
and Amanda Borden on bars.  I absoluetly loved it.  Amy Chow did her famous
Olympic bar routine, minus one twist on the dismount.
Dominique Dawes did her beam routine. They then had a comedy routine with
Gregg Curtis as a clumsy gymnast.  He wore a bright yellow helmet, high knee
socks, suspenders holding up his plaid shorts, and a superman t-shirt.  His
name for the show was Seamore Crashing.  It was really funny.  He would do all
kinds of skills on the p-bars and then fall on the mat.  He was really good at
being bad!   Then, they did another group number that was a beach number It
started off with the music from none other than. . . Baywatch.  The girls wore
the red bathing suits with towels and the guys wore red shorts and lifeguard
tees.  The special guests wore bright colored shirts and shorts.  It was
really cool.  I was watching them dance on the floor when I saw, dancing with
Kim Zmeskal, Sam! I couldn't believe it! It was so cool.  Then they did more
individual performances including Shannon Miller on floor.  Then the did
another group number from Micheal Jackson's, "Thriller". I was really cool.
They were all dressed in torn up close in dark colors.  Then they had a 15
minute intermission.  Sam came up to us with her mom and Lisa.  She was so
excited about dancing with Kim.  Sam's mom asked us it we wanted to trade
seats! At first my mom said no.  But they convinced us.  I am so glad we did.
We were so close, we could almost touch them.  I was great. Then they had Bela
come out and some little kids from some gymnastics came and tumbled.  They
were so cute.  The guys did their "A Few Good Men" act with the army suits.
They came so close to us.  Then the girls the interperation of Riverdance and
that was really good.  In the middle of their dance, Shannon's velco came
undone in the back.  I could here all of them laughing talking about it while
they were performing it was great.  They had more individual performances with
Dominique on the beam to the music, "How will I Live", by LeAnn Rimes.  Then
they all did a dance to Men in Black.  They all had black on and did a lot of
the moves from the video. Then Seamore came out again.  This time he attemped
to do the floor exercise.  After a tumbling pass though, he fell and crashed
right into me.  A crash helmet to the shin.  It was really funny.  Kim
Zmeskal, Kerri Strug and Jaycie Phleps, did their beam routines.  John
Macready did his high bar routine and stood up on the bar in the middle to
give a little wave to the crowd and get them going.  It was great.  The last
performance of the evening was Shannon Miller on the beam, which I thought was
very fitting.  And the show was over.  :(  At the end they said, "Thank you
for coming, and see you next year."  And I said, "Most Definately."   

Becky (NevilleBJ@aol.com)

  My friend and I ordered tickets and went to the tour. We sat right beside
the door where they go in and out before and after our routines. It was so
cool!! We talked to every gymnast and even slapped Dominique Moceanu high
fives. My friend had a conversation with Kip Simons and she gave Kim Zmeskal
a high five. We could see them getting ready behind us. It was AWESOME! Then
We said hi to Bela and he was talking to us. We tried to say hi to Steve
Nunno,but he looked up and didn't even smile. :*( Then we yelled at
Rachael,Mary Lee Tracy's daoughter and she waved to us. We had so much fun!
We could of reached out and touched Dominique Moceanu's head!! It was one day
I'm sure I'll never forget!!!!!!!!!
 ~Amy (Moceanu327@aol.com)

Well, I was at the JH tour, and I got front row seats, right by where the
gymnasts walk in and out, and I had my professional camera, with a telephoto
lens. The security was tight. They wouldn't let me use my camera, so I went to
the 20th row to take pics, where it was dark. (You know, so they couldn't see
me) I kept going down to try and talk to the gymnasts. I gave up with my camera
efforts because they were using theatrical lighting, and there wasn't too much
of it, so they would all come out blurry because the shutter wasn't fast enough.
The head of security repedidly told me to go to my seat, and threatened to take
my camera away, and kick me out, but in the long run, it was all worth it. I got
yelled at   least 20 times. I first talked to Bela, and tried to get him to give
domi a picture I took of her in February of her to sign. We talked for a minute,
and he agreed, even though it was against the rules. He gave it to her, and she
signed it. She gave it to Kerri. Kerri came looking for me, and we talked for a
minute. She gave it to me, and I was happy. I also got to talk to Jaycie,
Amanda, and some others while they were waiting to go on. Then, Domi came out,
and was getting a backrub by John right bye me. I asked her to sign something
else, and she said, (Right at me) "sorry they won't let me" I asked why, and she 
told me, and I wished her a happy birthday. I asked her something else, and
right when she was responding, guess who showed up. MR. Hot shot security. He
made me go to my seat, and said one more time, and he would kick me out. At
least I got to talk to her, and that satisfied me. Thanks. Please respond with
comments. 

-Jason Gymnast@hargray.com 

I was lucky enough to go see the John Hancock tour in St. Louis with a few
friends, our parents and my little sister. It was awesome! My dream come
true! At first when we arrived at the Kiel Center we bought T-shirts and
all that good stuff and then it was time to go find our seats. I almost
fainted when I walked in there! I didn't expect them to be worming up
already. When the security guard found our seats for us I was even more
shocked. We were in the 2nd row of elevated seats right in front of the
balance beam, and the floor kind of. I was so exited! We were hollering and
screaming and then when Dominique was sitting on the floor looking at some
pictures we all yelled "Hi Dominique" and she smiled and waved back to us.
That was one of the best parts. We did get to meet most of the gymnast
there and say Hi a few times to each of them. They were all very friendly.
The 2 boys behind us kept yelling mean things about John Mc Cready because
they loved Amanda, so we made them mad by yelling things like " Go John"
and "We Love You John" even though we didn't love him. The best part of the
show (As Doug Daniels said) was when my friends and I got to shake hands
with Dominique.  Shannon Miller was right in front of her and then
Dominique came by. I was screaming and flashing the camera. It was so neat,
the best moment in my life! My friends and I were so exited we wouldn't let
go. We did though after a several seconds and she just smiled again and
said "HI. After that she was talking to the guy in charge of music and I
asked her if we could take her picture and she told us sure. She was really
nice. Everytime she was out on the floor or getting ready to go out we
would run over there or yell hi to her. It was so awesome, sometimes I
still think I was just dreaming. Hopefully I will get to meet her again!

-Katie Janes

I just saw the JH Tour in St. Louis and it was great!  The show was
good, but I enjoyed other tings a lot more.  First, my friend and I saw
Amanda Borden and John Macready come the Stadium in a taxi, and we got
Amanda's autograph and picture.  My seats were on the sixth row, so I
was pretty close.  All the routines were pretty good, but watching
warm-ups was cool, because you could take pictures more easily than with
the lights out.  No flashes were allowed, so good pictures were hard to
come by.  I got just about everyone to wave to me, including both
Dominiques and Jaycie.  Dominique Dawes even looked back at me and
smiled as she walked into the locker room!  My friend also got Jaycie's
autograph, but before I could get it the security people said "no
autographs" and ran us off.  The best part of the show was right after
intermission.  Dominique Moceanu, my favorite, was walking back to the
locker room.  I had brought her a little stuffed bear with a Houston
Rockets logo on it and a little angel pin along with a letter and a copy
of my poem that I sent to this website.  I said her name as she walked
by and she came over to where we were.  She touched hands with some
girls in front of me, and then it happened.  I told her that I had a
present for her and she took it and said "Oh, thank you!" and flashed
that beautiful smile.  I thought I was going to pass out, I was so
excited.  I included my address in the letter, so maybe she'll write me,
I hope so.  Overall, I loved the show, it was tons more fun than last
year's, at least for me.

Doug Daniels

I watched the John Hancock Tour in Cleveland. Wow!  There was hardly
anything repeated from last year... Afterwords I got a chance to get
some autographs. I'd have to say that Amanda Borden was the nicest one, she talked to
people and took pictures with them. (So did Kim Zmeskal) But I was
dissappointed that Dominique Moceanu hardly came in the room at all, and Shannon
Miller didn't sign her name she scribbled it.  Overall, the tour was awesome,
they even had a special Halloween act.
        
Kutzie13@aol.com

Well, story is not as interesting as Beth's, but I enjoyed the show.
Around late July, I was on the site Dominique Moceanu:A True American
Champion , and noticed a banner at the bottom
of the page. Whoa, Dominique AND Shannon AND Kerri together in one show?
I immediately clicked on the link - and found out that it was the John
Hancock Tour, and it was comming through Fort Worth, my home town, on
October 11. I spent hours trying to pull Ticketmaster up on the Net
(which was futile at the time because of all the traffic generated by
Pathfinder), just to find out they did not have Fort Worth on the tour.
Perplexed, I checked the John Hancock page again, and sure enough, it
said in Fort Worth at the Tarrent County Convention Center. Curious, I
called Ticketmaster, and they said that the only John Hancock they had
in Texas was in Houston. A few weeks went by, and somehow I found out
that Dillard's was selling the tickets. Dillards has a ticket booth? So,
I went down to Dillards, and bought the closest seats I could get, 5th
row behind the floor exercise mat.
   October 11. I woke up, astonished that water was comming out of the
sky. Oh, yeah, its called rain, we have not had that in a while. And
lots of it, too, it was close to flooding. Well, I watched the Tour on
NBC that afternoon, and was really surprised by what I saw. It was not a
competition, it was a show! Yeah, no new code of points that are so
difficult many gymnist cannot pull it off! Well, I after that, I got on
the freeway, hydroplaining my way to the convention center. I went to
the ATM machine and withdrew some money, and went inside, where I spent
$5 on a picture of the Mag 7 and $12 on a program. checking to make sure
my trusty Kodak Advantix camera was still in my pocket, I took my
seat...\
   and noticed the apparateses for the first time. Oh my gosh, are those
the things that they actually compete on? I will never let my kids take
gymnastics, just look at the uneven bars! I was surprised they could
even stand upright! And look at the bar that is actually on them. I was
surprised that it could even hold someone as small as Dominique without
breaking. And that beam - how many people have killed themselves on
that. But, the scaryest thing there was the rings. I feel so bad for
those guys. Could you imagine the pain that they must have experienced
the first time they got on those rings?
   Then they came, the Magnificent 7 (plus a few good men, Kim Zemeskal,
and thoise international gymnist), and guess who has grown? Yep,
Dominique is now taller than Kerri Strugg. And is it just me, or have
they all put on a little bit of fat? That is what happens when you are
not in the gym every day. But, they still looked great, and preformed
great, if it was not for those crickets! There were crickets all over
the place. One flew right in Jayce Phelps face while she was on the
beam, causing her to nearly loose her balance, and many more were all
over the floor exercise mat. The TCCC crew were running out between each
performance trying to clear the mat! 
   Then came intermission. I went down to the railing (along with about
10 twelve-year-old-girls) to try to see them closer. On the beam, five
feet away, was Shannon Miller, and right behind her was Dominique! My
God, she is even more beautiful in person than she is on tv! I was
captivated, imersed, then I remembered my camera, and snabed a photo.
Once again refocusing my self on Dominique, I scarecly heard the girls
next to me yell at her. Dominique turned, waved, and then, she did a
double take at me! Wow. I am sure I would have too, this 18-year-old guy
standing over there with several 12-year old girls. Then she smiled at
me. Wow, can she ever brighten up a room! I still cannot believe she
even looked at me. I was more than happy just looking at her, and now
this! How could anything top that! Well, of course, if she had have come
over, signed a few autographs, and stuff, then it might be better, but
still.
   Well, intermission ended, and they introduced one of the most popular
faces behind gymnastics (could it be Nadia?), Bela Karolie! Wow, Bela
here, in Fort Worth! I mean, this guy has coached the greatist women
gymnist of all time, and now he is here?!?!?! Cool! So, Bela gave his
little speech, and then they brought out the preschool gymnist. I tell
you, Bela is a big guy, and kind of scary, but, when you saw him out
there with those kids, you noticed that he was all heart.
   Well, that about wraps it up. Hey, it was exciting for me!

-William Henley

It was July 23, 1997. The one-year anniversary of the woman’s gold
medal! I got up early to watch the team on the Today show. That’s when I
remembered that USA gymnastics was announcing the tour dates for this
year’s John Hancock tour!! I hurried to their website! Then, sure
enough! There it was! On October 3rd the tour would be in Boston at the
Fleetcenter! And on Monday, the 28th, the tickets were going to go on
sale! So, that weekend, I collected the money from my little neighbors
(Scott-10, Danielle-10, and Bronson-9)who wanted to go to the tour with
me. Then, on Monday, my dad took Bronson and I to the closest
Ticketmaster to get the tickets. We were sure that we’d get front row.
We had been to the Fleetcenter website and looked through the views from
the different sections. We agreed that section 21 was the best, because
it was right next to where the gymnasts entered from the locker room. So
we went to Ticketmaster, the lady there said that the best seats were in
section 17 row 9. We were kind of disappointed because we wanted front
row. The lady said that she could check the other sections to see what
was available there. So Bronson, with his big mouth, started insisting
that he wanted section 21. So the lady said that she had Section 21 row
1 available! I almost fainted! So we bought the tickets! First row!
Right next to where the gymnasts entered from the locker room! I
couldn’t wait for October!
 During the time between July and October, we decided that we wanted to
do something to get the gymnasts attention, first the boys were going to
bring flowers, but then we had a better idea! We were going to make
T-shirts that spelled out MAG7, since there were 4 of us! So a week
before the show we bought the materials and I made the shirts! They came
out pretty cool! I just couldn’t wait for the tour!!
 Finally it was the day of the tour! After school, the kids came to my
house and we ate a big dinner, (Thanks Mom!), and when my dad came home
he ate too. So around 4:30 we left for Boston. The tour didn’t start
until 7:30, but it was an hour drive and we wanted to give extra time in
case there was traffic, and we wanted to be there early anyway! We were
right, there was a lot of traffic! Instead of an hour, the ride was an
hour and a half. We finally made it to the Fleetcenter around 6:15. When
we got there, we looked around in The Bruins Pro Shop (a store in the
Fleetcenter), and we went to the bathrooms.  Then we noticed that the
doors to the arena were open, and we could go find our seats!! I bought
a program and we found our seats easily. We were right behind the table
where Kurt Thomas would be commentating the show! He even talked to us
for a while and commented on our shirts! I then took about 54 pictures
of the gymnasts warming up. We would call their names and when they
waved, I’d take a picture. Then they had to go back to the locker room
to get ready for the show, it was so cool seeing them walk only 5 feet
from where we were standing! They didn’t notice our shirts though.
 Then the show began! It was awesome! It was a lot different from last
years. They did a routine called “Check it Out:” that was cool, and a
routine in bathing suits and boogie boards! I was having so much fun.
The show was cool, but I had more fun watching the gymnasts on the side
than watching the actual show. I could see them stretching out only 5
feet from me! I couldn’t take pictures because it was too dark and we
weren’t allowed to use flashes. The funniest part was watching Dominique
Moceanu, Kim Zmeskal, and Jaycie Phelps with their arms on each others
shoulders swaying back and forth singing along with the country song
that Lilia was using for a beam routine! It was so cool! Not many other
people saw it because they were kinda in the tunnel to the locker room.
It was also cool seeing Jaycie sitting at the table where Kurt Thomas
was sitting to watch the show. Once she was sitting there on Mary Lee’s
lap talking while they watched the show. Then later I saw her sitting
with her mom talking. But the best of all was seeing her with Dominique
Moceanu sitting on her lap talking, and they had their heads resting
against each other. It was so cute!
 During intermission, we decided that as the gymnasts were walking back
to the locker room, we would yell their names and get them to look at
our shirts. First to go by was Amanda, she laughed, gave us a thumbs up
and said “good job”! Then Jaycie came by, she smiled and said that they
were cute! Then Dominique Moceanu and Amy Chow walked by, Dominique
smiled, but Amy didn’t seem to notice them. Kerri and Dominique Dawes
also complimented us! When we were yelling to Shannon a VIP who worked
with them got her attention and pointed to us, she liked them too! It
was awesome! Our shirts seemed to be a big hit with everyone!
 There were a lot of other good routines during the show. The men did
their “A Few Good Men” routine again this year, it was a little
different. They also did a Men in Black routine, where they did the
dance that Will Smith does in the music video, and the two Johns did
that double high bar routine that they did during the Reeses Cup.
Instead of the Impossible Dream routine, the Mag7 did a  Riverdance-type
routine, that was awesome! Also, both the men and women did a
Halloween-type routine with monster masks on, to Michael Jackson’s song
“Thriller."
 After the show, we wanted to hang around our seats for a little while
waiting for the crowds to leave. Then some guy who worked there told us
to wait for a while, they wanted to take our picture with the t-shirts
on! They even mentioned that it might be in next year’s program! Then
just when it seemed that the night couldn’t get any better, he gave my
dad 4 tickets to the reception for us! I almost fainted! Since I had
already used all my cameras, we had to run across the street to buy two
more disposable cameras. Then off to the Legends club upstairs in the
Fleetcenter!
 When we walked in, we saw Jaycie Phelps right away and I had her
autograph my program, we really didn’t have time to talk though, she was
busy talking to her mom and I didn’t want to interrupt. Then we noticed
that everyone had pics of the team that they were getting autographed,
so we asked someone where to get them. It turned out they were handed
out for free at the door. So we went to get them, since the kids didn’t
have anything to get autographed. So we went back to where Jaycie was
and got her autographs. Then we went to find Amanda, since she was
closest. You couldn’t even see her, there were so many people crowded
around her, but we made it! Then the four of us split up going where we
wanted. I was right next to Kerri Strug waiting patiently for her
autograph. When some person told her that it was time to go that the bus
was waiting. So I couldn’t get her autograph, I also hadn’t gotten
Amy’s. In the end I had all of the Mag7’s except for Kerri and Amy, I
had gotten Jessica Davis’s, Mihai Bagiu’s, John Rothlisburger’s, and
Mary Lee Tracy’s!! I was so happy! I didn’t really have time to talk to
any of them because of the amount of people there. Bronson did have the
nerve to ask Jessica Davis if she had a spine because of the way she can
bend and flex. She laughed and said that she was born that way.
Dominique Moceanu seemed really tired and hot, she kept blowing her
bangs out of her face and drinking water. Dominique Dawes received a
present from a little girl and gave her a hug. It was so sweet! Jaycie
had her legs propped up on a chair, she seemed tired too. Her knee was
probably bothering her. I also noticed on that night, that the gymnasts
are multi-talented, even when not doing gymnastics. I noticed that most
of the girls could look up at a camera and smile even in the middle of
signing an autograph!
 Then we headed back to the car, in the parking garage, my dad took the
picture of the 4 of us with our shirts on, we had to put all of our
stuff down. Then on the way home, I realized that I couldn’t find one of
my camera’s! It had most of the pictures of the reception on it! They
were the best pics too! I’m so mad that I lost it, maybe I’ll find it
somewhere, but I don’t think so.
 It was an amazing night! I can’t wait for next year (if they have it
next year) I just really want to see if we’re in the program. I will not
forget this night for the rest of my life. Thank you Dad for driving us
there and helping me get the tickets! I really appreciate it!

-Beth Dimock 

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