CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: Cincydawg on February 12, 2018, 10:34:23 AM
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"Back in the day", there would be one game per week on TV, in distorted color because our TV was pretty bad. It would nearly always be a "Blue Blood" team, rarely UGA or Tech, and I was a fan of both at the time. My Dad would watch the games and we'd listen to the UGA or Tech games on the radio. My family nearly all went to UGA (my mom went to Tennessee but we tried to keep that a secret). I had aspirations of being an architect or civil engineer until I was a senior in HS, so it seemed clear I'd be going to Tech. My parents, my mom really, wouldn't let me play football, so perhaps it seemed like a cool sport to me, and most of the cool guys in HS played football.
I ended up of course at UGA with a small scholarship and an interest in physics until I discovered you needed to be smart to major in physics, but the football environment there was overwhelming really. The Dawgs were only good one year while I was there, but football (and tennis) really consumed the campus aside from the hippie types who pretended to disdain it. The stadium sat 64 K as I recall and about 5,000 people would sit on the tracks at the open end of the stadium and watch for free.
My interest ebbed in the 90s when the Dawgs were consistently mediocre and I had moved away and got more interested in baseball for some obscure reason. But, I digress.
I don't recall much "tail gating" when I was on campus except people literally eating sandwiches out of the back of their pickup trucks. The weather in Athens ion October is often perfect, and even in November it is nice. Folks would bring a picnic basket and eat before the game to save some money. That obviously "evolved" to the massive tail gates we see today with generators and bars and all sorts of food and sofas and TVs and whatever else.
The Sunday paper would have large B&W photos of the key plays in the game. They would have two sports sections, one for football and one for "other", and of course the Atlanta paper would have to cover Clemson and Auburn and Tennessee and Alabama in considerable detail, they'd get a page each, and UGA and Tech would get 3-4 pages each.
My first game in person was at Tech when they played UGA who won in the last minute with a TD run in 1971, I think it was. It's still a hazy memory. My guess is our "fandom" reflects where we grew up and where we attended college about 90% of the time.
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My parents moved us to Columbus Ohio.
So I didn't have much of a choice.
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yup, watching on the BW TV in the late 60's
Woody Hayes v. Bo Schembechler
and good vs evil - Huskers v. Sooners
I was a Buckeye fan and had plenty of family from Omaha that loved the Huskers - so of course I rooted for the bad boy Sooners
also adopted the Minnesoota Vikings in the mid 60s
was always a sports fan, baseball, football, basketball, olympic sports, Wide World of Sports, and the "American Sportsman" with Curt Gowdy
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Grew up watching da Bears. Never really had an interest in college football at the time, other than the fact that I already hated Notre Dame--growing up in Chicago with insufferable ND fans who were fans just because their 2nd cousin's mailman's sister was Catholic always just irritated me.
Started at Purdue in 1996, the last year of Jim Colletto. Didn't really get into it then either. I was still in the dorms, didn't have tickets or attend the games. Purdue went 3-8, so there wasn't a whole lot of excitement.
Spring of 1997 I rushed a fraternity, and moved into the house for my sophomore year, and got football season tickets. We had this new guy named Joe Tiller, but after the team lost @Toledo in his first game as coach, nobody was all that excited. But we drank all morning and went to the second game of the season, home vs ND. Purdue won in a major upset. I--along with everyone else--rushed the field, and my love of Purdue football was born.
I was lucky enough over the next few years to see a guy named Drew Brees re-write the Purdue record books from the stands.
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yup, watching on the BW TV in the late 60's
Woody Hayes v. Bo Schembechler
and good vs evil - Huskers v. Sooners
I was a Buckeye fan and had plenty of family from Omaha that loved the Huskers - so of course I rooted for the bad boy Sooners
also adopted the Minnesoota Vikings in the mid 60s
was always a sports fan, baseball, football, basketball, olympic sports, Wide World of Sports, and the "American Sportsman" with Curt Gowdy
Dad was alum of UNL, so really had no choice but to root for the Huskers and Thanksgivings all revolved around the NU / OU game.
Living in South Dakota meant no pro team, so chose the Vikings cause purple was one of my favorite colors, lol. Rooted for them and the "purple people eaters" all through their Super Bowl losses and all the futile years between then and now. Still a fan.
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my daughters had little choice, but to become Husker fans - youngest is at UNL
from South Dakota it's usually either the Vikings to the East of the Broncos to the west - you made the correct choice - no one likes Elway
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My buddy was all into this pro team, the 49ers, who weren't any good, but had a good quarterback out of Notre Dame. I started watching with him at just the right time, when I was 7, when they went 13-3 and won their first Super Bowl just after I turned 8. They stayed pretty good for a while.
Turns out my parents had gone to the Stanford/Ohio State Rose Bowl and because we lived close to Stanford, my mom started taking me to games when I was in middle school (I think). There was a big Cal/Stanford rivalry in our extended family (my dad went to Stanford, seemed like my mom's whole family--save for her--went to Cal).
When I went to Wisconsin I learned what real college football was like and I haven't been able to quit it.
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My first sports memories are college football and baseball. Somebody in my house has a audio cassette recording of us watching the 79 sun bowl you can hear our voices. I was 3ish. My 7yr old brother did the recording . It had to be taped on my dad's work issued machine that he used for surveillance. Distracting detail, I know. My Dad was a USSS agent.
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My dad was some star HS RB in his youth and watched a lot of football by the time I was a kid. My earliest memories of football is pretending to be Barry Sanders when playing with friends at daycare (OK State days), attending the Hall of Fame Bowl (Outback) after the '87 season, attending the Gator Bowl ('89 season), and Raghib Ismail's non-punt return TD in the Orange Bowl (after '90 season).
I do have the excuse of coming of age and starting my fandom of Florida the same exact year Spurrier showed up - so I grew up knowing nothing but winning, brashness, and scoring. So the last 8 years has been f-ing weird.
Add to all that I played Pop Warner in 5th grade (~1990), and I was hooked for life. My obsessions with basketball and NFL football have waned, but I'm still a nut for baseball and college football.
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Had PSU season tix growing up, so that was pretty much a slam dunk.
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always loved the game since i can remember- but my appreciation really took root when i grasped the concepts of team. there is no other game with as many moving parts working to the same ends as football- QB's can't pass without protection nor can RB's run without the hogs making lanes- a QB needs receivers to throw to.. a Safety, no matter how good, needs to be able to close on the ball and unless somebody picks up one of the blockers to free his job, it ain't gonna happen... add to the mechanisms in concert, the strategy of knowing what needs to be done reconciled against what can be done adds an entire new flavor and spices the whole concept.
football is much like prize fighting in that one fighter can beat another, but the other can be yet another just to have the third be able to beat the first- it's all about match-ups and application.... much more than that, though, it's about team... at least 10k times i've said this to this group- but a team playing in their comfort zone, which is in unison and as one and with confidence, is damn hard to stop no matter if they are weak in some places. the strength of team draws away from weakness and to strength while the opponent sniffs for weakness. all other sports i can think of can stand on the merit of individuals giving 100% effort, but in football, if that effort isn't directed toward the collective goal, rarely does anything great happen. i was an adult before i truly appreciated the game, prior to that it was just an outlet.
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My parents are both Michigan grads, but because we didn't have cable until I was 13, and growing up near Philadelphia in the 90s (I was turned off from pro sports due to the obnoxiousness of the fans, as exemplified after the Super Bowl), some games weren't even televised on ESPN back then, much less the ABC regional network where ACC and Big East games often priority, so I didn't really grow up a big fan. I only vaguely recall that Michigan went undefeated in 1997, of course, though I knew that they were always good, and had started a streak of wins against Penn State, which continued through 2007, of course, much to their chagrin.
I kind of started following college basketball in the late 90s, since that's when I started playing in youth league basketball, whereas I also played youth league soccer on fall Saturdays but didn't understand the rules of football, so that exacerbated my ignorance of CFB growing up. The fact that Michigan was beginning its period of irrelevance in college basketball under Ellerbe and Amaker didn't help, not that they were on TV much there, anyway.
2001 was the first year that I really started following college football, including Michigan, and I was quickly hooked, especially since it seemed so pure and uncorrupt at the time compared to pro sports (obviously I quickly learned otherwise, but even so). That wasn't a great year, with the awful endings against Washington, Michigan State, and Ohio State, before getting demolished by Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl, but after that year I realized that I definitely wanted to go to Michigan for college. The following few seasons were better (02, 03, 04), at which point I found the CFN site and started posting at one of the early versions of these boards. Fortunately, you all put up with my naivete and immaturity throughout that time. My freshman year at Michigan in 2006 had the great 11-0 start. Little did I know it'd be all downhill from there during my college years, but that's why I have the signature quote that I do....
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In the fall we'd cut wood for the winter. Dad would take us out early and cut while my brother and I messed around in the creek. Before the game started, dad would shut off the chainsaw, turn on the radio, open the doors to the pickup and we'd load the wood into the truck as we listened to the game. I fell in love with the huskers over the radio and wanted nothing more than to be Mike Rozier.
Looking back, I realize for me, Nebraska football was more than a game.. it was time with dad. Such a different experience than watching it on TV with my son.
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My dad and mom were born and raised in Columbus, I was born and raised in Columbus. My dad as a kid in the late 40s, early 50s use to hawk papers out in front of the stadium. Even though he has been gone for quite a while, there is still a "Buckeye" room in his house. My first real exposure was in 1968 when I was 8yo. Use to watch the few games that were on tv otherwise listened to the games on the radio and watch the Woody Hayes show late Saturday night to catch the highlights. The 1969 Rose bowl is a great memory of Ohio State beating USC with all my family, grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins all sitting around the tv eating spare ribs and cheering on the Bucks. With Ohio State winning the MNC I was hooked. Ended up doing my undergraduate work at Ohio State. From 1979 to 1986, I found a way to be a full-time student so I could get season tickets.
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In the fall we'd cut wood for the winter. Dad would take us out early and cut while my brother and I messed around in the creek. Before the game started, dad would shut off the chainsaw, turn on the radio, open the doors to the pickup and we'd load the wood into the truck as we listened to the game. I fell in love with the huskers over the radio and wanted nothing more than to be Mike Rozier.
Looking back, I realize for me, Nebraska football was more than a game.. it was time with dad. Such a different experience than watching it on TV with my son.
Very cool story, thanks for sharing.
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I could write a lot. I'll save you. Mid-to-Late 1960s. Radio. Attending games. Buying my own single ticket out front with my paper route money. Dad swearing at me for turning down $2.00? or $5.00 ticket in end zone in favor of continuing to look for a ticket. Ultimately state legislator gives me ticket in about Row 30 on 30-yard line. No charge! Redemption! Meeting mom & dad under water tower after games in Iowa City. Not sure how that could work with 50,000+ people milling about.
First tailgate age 15 out of dad's station wagon in about 1972 across from the quonset hut I lived in from 0-3 about 1/4th mile from Iowa Stadium. We ate sandwiches mom fixed for us off an actual station wagon tailgate.
My diapers are shown in an overhead image hanging on the clothes line in Fall 1957 in an image of Kinnick Stadium and the UI Hospital at the UI Medical Museum. We lived across the street from the hospital complex while dad attended school. Poor guy (and me) . . . he had 3-kids before he was out of college.
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In the fall we'd cut wood for the winter. Dad would take us out early and cut while my brother and I messed around in the creek. Before the game started, dad would shut off the chainsaw, turn on the radio, open the doors to the pickup and we'd load the wood into the truck as we listened to the game. I fell in love with the huskers over the radio and wanted nothing more than to be Mike Rozier.
Looking back, I realize for me, Nebraska football was more than a game.. it was time with dad. Such a different experience than watching it on TV with my son.
I've grown fond of listening to games on the radio. When Florida isn't on an easy-to-find channel, I'll just listen to the radio through my phone now. Let my mind visualize the action while I'm freed up to do other things.
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My parents divorced when I was 5 yrs old. My dad was a big Buckeye fan, but my mom was not into sports at all. I lived with my mom and visited by dad on the weekends. Back then the Bucks were only on TV once or twice a year, so my dad would listen on the radio. Not being much into sports at this age, I can remember him cheering for Archie Griffin running the ball. I had a vision in my mind of Andy Griffith and wondering why he was playing football.
My mom remarried and my new step dad also was not a sports fan. Living in that home, I was not exposed to sports most of the time. I was more into riding my bike and playing army with kids in the neighborhood. My dad was still a Buckeye fan, but my sister and I avoided going to his house on the weekends as we didn't care for his new wife. So, I was kind of in a sports dessert so to say.
But when I started 9th grade, I signed up for a local football club team. In Columbus at that time, 9th grade was in the Jr Hi's and the Jr Hi's didn't field football teams, so if you wanted to play, you had to play outside of the school system. Once football started, I fell in love with it and could not get enough of it. I began watching college and the NFL on TV any time they were on. I even got my step father to watch and he began to enjoy it.
When I started dating my wife, I found that she was also a football fan and we have enjoyed watching Ohio State and the Cleveland Browns (her favorite team, I really don't care for the NFL anymore) ever since. I even have my daughters fans of OSU football. I have taken them to the spring game a few times, along with my son who used to go with me all the time. However, getting to a fall game is always tough as they were always playing sports of their own in the fall, but we still watch football on TV when we can.
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Grew up in Ann Arbor with season UM football tickets, so there was no way around it. My dad went to every home game from 1967-2007 except for 3 (one when his father passed that morning, two when he was out of town for work). As he's gotten into his 60s, he's lost the desire to sit through adverse weather, so I'm sure he's missed more per season since then than he missed for those 40 years combined.
I started showing an interest when it was on TV in 1990. My dad tried to capitalize on that and take me to a Michigan-Maryland game that year, when I was 6. Watching casually on tv, when you can leave and play and circle back was very different than going. Apparently he bought me a personal pizza, a McDonald's meal, and an ice cream just to get me to the 3rd quarter, before he pulled the plug. He waited two more years before trying again for Michigan-Iowa in 1992, and by then I was totally hooked. I went to every home game from 1992 until I went away to college in 2002, unless I had my own sporting event conflict, probably the most famous being the 1994 Kordell Stewart Hail Mary, although the most fun I ever had was the '97 Big Ten title clincher against OSU (although '95 is close).
I always thought the student section looked like so much fun, so when I enrolled at Indiana, I also got season tickets, for $30. That's not one of those "back in my day, everything cost a nickel" type stories. That was insanely cheap even in 2002. But the experience was worth basically $5 per game, so it made sense. When I transferred to MSU for my sophomore year, I didn't get student tickets. I figured I could get on board with cheering for a neutral Big Ten team like Indiana, but I wasn't going to pay money to go "cheer" for a rival like MSU. It would be a waste of money. By junior year I had so thoroughly enjoyed my experience, that I was legitimately rooting for MSU whenever they played anyone but UM. I went home for the UM-MSU game that year. That was the Braylon game, where UM overcame a 27-10 deficit midway through the 4th, after Stanton got injured, and won in 3OT. I wore UM stuff to the game, but my heart wasn't in it. That was the last time I even thought I was rooting for UM.
I remember in 1991 (2nd grade) we had a morning journal prompt every morning. My parents saved one where the question was "What is your favorite TV show, and why?" My 7 year old answer? Michigan Replay with Gary Moeller. I guess I was hooked already.
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northernohio... having a spouse share your interests is huge.
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yup, I married a Hawkeye Fan - may have been a mistake
for her
growing up in the late 60s and 70s the radio was the only way to connect with sports most of the time.
feel in love with baseball listening to the Minnesoota Twins - Luis Tiant, Bert Blyleven, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Kaat, Bob Allison, Rod Carew, Jim Perry
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Yeah, having a spouse not interested in football (or any sport for that matter) is a bummer - but I persevere; I at least got my mother-in-law interested and my sons both played football. I drag my hubby to the spring game occasionally but not going this year; sold out too quickly! I usually record my sports and watch while he is at work or sleeping, lol.
at least we both like playing Skyrim on PC, so we have that :)
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I do have the excuse of coming of age and starting my fandom of Florida the same exact year Spurrier showed up - so I grew up knowing nothing but winning, brashness, and scoring. So the last 8 years has been f-ing weird.
My introduction to college football was through the Florida Gators as well. Was already a very young learned Cowboys fan having lived in Texas already, and moving to Florida classmates instructed me - "You're either a Gator or a Seminole." "But what about Miami?" I asked, before being resoundly told that no one outside of Dade County wants anything to do with rooting for the U.
So a few weeks later my Grandpa was babysitting us kids and had the 1995 FSU @ Florida game on. I hadn't taken a stand yet - Gator or Nole - until I saw Emitt Smith being interviewed on the Florida sideline and from then on I've pretty much been a big Gators fan, though my fandom has waned since moving west, attending University of Arizona, and paying more attention to Wildcats sports since about 2009.
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Wow, that was right in the middle of the rivalry at its best and hottest. In 94, Florida and FSU tied and had a rematch in the Sugar Bowl. 95 Florida won, but lost the NC. 96 Florida lost, but won the NC in another rematch with FSU in the Sugar.
I'll keep repeating this until someone shows me something better when it comes to rivalries: in the 90s, Florida and FSU played 13 times in 11 years, and every single time, both were ranked in the top 10. Keep in mind, the game was the regular season finale for both schools.
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Huskers/Sooners come close
11 times in 10 seasons. Season final 1971-1980
unfortunately, the Huskers were ranked #11 in 77, otherwise both teams in the top 10
Sooners were unranked in 1970 and 1981
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in the 90s, Florida and FSU played 13 times in 11 years, and every single time, both were ranked in the top 10. Keep in mind, the game was the regular season finale for both schools.
That's all good/fine/accurate but it's icing on the cake.Good Ole Boy Bobby mixing it up with Steve Superior takes it out of the frying pan and into the fire.Fairly certain I saw all of them
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feel in love with baseball listening to the Minnesoota Twins - Luis Tiant, Bert Blyleven, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Kaat, Bob Allison, Rod Carew, Jim Perry
Same-same about the time/baseball/radio and it was all encompassing to a kid.Jeebis FF I guess I haven't roached my medulla yet after all.Having a flashback I remember those Twin teams Baltimore faced them quite a bit for the pennant.Playing little league and being a huge Tribe fan I remember the Tiant for Craig Nettles & Dean Chance Trade.
The Indians were perrenially out of it by the end of June(the June swoon) - sadly every one knew what you meant.Twins had Ceasar Tovar too and Jim Kaat also.Even though Cleveland teams were pretty bad they were stacked with oddballs and characters.Man the stories you'd hear made it all worth it.The Indians had some great pitchers one of them was Sam McDowell.Unfortunately he turned into a soak and drank himself out of baseball
How ever one night the Tribe was on the road up in the Twin Cities.McDowell was getting smashed in a bar shooting pool after the game.Sam was a big guy and a belligerent one too and threatened to pound some dude.Turns out the guy was Lonnie Warwick a Line backer with the Vikings.Sam got tossed in the slammer with a black eye and a mouth full of bloody chiclets.Alvin Dark the manager sent the traveling secretary to spring for bail.As McDowell was coming to the traveling secretary was standing there and Sam responds "Oh No!they got you to"
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the Orioles! No wonder is was tough for the Twins to break through. Talk about a line up
Boog Powell, Davey Johnson, Brooks and Frank Robinson, Paul Blair, Don Baylor, even had Bobby Grich
and the staff??? Cuellar, McNally, and underwear model Jimmy Palmer
Where's the baseball thread?
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Ya forgot Belanger one of the finest defensive SS to ever play.And Merv Rettenmund - i always remember the catchers because that's what I played.On another note McDowell later got his stuff together and became a substance abuse counselor or sum such.He comes back for old timer activities and is a great interview with engaging & entertaining stories.Sam regaled when he threw 1-0,9 inning complete game victory.Back then starters often went the distance.Evidently Sam threw a 3 hitter,how ever he struck out 17 but walked 13.Then he picked off 4 of the base runners.These old timers all had a laugh about this because he ended up throwing the ball like 200 + times.The interviewer & other old timers were chiding Mike Hargrove who was there.When Hargrove managed he was notorious for pulling starters after 115-120 pitch count.The Indians ended up trading McDowell for Gaylord Perry(who was a character in his own right) & Frank Duffy.Perry ended up pitching 29 complete games for the Tribe in '72.Duffy was a good glove man
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That's all good/fine/accurate but it's icing on the cake.Good Ole Boy Bobby mixing it up with Steve Superior takes it out of the frying pan and into the fire.Fairly certain I saw all of them
Was Bowden never thought of as two-faced? I can't recall a larger gap between persona of a HC and play style of a team. He played the part of ole southern grandpa publicly (and in the living room, with recruits, I'm sure) while his defenses purposely took out QBs and hit well after the whistle (effectively, for sure).
Now you could say the defenses were made in the DC's image (Mickey Andrews), but either Bowden was complicit or incompetent even before dawning his safari hat.