Non-Michigan fans: How did you become a Wings fan?

[ILWingsFan1 0]

I don't even really remember how I picked the Wings. One thing's for sure, we IL fans never get to cheer for the Blackhawks in the playoffs, so maybe I wanted a team with a good chance of making it every year. The Blackhawks games are about the only ones shown regularly by the cable company around here, but Chicago blacks out all the home games, even 3 hours away from Chicago where I am, so it makes it kind of hard to follow them anyway. I'd rather just listen to the Wings.

I was a Hasek fan years before I was a Wings fan, so when the two joined together the first time around is when I really started following the Wings.

Plus around here most everyone has two favorite teams. 1) Their favorite (usually NOT the Blackhawks) and 2) Who ever is playing the Wings. So cheering for the Wings satisfies my need to argue from time to time.

[adtthosa 5]

I honestly can't really remember how I became a Wings fan. I grew up watching the Leafs with my dad, so somewhere along the line I must have seen them play the Wings and I guess I was impressed, or liked the jerseys or something. No big story behind it for me. All I know is that I've been a Wings fan for as long as I can remember.

[crotty99 302]

Hey everyone, i thought i would finaly register after a few months of just viewing...

Im from Perth Western Australia!!. As you can imagine there are little to no followers of the NHL where i live. Me and my two friends were browsing through our foxtel (bit like cable) chanels about two or three months ago and saw that they were showing an NHL game. Instantly we were all hooked into the sport, its pace and excitement was unrivalled by no sport i had ever seen haha. Obviously this was not the first time i had heard of Ice hockey but i had never watched a game before.

Anyway it was a Detroit game but i can not really remember who they were playing i think maybe Calgary? I loved the look of the team and i havent stopped going for them since. My room is now covered in Redwings stuff aswell as the mighty west coast eagles (for anyone who knows what the AFL is hehe). I have done all my research and looked up differant parts of our history and im really enjoying this new experience, but wish i caught it earlier. To think that im a Red Wings fan who never even got to see Steve Yzerman play .

I am loving every minute of the playoffs so far, although very angry with our performance in game 3!! its like they stoped after 1 period haha. I hope you all accept me into the gang and ill be around for along time to come haha.

cheers, and go the Wings!!

ps. I skated for the first time a few weeks ago(not on ice, on inline skates) and have picked it up well so far went and bought a stick and have been playing everyday since, great stuff!!

[Lidstroms_girl_05 0]

my dad was born in Michigan, he is the whole reason i started to watch them i fell in love with them i remeber seeing McCarty scoring all those crazy goals it was awsome. ever since them i fell in love with them by the way it would help

if i told you where i was from hehe i live in Alabama

[Wings_Fan_In_Exile 3]

Parents moved from Kalamazoo, MI to Tucson, AZ in the 80's as Wings fans. No hockey team existed in AZ until '96 I think it was. So when I started following hockey in '93-'94, it only made sense to root for my dad's team since there was no hometown team at the time. Stuck with them ever since, and have some interesting conversations now that I live in Colorado.

[zettersyukstrom 0]

I'm from SC, going to colllege in AL at AU, but my brother got me hooked on them in 96' and watched a couple of games with him and saw how good they were and then they won back to back in 96'&97' and i've been hooked ever since; thought i would lose some love for them when stevie y. retired and everyone else left but i just fell in love with them more and now i kick myself everyday for ever thinking that

[gameover 0]

20 years ago at this time I think -- were they not in the conference finals against the big bad oilers with Gretzky - Kurri, messier, anderson, blah blah blah?

-- my buddy and I decided to hit a bar and catch the game (game 1) -- In FL at the time -- which they won (5-1)? Anyway -- It was the beginning -- even though the oilers thrashed them 4 straight after that....

I also can really remember watching the flow of hockey at the highest level (those oilers were amazing!) and was hooked.....

when you think about all the sports -- baseball is like watching grass grow (although I love the sport) Basketball there is a whistle every 20 seconds -- football is awesome but plays only last 4 seconds. Hockey has a flow to it like no other sport.

Edited May 1, 2007 by gameover

[captainfan19 0]

Okay .. first my English is not the best ( but i hope i can change that in June when i go 6 weeks to Calgary in a english language school )

How did i become a Wings fan.. all had start in 1990 when i have seen Steve Yzerman play at the World Champion Ship here in Switzerland. I did not know much about Hockey whe i have see Team Canada play live in Bern. But there was one player in this team who was great out there. His skating and Stickhandling was awesome. The best Player out there. ( and the end of this tournament he get the best Player of the Tournament award) His number #19 ; his name Steve Yzerman. After this game i have start to watch all Wings games where they had send here in Switzerland.. first only for see Yzerman play.. but how can you be a Steve Yzerman fan, and not be a Wings fan.. ?? That can't be the Yzerman was teh Heart and soul of the Wings.. so i start to be a Wings fan too ...

It's not easy to be a Wings fan from Switzerland.. at the moment we had no Tv station who send NHL games, and last Year there was only send 4 Wings games over the season. But there is allways the Internet Wings Game Radio where i listen the games in the middle of the night.

And im happy i have make 2 vacations in detroit and have see 6 Wings games at the Joe live. And the best thing .. i had the luck to see Steve Yzerman play live at the Joe and meet him after a Wings practice.. For a long time fan like me thats something you never will forget.

[DaKineMaui 8]

Konstantinov and Aurie are missing... must be hung somewhere else, no?

I always take Sawchuk's 1 and flip Gordie's updside-down.......there's my Vladdy.

[Lefkowitz 0]

i became a fan the minute i saw a sergei fedorov highlight, it was around 1993-94 season. i was just getting into hockey and of course knew of gretzky but after seeing fedorov i was completely hooked on hockey and especially fedorov's team the detroit red wings!!! i also got stoked on pavel bure but for me it was fedorov! i lived in baltimore maryland my whole life and watch the Capitals a bit but never really liked them because my nephew became a Caps fan and it made for some verbal jabbing back and forth so i would lightheartedly bash the Caps just to get at him. it was fun and when the Wings swept the Caps i had eternal bragging rights!!! i try to refrain from using words like "us" and "we" when talking about the Wings simply because i am not a native fan but i swear i love them as if i were!

here's hoping for a great game 4 and i hope the Wings can get the job done this year!!

[Zeke 5]

Back in the 60's the farm team for the Wings were the 'Hamilton Red Wings",my home town in Ontario.

As kids,we would bus it to the old 'barn'where they played every Thursday night.My uncle was the caretaker,so we were let in the back door for free.(tickets were a hefty 50 cents back then)

The big team would travel to Hamilton once a year to play the farm team for marketing purposes.

They would let them win,until the third,then 3 or 4 quick goals and it was over.

All the big names you now see hanging from the raftors were there.I remember Gordie Howe would stay on the ice between periods and just sign autographs.He never made it to the dressing room.As a 10 year old,I was awestruck at just being that close to a legend.

How could I not become a Wings affectionato?

PS My uncle would always bring a pile of sticks home from the Wings,unfortunatey,he sawed them off and used them in his garden.

[Zata fan 40 6]

I remember being in first grade in 83 -84 and when I had to go to bed at night I would always sleep with the radio on(still do) and I would scroll through the dial and look for something to listen to....well, I was interested in hockey,but didn't get to see much of it in NE Ohio well I could always pick up the Detroit station that played the Wings games and I would always fall asleep listen to the Wings play....Ogrodnick,Duguay,Stefan, and of course a young Yzerman....being the young guy I gravitated my focus to following Yzerman the most out of the Wings and it all grew from listening to the games as I tried to fall asleep at night.

[Guest YooperWing]

Hey everyone, i thought i would finaly register after a few months of just viewing...

Im from Perth Western Australia!!. As you can imagine there are little to no followers of the NHL where i live. Me and my two friends were browsing through our foxtel (bit like cable) chanels about two or three months ago and saw that they were showing an NHL game. Instantly we were all hooked into the sport, its pace and excitement was unrivalled by no sport i had ever seen haha. Obviously this was not the first time i had heard of Ice hockey but i had never watched a game before.

Anyway it was a Detroit game but i can not really remember who they were playing i think maybe Calgary? I loved the look of the team and i havent stopped going for them since. My room is now covered in Redwings stuff aswell as the mighty west coast eagles (for anyone who knows what the AFL is hehe). I have done all my research and looked up differant parts of our history and im really enjoying this new experience, but wish i caught it earlier. To think that im a Red Wings fan who never even got to see Steve Yzerman play .

I am loving every minute of the playoffs so far, although very angry with our performance in game 3!! its like they stoped after 1 period haha. I hope you all accept me into the gang and ill be around for along time to come haha.

cheers, and go the Wings!!

ps. I skated for the first time a few weeks ago(not on ice, on inline skates) and have picked it up well so far went and bought a stick and have been playing everyday since, great stuff!!

Hi all. Long time lurker and longer time Wings fan. I read this forum every day and have been tempted to start an account in the past. Usually it's because I've read something negative that pissed me off. But when I read this I thought "what a fan." Went from zero to 90 from just happening to catch a game, and now starting to rollerblade. Made me smile. We, and hockey in general, need more hockey fans like you. If someone from Austrailia can become hooked so quickly, why not others from non-hockey or smaller hockey markets in this country (US).

[DaKineMaui 8]

Hey everyone, i thought i would finaly register after a few months of just viewing...

Im from Perth Western Australia!!. As you can imagine there are little to no followers of the NHL where i live. Me and my two friends were browsing through our foxtel (bit like cable) chanels about two or three months ago and saw that they were showing an NHL game. Instantly we were all hooked into the sport, its pace and excitement was unrivalled by no sport i had ever seen haha. Obviously this was not the first time i had heard of Ice hockey but i had never watched a game before.

Anyway it was a Detroit game but i can not really remember who they were playing i think maybe Calgary? I loved the look of the team and i havent stopped going for them since. My room is now covered in Redwings stuff aswell as the mighty west coast eagles (for anyone who knows what the AFL is hehe). I have done all my research and looked up differant parts of our history and im really enjoying this new experience, but wish i caught it earlier. To think that im a Red Wings fan who never even got to see Steve Yzerman play .

I am loving every minute of the playoffs so far, although very angry with our performance in game 3!! its like they stoped after 1 period haha. I hope you all accept me into the gang and ill be around for along time to come haha.

cheers, and go the Wings!!

ps. I skated for the first time a few weeks ago(not on ice, on inline skates) and have picked it up well so far went and bought a stick and have been playing everyday since, great stuff!!

Can you do me a solid while you're here? Explain the rules to that Australian Rules Football?

[BAFGA 0]

Virginia here. What's interesting about me becoming a detroit fan is that I used to hate the Red Wings. Then, I met a girl from Detroit and she was a big red wings fan. I never hated other Detroit teams (Lions, Tigers, Pistons) but the Red Wings were the hardest to overcome. then, the lockout happened and the year absence. That time off sort of allowed the hate for the Wings to evaporate.

Anyway, we got married in the lockout year, and we sort of took a break from hockey because of the lockout. We started watching the playoffs this year to kind of 'reconnect' to hockey. It's been fun. I've become connected with Detroit sports more since getting married, with the Tigers incredible run last season and the Pistons doing well for the most part.

Hopefully the Wings can turn it around and win this series with the Sharks.

[Dr. Sapirstein 0]

They have the best looking uniform - the NHL is better not screw with it next year -, hard not to like.

Et Yzerman c'est Yzerman.

[crotty99 302]

Hi all. Long time lurker and longer time Wings fan. I read this forum every day and have been tempted to start an account in the past. Usually it's because I've read something negative that pissed me off. But when I read this I thought "what a fan." Went from zero to 90 from just happening to catch a game, and now starting to rollerblade. Made me smile. We, and hockey in general, need more hockey fans like you. If someone from Austrailia can become hooked so quickly, why not others from non-hockey or smaller hockey markets in this country (US).

Thank you for your kind words haha! my skating is coming along i have never had so much fun! Yea i really hope it catches on alot more now that our pay TV shows a few games, and then hopefully we get better coverage.

And about the AFL....well i really do not know where to begin haha, never had to explain the rules before, to most Australians its like someone not knowing the alphabet, but i shall give it a shot..

18 players a side

the goals i dunno if you have seen them but they look like this i I I i, if you kick it between the two big sticks its 6 points and if you kick the ball between a big post and a little post then its 1 point. There are no own goals, if it is rushed over the line by opposition its 1 point.

If you recieve a kick on the full it is a 'mark' and no one can touch you untill you get rid of it, however if u waste time the opposition is given the ball.

Tackling is acceptable from basically the waist to the shoulders anything higher or lower is illegal. Bumping, shoulder to shoulder contact is also acceptable.If you tackle the player to a point where he can not dispose of the ball then depending on the amount of time he had the ball in possesion before the tackle it is deemed Holding the ball and a free kick is give. For example. If someone had just recieved the ball and a tackled is put on instantly it will more than likely be called a bounce up (bit like basketballs bounce up thing at the start of games) However if they recieve the ball and have time to look around and move and are caught in a tackle, they are gone. You may also protect your team mate with the ball by holding your arms out and making a barrier i guess. The most controversial rule is probably push in the back, no pushing motion can be made with the hands into the oppositions back. However lately they have become very strict and basically any hand contact on the back is deemed illegal which in most peoples opinions including mine is just ridiculous.

haha i have probably missed alot but thats the basics...umm the ball is passed by either a kick which vaires in type or a handpass where you hold the ball in one hand and push through the ball with the other fist. You can not throw the ball at any time. That should cover it haha, any other questions let me know! I still have alot to learn about your sport too, stratergies and things is the main thing i need to look at more. If you check out Youtube and look for AFL thats a good start

Edited May 2, 2007 by crotty99

[HkytwnND 0]

Well I am not sure where to start so here goes...

In the mid 90's my brandmother got very very sick and I went to live with her as a type of live in care. My brother also lived there at the time and at night when he would get done with work and my grandmother would be sleeping, him and I would play hockey on the Sega Genesis, we played them all. We would take turns being the Wings. I can remember Dino! and Larioniv(sp) and of course Sergi and Stevie and Niklas. When we weren't the Wings the other was usually the blackhawks, and there is where we became Chris Chelios fans as well, so we were pretty excited when he became a Wing.

Like the other person that posted that they became a fan because of a Video game, I am right there with ya!

I have been a fan ever since the mid 90s because of those games and have always had a passion for the sport of Hockey regardless of the level it is being played on.

I am from North Dakota and as I am sure most of you are aware we have a multi National Champion team here known as the Sioux. And another multi national champion team that goes by the name of the Gophers. College hockey is bigger around here than NHL, which sucks but I still get to see the Wings in person once a year when they play the Minnesota Wild.

enough babbling for me!

[high_stick69 7]

I started watching hockey as a kid a few years before the Kings obtained Gretzky and I liked the Oilers. I got to watch one year of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and I was addicted. We couldn't afford to keep cable the following year so I would scan AM radio for hockey games. Living in Green Bay you could pick up the Hawks, Blues, sometimes the Flames and Leafs, and most importantly the Red Wings. I listened religiously and became a huge fan of Stevie Y and the Wings. I'll never forget the disappointment when I listened to the Leafs Nikolia Borshevski beating Cheveldae to knock the Wings out of the playoffs back in the 92-93 season in overtime of game 7. No wonder I hate the Leafs so much!! The other reason I loved the Red Wings was because of Sega NHL hockey. A friend of mine was a great player and always took the Blackhawks. I could beat him with the Wings and it drove him nuts. We had epic battles and even though he had Roenick, Larmer, Amonte, and Belfour in their primes, I usually ended up the victor. I can't say enough about the joy the Wings have given me in my lifetime. When I watch any of the games on the Return To Glory CD series, it brings a tear to my eye.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Bump. Because this thread is too cool to bury for now. Lots of new posters coming in every day and I'd like to keep the stories coming too.

[Guest #19forPresident]

Well I usually just read and browse around LGW, and most of you all are a mature enough group of people with interesting things to say, especially for a public sports forum. So I figured I may as well sign up and get in the mix, this is as good a post as any to start.

I'm a native of Toledo OH, which pretty much makes me from Michigan since its a 5-10 minute drive to the state line depending on your approach, roughly 45mins - 1hr out from Detroit. I've been a Wings fan too long to remember how I became one really, probably just encoded into my DNA by the good lord.

If I had to guess, it started when I was a little kid going to Toledo Storm games (Red Wings ECHL affliate, aka Grand Rapids Griffins' farm team) because I was a hockey fan in general first, and since Detroit was the Storm's pro affiliate I would watch the Wings in turn. I always loved the sport in general, my brother and our neighbors would play street hockey with regulation size goals we built, I played a little baseball organized but organized hockey cost about 20x as much around here so I couldn't fund the real deal to play at my schools. There are only 3 arenas in the area, and two are used by pro/college teams regularly, where as there's a baseball field every 2 blocks, so ice time costs made playing in school rediculously more expensive than other sports.

I grew up watching Stevie turn things around, I was just a baby when he was drafted and he was Captain by the time I really grasped players and their individual significance to the game. Boy was I spoiled! When he retired I was like someone who lost religion or their best friend, its true you never fully understand what you've got until its gone. Anyways thats my story, hopefully I helped some of you kill a couple minutes off the clock at work

here's to a new era in Hockeytown,

GO WINGS

[Bluto 0]

First and foremost, I am a hockey fan. My love and admiration for the sport exceeds any team loyalty. That being said, both The Wings and The Captain have been a big part of my existence since I was a child.

Strangely enough, I started cheering for the Red Wings because they were the bad guys. At least in St. Louis they were. I went to my first game at the St Louis Arena back in 1988. All I remember is that the game ended in a 4-4 tie and that I'd never been privy to so much intensity and downright hostility. It was like a drug. Maybe I was a sadist at eight years old, but I've been a Wings fan ever since. I used to catch all sorts of hell through school, but I never wavered in my support. I'll never forget the 96 Quarterfinals. People in St Louis still get a bug up their asses if you mention "the goal". I love it!

Now that I'm an adult, I try to make it up to JLA at least once a year for a live Wings fix. It's refreshing to walk into a hockey rink and NOT have frat kids try to fight you because you're wearing the Winged Wheel.

Mahalo.

[Mihály 0]

Hi brothers! I greet you with an another RED-heart European story:

I am (22*) from Budapest, HUNGARY! (sorry for the probably mistakes in the English)

May be 10 yrs ago I played some kind of hockey game on computer w/my classmate. it was really cool, funny and amazing.

Next year - as I remember - a got the demo version of NHL96(?) (! DET-Was) I don't know/remember why but it was not questionable what team I had choosen. ..

.. I fell in love with the Red Wings very quickly!

And this love is just bigger and bigger as the time passes..

If a just hear or think of our RedWings' name it makes me flesh creep!

Shanny become my favourite player (and 14 my fav. number and of course I see the world in Red ) but I also have maximum respect for guys like Steve Y, Fedorov, Lidstrom .. and ALL of them (my newly favourized RW is Cleary _ and I feel about Lang with trustful )

* my B-Day is on the same as Osgood (Nov. 26.)

In 2003 I could (already) watch the 'Coolest game on Earth' live at one of our (hungarian) sportchannel. By now I found way to watch (or even listen) games on internet .. 7pm in Det. here is 1am, so I excitedly sit in front oF the monitor at nights (- till morning) when we play : 'Eat-Sleep-Hockey'

(I absolutely don't want to shave till June.. so) LET'S GO RedWINGS!!!!

[Love Lidstrom 0]

Share your story with us

Living in Detroit, its pretty easy to be a fan So I'd like to hear from residence outside of Michigan.

I live in Wisconsin and we don't have an NHL team here.. It's sad...but there isn't enough desire for one from the majority of Wisconsinites.. (go figure, Florida and Arizona have teams).

Anyway, I started watching our AHL team here (mainly because my former boss gave me his season tickets whenever he couldn't make the games). Then I just naturally switched to the Wings when I saw them on tv here in 1997.

i live in Edmonton, so i'm an Oiler fan first ALWAYS. when i was 8 (back in '96) my uncle (who is also an Oil & Wings fan) introduced me to Red Wings hockey and have been in love with them ever since.

How did you feel when the OIlers beat the Wings last year in the the first round? YIKES!

[Marck13 3]

Hi to Everybody in here, this is my first post..

I'm 23 and grew up in Switzerland.. Well I am Swiss and that's where I still live.

..however, even though Switzerland is one of the biggest hockey nations in the world ( Yes man..! We just lack on "physical"-size hehe ) it has never ever been easy to watch NHL over here and still isn't.

(I'm one of the "getting up in the middle of the night to hear the Wings playing on the internet Radion"-guys ! !)

So it came that the World Cups were "the bigest thing" in hockey to see for me. Since I started (or rather.. "was sent" ) playing hockey before I even turned 4 (!!) my interest was already quite big in my early age. Then it happened, and I can't 100% recall why, that I fell in love with the way the Russians used to play their hockey. I remember them playing a strong and powerfull but still quick and tactical ..short: dominant ice hockey at the 1990 World Cup in Bern, Switzerland and on other occasions I could watch them. I just loved their style and I still do!

Now the connection is easy to see: Larianov, Konstantinov, Fetisov, Kozlov and of course the one man who made me forget about Gretzki and Lemieux: SERGEI FEDOROV brought me to the Wings!

Fedorov was my Idol for yeeears!

Today the complete Russian-Power-Line-up is gone, nevertheless my heart beats for the Wings

..and always will.

In that sense: Let's go for the Cup!!!!

Edited May 5, 2007 by Marck13