Ladies, I'm SO GLAD that you love this idea and are "on board" with it, but I want to kindly ask that you start emailing your stories directly to me so they don't end up being repetitive for some of the readers - I would really appreciate it (that way it'll be a fresh, new story for the majority of the posts). If you've already posted them in the "comments," that's fine, but from here on out, please try to email them. Also, if you don't want me to include your name, please let me know that as well (what I'll normally do is put your first name and last initial if I have it).
I also want to let you know I LOVE these stories - I've always found it interesting no matter who the fan, so I'm enjoying ALL OF THIS IMMENSELY!! KEEP THEM COMING, but I ask that you email them please - THANKS!!!
Since I got such a great response from asking all of you to tell your story of how you became a hockey fan, I decided it would be a good idea for a regular post and today will be the first one. I know that most of these were posted in the comments, but I figured it would be best to post them right on the blog for ALL to see (in case some of you missed them or readers who happen upon the blog later on can appreciate your stories too), so ENJOY!!
SIDENOTE: these are in no particular order other than, perhaps, the order they were posted in the comments
How did I become a hockey fan?
A [male] friend of mine that is some years older than I am. He kept telling me that I'd appreciate the sport for what it was (strategy, determination, etc), but he actually tried to entice me to watch it by telling me how cute some of the Pens players were!! Really, he just wanted someone to watch the games with and talk about it with afterward. And he was right: I fell in love with the GAME. I watch whatever game's on TV, and not because of the players or the teams (although I do, of course, have my favorites).
I worry constantly about being labeled a puck bunny, but my friend constantly assures me that I am not--not since I can rattle off some facts and stats that even he doesn't know, and he's the biggest fan I've ever met. We all struggle with the stereotype, but we know within if we're true fans with occasional urges to ogle or merely fawning, giggling, vapid bags of raging hormones.And that's all I need to know; I hope that it's true for you as well.
- Jay
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8 comments:
I love the idea of more of these stories!!
Here is mine,
I was born into a hockey family in Chicago, but moved after my dad (A hockey Player) passed away when I was ten. It wasnt until about two years ago when I tore my acl that I started to become an obsessive fan.
I moved away from my home state of hawaii to go to college in Massachusetts. When I got there, my cousins took me to a providence bruins game as their cousin plays for the team. This is the moment my fascination was born.
Aftr tearing my acl and being forced to come home to hawaii, I missed the sport so much that while recuperating, my cousins and I would skype while watching every Hawks and Pens games. Hockey is the only sport fast paced enough to keep me interested, and Im thankful to have discovered a love for it.
I olny wish it was played more here in Hawaii.
My story is pretty much because of my brother.
He's 7 years older than me, and growing up I always wanted to be with him, wanting to play with the older boys and so on.
So naturally when the boys would play street hockey, I would be perched up on the snow bank on the side of the road cheering them on! : )
From there, when he would be watching a game, I'd be right there by his side, not really understanding, but wanting to watch to just be with him. As I grew older, I became to actually understand the rules of the game and fell in love.
my story...
my dads side of the family was always huge penguins fans...i think my grandpa actually potitioned for them when we were unsure of them staying in Pitttsburgh. Anyway, Jay Caufield is my basketball coach. i never reallt though much of this until the stanley cup playoffs..where me and some of my friends really got into the game.
ya..u might sat im a fare weather fan, but you can go die...
now my mother worries about me and my obsession with hockey =]
*just so you know this all happened this summer (i have yet to go to a game)=[
@ Stephanie
Glad you're making this a feature. I love hearing other people's reasons for becoming a fan, especially us girls.
Most of us have some pivotal moment when we recognized our obsession and were ok with it.
@ Jimie Don't think it matters if it was 10 years ago or 10 days ago. :)
Oh and BTW hockey players are HAWT!!! Haha.
this is an awesome idea.
i first fell in love with this sport when i was told that i might get kicked out of my high school. i know you must be wondering 'what do the two have in common', the truth is, i knew i needed to buckle down and start working harder. this meeting about my expulsion right before the christmas Break, and one night after not feeling like going out with my friends because i was worried sick about whether or not i would have a school to go to when the break ended, i turned on the TV and the World Junior Championship was playing. i sat down and found myself getting lost in the strategy and the aggressiveness, it was a nice change of pace for me being a rugby player. that christmas break i found myself watching every hockey game i could.
living in Montreal, many people assume that you will be a habs fan, but i wasn't locked on that decision. not having anyone else in my family like hockey helped me choose the team i truly supported.
i found my team one very snowy night in february on TSN, they were all wearing black and gold and not doing very well, it was proven to me later that there recent stats didn't do them justice either, but you really couldn't have known that by looking at the drive these players had even if they were loosing. everyone was there for each other. brothers.
i was attracted to this team because, like rugby, camaraderie is one of the key components to the game... and without it you cant win championships.
Let's Go Pens!
mariabprice
I love the stories idea too.
Mines an interesting one :)
I was born in 1994, so a couple years after Mario. My mom and dad we're pretty big Mario fans, but after that they ultimately switched to the Blackhawks. Chelios it was. I can remember the first time I saw "Waynes World" was because they had the Blackhawks symbol nearly everywhere. But I'm from St.Louis! Since almost the day I was born, we would sit there and watch Blue's games, and go go Blue's games.
At the time we lived in a smaller part of the $tL. My half brother, Ryan, had played ice hockey since the age of THREE! He switched back and forth from roller and ice, I can only vaguely remember the roller.
Hockey was my life, and I was only a few years old. Days that he didn't have a game, or practice? Blues. I can remember getting really into it, and I fell in love with the game.
Your going to laugh at this one. I used to lay in bed with my family, and we would watch the game. Almost every time my dad would ask me "Who are you going to marry?" and I would say "BRETT HULL!" and I was about three.
My big brother was my bestfriend (And still is ;]) but he was also my half brother. We ended up moving to a much nicer part of Missouri (Probably even closer to the Savvis center) and he went to his moms house. I still went to his games.
When I was about nine, he was 13. He started travel hockey. I would get out of school countless times for a trip across the country. While my sister complained about nothing but hockey, I thought it was the best part of the trips!
When he started high school, things changed. He moved to his mom's and visited much less. I saw him almost never. We never watched the Blues on tv, they we're one of the worst teams in the league.
I got caught up in a lot of other things when I was 14. I'm a girl, (Obviouslyyyy.) so I started to go shopping, hanging out with friends, facebooking, texting, you know, parties, makeup & doing my hair, school. The usual.
To the people who say I'm not a real fan are FULL. OF. IT. This year, yes, 2009 I had come across Sidney Crosby. Let me tell you, I was blown away. And it was Valentines day(: I turned on a Penguins game and was sucked back in immediately.
Every single day since that day, I have done everything that I could do to prove I am Sid's biggest fan (Besides anything along the lines of stalking, I'm not a creeper.) There is thousands of pictures, videos, newspapers, and just about everything else. The media is obsessed with him!
Everything started to come back to me, how much I loved and missed the game of hockey. I would go home from school every single night and watched them beat almost every team. I let their loss's take a toll on me, that just the way I am.
My guy friends didn't even want to talk about it as much as I did. I'm no puck bunny (Unless it comes to Crosby.) I know much more than anyone does about the game. I know stats, I know numbers, and I KNOW that Sidney Crosby is the bigger package than Ovechkin!
My entire life this year was about the playoffs!!!! I even got my whole family back into loving hockey.
I find it amazing that the year I picked him, Sidney & the Pens got their OWN first stanley cup<3
(And I've sure I missed a ton of parts, this is from ages 2-15!)
How I became a (female) hockey fan. I swear to God I didn’t become a hockey fan, I just kind of ran head first into obsession with it. Since I can remember I have always been a huge sports fan. Starting from when I was 6, I decided that cartoon no longer interested me. I flipped through the channels and found a football game. That later turned into a baseball thing. The reason I finally turned to hockey was because I needed a time filler in the months that my beloved baseball was not on. Needless to say the first hockey game I watched Sean Avery beat the crap out of some rookie defensemen. I was hooked. Ive picked up a load of smack from the guys at school. I mean who would have thought that High School boys would ever pick on a girl who liked hockey? Haha. At first the comments really bothered me but I turned that into positive energy by becoming the first female sports editor on my high school paper and having my own column about the workings of the local hockey teams. A couple of the boys have asked me “Do you like hockey because you think the guys are hot?” And my answer to that is “Of course, but I still find that Crosby’s +18 rating last year and sheer genius in driving the puck to the net a hell of a lot more sexy than any naked picture would ever be.” In my personal opinion people can criticize me all they want about my motive to becoming a female hockey fan, it doesn’t effect the fact that 9 times out of 10, I (and other female fans) know more than any guy ever will about hockey.
Well, I have many male cousins so I guess in a way they influenced me because they would alwayd watch the games. But really, one day I just woke up and said from now on I'm going to watch the Leafs play hockey. Being from outside Toronto, hockey is really big so it wasn't that difficult to get into. Gosh, I really don't know the specifics of how it happened but I'm glad it did.
I'm going to spend all night trying to remember when I became a hockey fan, but I guess I slowly progressed into one overtime.
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