Christmas is a time of giving.

The holiday also is a time of remembering what gifts have been received in the past.

Here are a few examples of such memories from notable Butler County sports personalities who were asked what were the most memorable sports-related Christmas present they ever got.

George Mihalik, Slippery Rock University football coach: That's easy. The electric football game when I was 8.I played it for hours on end, day after day. Being able to set your guys up and run plays ... That thing probably steered me toward my profession.

Brian Minto, Butler boxer: I received a ticket stub from a Jack Dempsey heavyweight title fight in Jersey City in 1921. It was given to me enclosed in a glass case.Dempsey knocked the guy out (Georges Carpentier) in the fourth round.

<B>Meghan Schnur, Butler High graduate and professional women's soccer player: </B>My brother and I received two Pittsburgh Penguin tickets last year, and I was ecstatic. I hadn't been to a game since I was a little girl.They played Buffalo. They lost.<B>Matt Clement, Butler High boys basketball coach and ex-major league baseball pitcher: </B>When I was 12, I got the entire 1986 set of Fleer basketball cards. Michael Jordan was my favorite player and I got his rookie card. It's worth $900 now.<B>Rob Lombardo, Seneca Valley girls basketball coach:</B> I received a pair of the first Air Jordan shoes when I was 15. I was a big North Carolina basketball fan and when (Michael) Jordan went to the NBA and they came out with those red and black shoes, everybody wanted a pair.<B>Donny Holl, Seneca Valley senior high school quarterback: </B>When I was in first or second grade, I got a youth-size football. For the next three years or so, I was always outside playing with that thing.<B>Sonny Westerman, longtime director of the Freeport International Baseball Tournament: </B>Four years ago, I received a letter from Kentucky for the Blue Grass Hall of Fame. It was around Christmas. They had been sending a couple of teams a year up to Freeport and we became close friends. I told my wife that's the fifth Hall of Fame I'm in. What did I do to get into one?<B>Annessa Schnur, Butler High girls track and field coach: </B>When I was younger I told my dad if I ever got a college scholarship, he'd have to get me a Jeep Wrangler. So my senior year for Christmas (December 1999) he got me a (University of) Michigan blue Jeep Wrangler.<B>Jim Lokhaiser, Butler County commissioner: </B>When I was in eighth grade (1947), and in those days no one traveled for games, but (coach and future county commissioner) Paul Langland got us into a 7th-8th grade basketball tournament in Akron (Ohio). We did real well out there. It was a lot of fun.<B>Jence Rhoads, Slippery Rock High graduate and a</B> <B>on the senior women's basketball player at Vanderbilt University:</B> I got a Cleveland Rockers WNBA jersey. I wore it everywhere.

<B>Ed Conto, Karns City football coach:</B> When I was a kid, I got a hunting knife. I still use it to this day. It was very special.<B>Dan Cunningham, Eagle County baseball president and coach:</B> Three years ago, my son Darren got me a Louisville Slugger baseball bat with my name on it. He was at the plant in Kentucky and got that for me.<B>Vic Giannotta, Seneca Valley High School boys basketball coach:</B> In the mid-80s, I got a pair of Magic Johnson's Converse All-Star Weapons. They were purple and gold, the Lakers' colors. I was a huge Magic Johnson fan.<B>Dorothea Epps, Butler girls basketball coach: </B>My grandmother bought me a pair of high-top Converse basketball shoes, orange-colored. That was the color of our Fairchance-Georges (High School) Runners.That was in 1977. It was huge because we didn't have much money and you rarely got something like that other than what the school provided for you.<B>Dess Schnur, longtime East Butler Legion baseball coach and current director of Pullman Park:</B> Ben Taylor, a former player of mine, gave me a baseball book filled with facts and figures and all sorts of trivia. That was in 1991, but I still read through it to this day. I've always enjoyed it.<B>Tim Tyler, Mars boys golf coach:</B> When I was about 12 years old, I got a toboggan. There was a nice-size hill by our house (in Moon Township), but I actually used it on a local golf course.<B>T.L. Eller, Grove City High girls basketball coach:</B> My sister and I got one of those arcade basketball games. We must have played that thing for hours and hours, day after day. I'm still quite good at those at the arcade.