06TJSport 0 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 My Dad is a huge hockey fan and I got my first skates when I was 4 years old and have been watching and playing ever since. I owe all of my interest in sports to my Dad, which means I have to take the good with the bad. Good - Wings, U of M Football Bad - Lions Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
#19=Legend 29 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Interesting thread... First off, let's hope Carl Yastrzemski can make a good recovery. In terms of who/what drew me into hockey, I didn't watch it at first but started playing NHL 93 or 94 I think on Sega Genesis and I always picked good teams. I was usually either Montreal, Chicago, or Detroit. But I started watching it on TV a bit more than casual starting the 1995-96 season and the Red Wings eventually started to grow on me. Sergei Fedorov was a major factor, because in all the NHL games he was ridiculously fast and I could get at least 10 breakaways a game with him and he scored like 100+ goals a season. Nearly 15 years later I am still in die-hard Red Wings fan and will hope to continue to be so for a long time. What does that mean? I know I will be a Wings fan till the day I die, win or lose. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Williams29fan 6 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Cluade Lemuix's hit on Draps was the first hocky memory i have. SO the Av's and Wings Rivalry pretty much is what got me hooked. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeeMan 52 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Gordie Howe My Grandfather was a big Howe fan and everytime the Wings were on TV. I would go to my Grandfathers house and watch the Wings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doggy 130 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 What does that mean? I know I will be a Wings fan till the day I die, win or lose. Yeah same. I'll die a Wing, whenever that is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Barrie 900 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Like most responses, Yzerman was the guy that drew me in. My first sport/team love was Baseball the 1984 Tigers, I was 7 years old. By the late 1980's I was hearing about the Red Wings, their two straight Conference Finals appearances, and some guy wearing #19. By the 1991-92 season I was hooked on the Detroit Red Wings and Steve Yzerman. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HoustonWingsFan 0 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Roger Crozier. I guess I am a lot older than most of you guys. The way you followed the Wings when I was growing up was with a transistor radio up against your ear. The best radio call ever was "Crozier with the save!" I was hooked from that moment on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WingNut 25 5 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 I played baseball through college and it was always my sport. But when I got the first got into hockey in 1989 and started to learn the teams and players, I latched onto Yzerman. I live in So Cal so even despite Gretzky's impact on hockey out here, I was a Wings fan through and through and have never wavered. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pjgj13 30 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 I always followed them since I was able to read the paper. Back then, they were very seldom on TV and if it was, with only 1 TV in the house, it never was really on. I remember my father telling us years ago that his uncle started one of the greatest (if not greatest) traditions in professional sports (tossing of the octopus). That got me hooked as far as you could back in the 70s & early 80s. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SouthernWingsFan 854 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 What does that mean? I know I will be a Wings fan till the day I die, win or lose. It means exactly what it says. If I die sooner than later for whatever reasons, then I wouldn't be a Wings fan for a longer time period then. Whenever they start to struggle (and it will happen sometime, maybe not anytime soon, but sometime), hopefully I won't be a fickle fan and stop paying attention to them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MabusIncarnate 5,344 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 In 1989 my brother was home sick with Mono from school for about a month. It was during the regular season, and there was a hockey game on television, it was the Red Wings against another squad and he got hooked after one game. Neither of us were sports fans until this day, we had overlooked anything else. We checked the television listings, and looked up the next televised Wings game so I could watch it with him after he was blown away by the sport. The rest is pretty much history, i've been a Wings supporter and fan ever since for nearly 20 years now. Got my first jersey (Yzerman) which I still have today, had a number of opportunities to see Live wings games and meet some players along the way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
betterREDthandead 58 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Nothing really drew me in. To the six or seven year old version of myself, it really only seemed natural that you root for the hometown team. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PROBIE4PREZ 58 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 a young flashy russian. He skated with speed strength and grace. Could skate coast to coast and had a wicked one timer .. Thats right Maxim Kuznetoz ... lol no Sergei Fedorov .. YOUR STIL THE s*** IN MY BOOK SERGEI!! the 10 sleeves of collector cards will always be cherished Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blazer 0 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 (edited) NHL94 I wanted to pick BlackHawks but got stuck with Wings. I hope my Hawks fan friend enjoyed watching NHL as I did. Actually it was NHL94 (or NHL95) for me too, being Norwegian, coverage was zero back then, so it all came through these fantastic hockey games. And to make it even more fun, it turned out that my two year older cousin, whom I played a lot against, chose Quebec, and stuck to them with the Avs, so a perfect rivalry was born. I do regret not being able to experience three of the last 4 cups, 97 and 98 I didn't have any chance to get really updated on, and the 02 cup I followed with only game scores, so no real ownership to the cup runs. But this years cup, I saw every game downloaded (and most of all the other teams' games too, except for a few in the first round)... and all I can say is wow, just wow, really makes me a little sad that I couldn't get that coverage a few years ago. Anyways, I won't change teams, and will be a Wings fan for life, even if the whole team got wiped out in a freak accident and they could only sport OHL players, I'd root for them. So, EA Sports...I'm forever grateful! Edit: little bit of grammar and sentence construction. Edited August 22, 2008 by Blazer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Booster313 138 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 For me it was a combination of things. I remember the first time I ever really sat down and watched Hockey was the 95 finals, so probably the media buzz at the time. The next year I spent some time with my brother watching games here and there as the Wings marched to a 62 win season. I remember watching the Wings vs. Av's series and being disappointed when we were elminated but it was great hockey. My friend Chris has always played hockey and was a big Wings fan so as my interest started to raise a little bit, we began watching hockey, the 96-97 season is what made me a fan for life. The rest they say is history! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shutemdown 23 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 this is kind of a different way to have got drawn into hockey, but when i was in first grade ('94-95) my friend gave me a chris osgood hockey card of chris osgood. i then started collecting hockey cards myself, and became a fan of hockey as well. I will admit that collecting hockey cards when I was younger is what ACTUALLY got me into hockey. I started playing everyday with my neighbors, which then became playing on teams and so on... I still have all of my old hockey cards somewhere in my parents house... I know I have probably 10 full binders of just Red Wings sets. The minute I figured out what hockey was, I got into it. Finding out that our home-team was f'in sweet just made it that much easier to fall in love with the Red Wings forever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nightfall 871 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 (edited) My story is pretty interesting..... All through my childhood and into my teenage life, I wasn't into hockey at all. I watched a few highlights on TV but never spent time to watch or listen to a game. Never was at a game in person either. I went to a school that didn't have a hockey team so that probably contributed to things as well. Then, in 1994, I attended Ferris State University. I was 23 years old at the time. My girlfriend (future wife) was an RA in the dorms and won season tickets to the hockey games that season. Being as that she was an RA, she couldn't go to all the games. So she gave them to me. I found people to go to the game the first few weeks, but then there was one week I couldn't get around to it so I decided to go. It was the most awesome sport I have ever seen. From that point I was hooked. I started watching the Wings in the spring of 1995 and really started to follow them in the playoffs when they were swept by the Devils. Watching them get beat by Colorado was even harder the next year. Still, I stuck with them as my hometown team from 1995 on. I didn't get a chance to play hockey until 1997. I have been playing in goal ever since. Today I play 3-5 times a week and otherwise spend as much time playing hockey as I can before I get too old to play and be competitive. My wife to this day says that if she wouldn't have gotten me those tickets I never would have been hooked on hockey like I am now. That may be true. Edited August 22, 2008 by Nightfall Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hockeytown0001 7,652 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 The entire Red Wings team. My earliest memory of the Wings is sneaking downstairs as a 7 year old on a June night in 1997, wondering what my dad was yelling happily about...it was the Cup victory. Ever since then, I've been hooked on hockey. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Opie 308 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Got to tell you guys and gals I thought this thread would go down in a blaze of glory (horrible Bon Jovi reference intended). It is really neat hearing the stories that brought people in. I guess after reading some of these, it isn't Yzerman that turned me on to hockey as much as he made me a wings fan and my Pepere (grandfather) turned me onto hockey. Watching hockey with him when I didn't understand the game and was watching it on the french channels and I know two words in french memere (grandmother) and pepere. So I was able to appreciate the physical beauty of the game, and then I started really appreciating Yzerman as my pepere rooted for the Maple Leafs and Canadians! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wings5gal 0 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 What brought me to the Wings? North Stars left MN for Texas (still bitter) and they made us wait 7 years to have hockey in Minnesota again. Just was watching and the Wings drew me in and I was hooked. (Signing Rouse didn't hurt things either). Just something about them. Never came back to MN hockey...once the Wings turn you, you can never go back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
auxlepli 17 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doggy 130 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 The U.S. hockey team made you a Wings fan? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MacK_Attack 108 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 Wendel Clark Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
auxlepli 17 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 The U.S. hockey team made you a Wings fan? This is the original question. But it made me wonder, what player brought you into the world of hockey? I answered accordingly. That team, those players and what they did made me a hockey fan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doggy 130 Report post Posted August 22, 2008 This is the original question. I answered accordingly. That team, those players and what they did made me a hockey fan. Just testin'. Lol. Sry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
