How did you become a fan of your favorite team?

[Diamond Jim]

My Grandmother was die hard Cardinals fan from back in the teens until she died in 1970. To make things worse, her son, my uncle had a tryout scheduled with the Cardinals, but sadley was killed in Korea before he could get to it. She hated the Yankees, Mickey Mantle in particular. When I was young my sole purpose in her life was to call her to the TV when the Mick had 2 strikes on him so she could pray that he would strike out. A lot of times he obliged her. She also hated Roger Maris, until he was traded to the Cardinals, then he was the best rightfielder in baseball. Anyway the more she whinned about the Yankees the more I started rooting for them just to spite her. She really gave me the business when the Cardinals beat the Yankees in the '64 series. Sadley by the time the Cardinals made it back to the Series in '67 and '68 she was sick with what we now know as alheimzers. I know she turned over in her grave when she heard me rooting for the Cardinals when they played the Red Sox in the Series. So.......that's how I became a Yankee fan. Thank you Grandma.

Became a Chicago Bears fan because at that time we had only one TV station (CBS) in town and all we got were Da Bears.

Became a Jets fan because I hated the Colts so much (still do) that when my Hungarian cousin guaranteed a victory and when they produced I have rooted for the green and white ever since.

Notre Dame, that's a no brainer, I'm catholic.

 

[MikeI]

Born in So Cal. Used to go to Angels and California Surf games as a kid at Anaheim Stadium. My dad was a Bruins fan, so I got that from him too. Became a Lakers and Dodgers fan because the Lakers were on TV a lot and the Dodgers were always in the World Series. 1st game I remember on TV is Bob Welch rookie game against the Yankees in the WS. My favorite football player growing up was Bradshaw. I was always a Steelers fan, but they were rarely on KNXT or KNBC.

I moved so much as a kid, it was tough to keep up in Virginia with the California teams (pre c-band/DirecTV) so I became a somewhat Orioles fan (WDCA/WTTG was on cable in Virginia Beach), Redskins and a ACC fan. We got Raycom games locally on I think channel 33. On good days when the wind was coming from the SW, you could get WRAL from Raleigh which was pure heaven. This was in the Worthy, Perkins, Jordan, Ralph Sampson, era.

In Phoenix in the 80's, we got some Dodgers games on channel 45, KUSK had some Angels KTLA feeds along with A's, Giants and Padres feeds.

I would say I just became a fan because my dad always liked certain teams. I remember the Super Bowl in '80 as my 1st football game on TV that I saw, but I do remember when Ahmad Rashad made a catch for the Vikings on the last week of the season one year that was important. I became a fight fan, because my dad would have parties and watch the games on closed circuit. I remember a Holmes match in the early 80's where 20-30 people were over to watch it and this technology called pay-per-view. I'm now much more a sports fan then my dad and most/all of my friends. Most think I'm nuts... they don't complain come college football/basketball season though.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Geography for me. Bo Schembechler drew me to MICHIGAN.