WHY Do You Follow The Teams You Follow?

[Jumper_Dad]

High School- Somerset :Bawn and Bred in the Briar Patch, cut my right arm it bleeds Purple and cut my left arm it bleeds Gold...only School for me

College- Kentucky: Some of the first sports I remember seeing on TV or listening to were UK games...been a fan ever since

College- Alabama: Football only, grew up following Bear Bryant and I've been a Bama Football fan ever since

College- Florida: Football only, not sure how it started but I've been a Gator Football fan since late 80's

College- Eastern Kentucky: Alma Mater, became a fan during the Roy Kidd Glory years after seeing them on TBS

MLB- Reds: Grew up listening to Marty and Joe and hearing about Bench, Rose, Morgan, Griffey, Perez, Sparky and others

NFL- Rams: Received a Rams Poncho from the PTA to wear as a crossing guard in 5th grade, Rams fan ever since

NBA- No one really: Grew up a Sixers fans and lived and died with them when Dr. J was there and even through the Chuck years, now I follow players more than teams...I hate Knicks/Nets

[All Tell]

High School-No comment

 

College-I was a UK fan through High School (GASP). Went to school at Louisville and became acquainted with many players of that era (Darrell Griffith, Otis Wilson, the McCrays and others) and I decided that I could think for myself and became a fan. My anti-UK feelings stem from sentiments of more the a few UK fans at that time that referred to Louisville as the Blackbirds. Never looked back.

 

Not really. fan of any pro sports team.

 

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[coldweatherfan]

UK in all things - My dad, I'm an alum, and one son is an alum.

 

Illinois - Mrs C's school and we have a son there.

 

Morehead - My oldest is an alum. Plus I cheer for pretty much all the KY teams.

 

Indians and Browns - I was born in KY but I grew up in a town just outside Cleveland.

 

Bears, Cubs, and Blackhawks - Mrs C is from Chicago so I adopted her teams. Fortunately none were the enemy. I always liked the Blackhawks though.

 

NBA - Nobody really, just watch here and there if a Cat is playing.

[formerkywrestler]

LaRue County H.S. - graduated from there

UK - I'd like to stay in the will

Florida Marlins - the cereal my brother and I ate at the time the Marlins came to fruition was giving away baseball helmets as the prize. My brother and I traded off who got the prize from box-to-box. He got a Colorado Rockies helmet at declared himself a huge Rockies fan. Instantly I picked the other "new team" for my loyalties. His didn't stick , but mine has. I didn't have any MAJOR rooting alliances passed down to me (that I knew of) in MLB so nothing was already firmly ingrained.

[DragonFire]

Warren Central High - Class of 2002. I'll be a Dragon till I die, and perhaps even beyond.

 

University of Kentucky - Mostly just basketball, though I kinda like to see their football do well to. Basically I was born into this. Watched my first UK game on TV with my father when I was 8. My father grew up just outside of Lexington and my grandparents still lived there. Definitely a family thing.

 

Florida State - Mostly football on this one. The first game of FSU's that I remember was Wide Right I. Watched in a local pizza restaurant. Mostly what drew my eye was the Seminole coming out with the flaming spear. When you're 7 years old, that sticks with you. Never looked back. The first decade was real easy. The 2000's, less so....

 

Western Kentucky University - Class of 2006. I always want to see them do well. I confess in basketball I don't really want to see them beat UK, but I loved it when they won in football two years ago.

 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Owed entirely to the fact that Warrick Dunn played there. I stuck with it even after he moved on. We'll always have that one year with Gruden.

 

Atlanta Braves - Deion "Primetime" Sanders. Plus they were just like FSU with the whole Tomahawk Chop. Been a fan since age 7.

 

Colorado Avalanche - Probably the most bandwagon of my teams. I really liked Patrick Roy and the first year I really paid attention to hockey, the Avs were the best team (thinking 1996).

[TheDeuce]

Louisville - My dad was a Louisville fan, so that's where I started liking them. Fans of another team in the state made me hate said school. Ended up going to school at UofL and playing in the band. Have lived in Louisville for 10 years this July.

 

Steelers - Dad was a fan.

 

Lakers - Easy, Kobe Bryant.

[George Amberson]

UK (college basketball), the Reds, Notre Dame (college football), the Browns -- All 100% because of growing up and watching them with my dad.

 

Lakers - Kobe Bryant.

[Getslow]

Colorado Avalanche - Probably the most bandwagon of my teams. I really liked Patrick Roy and the first year I really paid attention to hockey, the Avs were the best team (thinking 1996).

 

Yeah 1996. Maybe the cruelest Cup win ever. The Nordiques never won a Cup and were never that good the entire time they were in Quebec City. They moved to Denver and won the Stanley Cup a year later. Just brutal.

[Clyde]

Conner High School - alma mater

 

CCH/NDA - kids alma maters

 

Notre Dame football -because I'm a good Catholic (unlike MTGL who hates ND)

 

Xavier - started liking them whey they sucked in the 70s and played in Schmidt. Not sure why. Then really loved them when Bob Staak was the head coach in the 80s. My daughter ended up graduating from there.

 

UK - obvious

[Jim Schue]

Baseball was the first love, and always the Reds as I was a child during the BRM years, falling asleep with the transistor radio to my ear as I listened to the late games.

 

One of the Pirates' chief scouts lived in my hometown, Warsaw, and I adopted the Buccos as a secondary team because of this. Willie Stargell and Dave Parker were the first MLBers I ever met.

 

Also have always liked the A's, as they were a fun team in the '70s when I was a kid. Love their color schemes. As I noted in another thread, I find myself listening to their radio broadcasts often on At-Bat when the Reds game isn't on. I do the same with the Pirates, and also enjoy listening to the Orioles' broadcast team.

 

When I first started watching football, the Steelers were on all the time. If you were a kid in the '70s, you picked either the Raiders, Cowboys or Steelers, and I loved the Steelers' color scheme and thought they looked tough and mean, with Jack Lambert embodying this. I was hooked for life.

 

Dad grew up listening to UofL hoops on the radio, so that got transferred to me. Also got a soft spot for Indiana in that deal, as dad hails from Madison on the Hoosier side of the Ohio River.

 

We briefly had cable TV when it first came to Warsaw. Part of the deal was everybody got a few months of The Movie Channel for free. We were having a Sunday gathering and happened to turn it on TMC at a critical spot in "North Dallas Forty" with our priest in the room, which was quite embarrassing for dad and led to us ditching cable and opting instead for a powered rotor antennae on the roof. They didn't get cable again until I was about 20.

 

Through that old antennae — motorized, I might add, with the old "ka-chunk" sound it would make as the antennae turned — I picked up the broadcasts from stations in Cincy as well as Dayton, Lexington, Indianapolis (sometimes), Bloomington and Louisville. I watched college hoops all the time, especially enjoying Dayton games in addition to a menu of IU, UK, XU, UC, UofL, Miami and others.

 

It might shock some to know that I once also rooted for UK as a child as well during these times, until the racist comments from Wildcat fans about UofL spoiled me for good. The "Blackbirds" comments were the worst, and I didn't care to be associated with any of that.

 

I've always been more into pro FB than college, so I bounced around with teams. Always liked Louisville because of hoops, but like UK fans who also claim Ohio State FB, a young kid like me needed another team. Florida State was that stand-in, but I've not followed them as much since Louisville became more relevant. Mom's from Iowa, so I'll cheer for the Hawkeyes. Always liked LSU, and I have a soft spot for Cal as well, for no apparent reason.

 

Pretty indifferent on NBA and NHL.

[newarkcatholicfan]

High School

Newark Catholic- 2 reasons

1st- My brother played ball in Jr. High(Well he was on the team) Last game of the season, they were playing Newark Catholic and he had not played one play of any game. Trailing 42-0(I believe) He asked the coach to play one play being they were down so much it could not hurt nothing. Coach said you have missed to many practices. My brother said I missed one practice all season and that was because we (all of us kids) were called home to be with our father because mom and the doctors thought this day would be his last one earth(He was dying of cancer and later did) Well after the coach said the same thing, my brother said blank You and took his uniform off. The coach said pick it up now and my brother said its yours you pick it up and then he walked across the field and rooted for the Green Wave.

 

#2- I was sicked and in the hospital.The doctors called the family in and let them know I was going to die. When I defeated death the doctor asked me what I was thinking of, while I was away from everyone. I responded "doc its football season and I have to go watch Newark Catholic play and watch the Cowboys play on TV. He said if I was that passionate about those two teams, in a way I owed them my life. He said most people on was where I was had nothing in their life they were so passionate about and that helped my body fight.

 

Indians- Growing up their was an older kid in my neighborhood who knew I pitched and he would come over every day and work with me. The only condition was I had to be an Indian pitcher. I learn all of their pitchers and became a fan

 

Reds Big Red machine. Though when the Reds Trade Tony Perez they became my 2nd MLB team.

 

Lakers- Mom went to high school with Jerry West and being she was a huge Laker fan I followed her.

 

Kings- Read about Marcel Dionne in the paper all the time, I picked the Kings as my team. There was a group of my friends who followed the NHL through the paper and we all picked a team that way.

 

Cowboys-First team I ever watched on TV and my dad always said I cried like the daughter he did not have at the time, after the Cowboys got beat

 

Ohio State- Mom and dad both were fans as was everyone I hung with.

[Cats3x]

UK- I was raised right

 

Miami Hurricanes- When I was young they were cool. Really liked them the year they got screwed and FSU past them in the BCS. Big fan ever since.

 

Miami Heat- LeBron fan.

 

Cincinnati Reds- I was raised right.

 

I don't have an NFL team. Like the Bengals to do well because they're close. Usually root for players or coaches or for "newly good" teams.

[I4C]

Boston Red Sox- got family in Boston. Loved the Cardinals (Ozzie Smith) as a kid but hate Tony LaRussa and the Cards for forcing him out the door for Royce Clayton. :puke:

 

Notre Dame/Clemson football- ND because of family and good friend of mine played there. Clemson because of my father in law was a season ticket holder and we attended several games.

 

Oakland Raiders football- Loved that nastiness as a kid. Ken Stabler, Jack Tatum. Hate the fact that gangs are wearing their gear now and just an FYI- not a great a place to watch a game with the kids. Yowser!!:eek:

 

Boston Celtics- Larry Bird and Dave Cowens favorite players and family in Boston.

 

UK basketball- because I live in Ky and its sac religious not to

 

Love to watch any college baseball game

 

Campbell County because my kids go there

[AverageJoesGym]

High School-Somerset High School. I played there, my brother played there and my son played there.

 

College Football-UK. My parents were UK fans and I went there. Also, EKU. My son plays football there.

 

College Basketball-UK. Same reason as football.

 

Major League Baseball-Boston Red Sox. I remember watching the 1975 World Series and hearing the announcers talking about the Green Monster and trying to find it. I had no idea it was the name of the wall. Later, I used to watch the College World Series and I really liked the Texas team that had Clemens, Schiraldi and Owen on it. Schiraldi and Clemens later ended up with the Red Sox and since I also really liked Wade Boggs I started really following them.

 

NBA-Boston Celtics. My Dad is a Celtics fan and I started rooting for them when they drafted Rick Robey since I had went to his basketball camps that he held at Somerset. It was just reinforced when Bird ended up a Celtic.

 

NFL-Cleveland Browns. I really liked Bernie Kosar at Miami and adopted the Browns as my favorite team when he was drafted by them. I have no idea why I've stuck with them.

[BlueTip]

College sports: Raised a UK fan by my dad. We listened to basketball and football games on the radio together in the mid to late 70s. He hated LSU (Dale Brown), Louisville (Denny) and Notre Dame (Tripucka). That's what I remember the most and it makes me laugh now. Leonard's loser...LSU. My wife and I met at UK just as a side note.

 

MLB - Cardinals - Grew up in western Ky and my first MLB game was at Busch Stadium in 1978. My favorite player was Ozzie Smith and like someone mentioned earlier, I took an instant disliking to LaRussa when he screwed Ozzie out of the starting SS position after he clearly won the spring training battle in '95. I still don't like LaRussa, but love the Cardinals.

 

NBA - When Magic was drafted by the Lakers I became a huge Laker fan. When my dog had puppies I named them all after the Lakers...Magic, Coop, etc. As a teenager in the 80s my best friend and I would always watch the 10pm west coast NBA game on Friday nights cause it was always the Lakers. After Magic retired I kind of drifted and didn't like Kobe so I abandoned the Lakers at some point, and the NBA in general the last 10-15 years cause I can't stand how the game is refereed. In the 80s I hated Bird and the Celtics. And it's ironic now because my youngest son loves Paul Pierce and we watched Celtic games a lot and I became somewhat a fan.

 

It's not a team sport but I love watching Rafael Nadal play. I've played/watched Tennis since the early 80s and I've never seen anyone fight as hard as Nadal does.