Passing on "your teams" to your kids

[ekubum]

Growing up my dad was an avid UK and Cincy teams fan. He would take me to Riverfront stadium once or twice a year (we lived a good 3 hours away) and I cherished every moment. We would go to Rupp when we could get tickets to watch the Cats and we always watched the Bengals on Sundays. My "teams" were passed down to me in many ways, the teams I cheer for now are the teams my dad watched with me.

 

There is a sense of loyalty that has been engrained into me for those teams and I know it stems back to those days. The Reds, Bengals, and Wildcats, through thick and thin, are my true sports' loves. I cheer on other athletes I like, a few teams I follow, but nobody takes precedent over the originals.

 

I now have a young son, only a year old, and I know that I'm going to be passing my teams down to him. I guess he could choose his own but I figure since I'm always watching my teams he will be watching them as well. The problem is the Reds and Bengals haven't been very good, maybe they are getting better (Bengals good so far) but it would suck for him to grow up and watch bad season after bad season (UK Basketball is surely looking up).

 

Do you guys pass your teams down? Do you cheer for the same teams you did growing up? Did your dad or whoever influence who you like and root for?

 

PS: If you are a bandwagon fan this thread doesn't apply to you.

 

On an unrelated note: I became a Hawks fan as my NBA team mainly because of TBS when the Hawks and my main man Mookie Blaylock played on that station regularly.

[threetimelover]

Yes, unfortunately we have done that to our kids! I am not joking, one of my 2nd daughter's first phrases was "Go Cubs!" :lol: My 2 year old can sing "Go Cubs Go" almost in its entirety and all my kids say they are going to UK for college. I'm sure that will change, but right now we have definitely passed on "our" teams, for good or bad!

[HT721]

Growing up my dad was an avid UK and Cincy teams fan. He would take me to Riverfront stadium once or twice a year (we lived a good 3 hours away) and I cherished every moment. We would go to Rupp when we could get tickets to watch the Cats and we always watched the Bengals on Sundays. My "teams" were passed down to me in many ways, the teams I cheer for now are the teams my dad watched with me.

 

There is a sense of loyalty that has been engrained into me for those teams and I know it stems back to those days. The Reds, Bengals, and Wildcats, through thick and thin, are my true sports' loves. I cheer on other athletes I like, a few teams I follow, but nobody takes precedent over the originals.

 

I now have a young son, only a year old, and I know that I'm going to be passing my teams down to him. I guess he could choose his own but I figure since I'm always watching my teams he will be watching them as well. The problem is the Reds and Bengals haven't been very good, maybe they are getting better (Bengals good so far) but it would suck for him to grow up and watch bad season after bad season (UK Basketball is surely looking up).

 

Do you guys pass your teams down? Do you cheer for the same teams you did growing up? Did your dad or whoever influence who you like and root for?

 

PS: If you are a bandwagon fan this thread doesn't apply to you.

 

On an unrelated note: I became a Hawks fan as my NBA team mainly because of TBS when the Hawks and my main man Mookie Blaylock played on that station regularly.

 

My dad was always a reds fan, but that changed for him and me in 1985 when my Second Cousin was drafted by the Dodgers and played on their major league roster for the next 10 years. I now kind of cheer for the rangers since he is a coach with them now, but the dodgers were ingrained in me at a critical age. Other than that my dad passed on my college team Louisville, until I went away to college myself and went elsewhere.

[cooperstown]

Does it also count if I passed down an extreme dislike of UK basketball to my son? :sssh:

[jvdfc]

So true. My Grandfather thought Tom Landry and Adolph Rupp walked on water.:lol: He would even run my Dad or anyone out of the room if they disrupted the games. So now both of my sons are avid UK and Cowboys fans. Of course I am.

[Hangman]

I don't have any kids, but one of my fondest memories of my dad from when I was growing up was kicking back and watching Kentucky basketball games.

 

My love for the Wildcats hit new levels after he passed away, I guess because it takes me back to those times.

[jvdfc]

Does it also count if I passed down an extreme dislike of UK basketball to my son? :sssh:

 

Of course not. :lol:

[ekubum]

Of course there are times when I'm sitting through a crappy Reds season or Bengals and think, "Dang it Dad, why did you do this me!" :lol:

[ekubum]

Does it also count if I passed down an extreme dislike of UK basketball to my son? :sssh:

 

There is no accouting for taste

[DragonFire]

I pretty much inherited my love of UK basketball from my father. I watched many games with him growing up, but I feel like I made it my own as well. That's pretty much the only one I inherited. He's a Reds fan, whereas I'm a Braves fan (I was 8 in 1991, they were the first team I was taken with). I'm a Florida State football fan, he generally supports UK football as well as Notre Dame. So it's not like every team was passed on to me, and he never tried to reel me in from any of those teams, which I think is as it should be.

 

If your children pick up rooting interest in your teams because they were watching the games with you, I see no issue with that. It's a bonding experience and becomes something you look forward to. It gives you something consistent to talk about and do together. I think that's great. As long as you don't try to influence in such a way that you're telling your kid not to root for someone, and yes, I consider telling someone they dislike or hate another team doing just that. Don't fall into the trap of enforcing your teams on your child if they want to go another way, and don't fall into the regionalism that some do (You're a Reds/Cardinals fan because you live in Kentucky, you're a Kentucky fan because you live in Kentucky, etc.)

 

I definitely don't think you should try to change who you watch just for the benefit of your kid watching someone good. That's ingraining bandwagon into the child.

[HT721]

Does it also count if I passed down an extreme dislike of UK basketball to my son? :sssh:

 

That just means your being a good father.

[Original Rookie]

My parents both passed it on to me. Kentucky, Bengals and Reds. Could I sue them for child abuse for the last two?

[ekubum]

My parents both passed it on to me. Kentucky, Bengals and Reds. Could I sue them for child abuse for the last two?

 

That's what I'm saying

[billwilliams70]

I really tried.

 

I am a Raiders fan, a Yankees fan, and a Lakers fan. Tim was a fan of all except the Raiders....while I was stationed in Korea, he was left here with his wonderful, loving mother (who could care less about pro sports). The Denver Broncos had finally won a Super Bowl and Tim became fascinated by the snorting horse logo and instantlly became a Broncos fan. He didn't really, at that age, realize that they were bitter rivals to my Raiders.....but he soon found out.

 

We went to a Raiders V Titans game a few years back. I met up with a bunch of Raiders fans that I had met on a Raiders message board for a little tailgate fun. I wore a Robert Gallery jersey and Tim wore a Champ Bailey jersey. It was fun, because Tim was a pretty big kid, all of my Raider friends kept saying, "You're wearing the wrong jersey." Tim would reply with, "Nope, this is my jersey, I got it out of my closet."

 

Tim and I were going to go to the 20 December game between the Raiders and the Broncos in Denver. It was gonna be fun. We were gonna rent some mountain bikes and bike down Pike's Peak too (weather permitting) and get some dinner at John Elway's restaurant. I chose Denver as the location because Oakland home games can get kinda rough. Even though Tim was big (6'/280), I didn't want to subject him to the ridicule that he might face at the H.O.T.

 

Tim was a Gators fan, he really wanted to go to school there for Marine Biology.....and as a football player, he followed the Gators. I never really had a favorite college team....so I followed and rooted (and continue to do so) for the Gators because of Tim, so.....my son passed them on to me.

 

I miss my son and can't wait to see him again.

 

Later.

Edited October 8, 2009 by billwilliams70

[Hatz]

It's been tough since my kids have really only known VA and my son was only 7 months old when we left KY.

 

However my son has loved UK in baskeball and will watch a Reds game with me once in a while and a Dolphins game.

 

My daughter only like VA Tech and UK is Daddy's team. She respects my love of the Reds but doesn't follow enough baseball (she's a softball gal) to care or NFL.

 

I still believe if UK can win an NCAA title soon, I could get my daughter back from the dark side.