Patsfan Survey: When Did YOU Become a Patriots Fan?

[tobias funke]

I think it was around 1924 or 1925, when Pat Patriot was still on the team. Pretty sure I am one of the first fans ever hopefully everyone is super-impressed w/me now.

 

[patfanken]

Right from the beginning. In that fall I was in the 8th grade, and they were the "home team" plain and simple. I grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and you played every sport in every season, and followed all the teams with a zealousness you only found in those days in the inner city.

Before the Pats existed I "liked" the Giants because they were the first professional football team I saw on TV, but the HATRED for the Yankees, Knicks, and Rangers made the transition from the Giants to the Pats very easy. My Father took me to a game at BU field that first season, and saw several games when they played at Harvard. Ironically I never went to a game at the old Shaffer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium.

I was also a big Celtics fan. My Dad was a cab driver and his dispatcher ran a concession stand at the Garden.. He would moonlight helping him, and he'd take me along. Saw a lot games from the 3rd balcony of the old Garden. I actually once won a pony in a name the pony contest. It was too bad because 2nd prize was a bike and that's what I really wanted. There was a picture of me on the horse in the Paper with the caption, "look Ma,. no pedals"

OOPS, sorry. Just the late night ramblings of old man.

 

[Frezo]

I remember them always beating up on URI. PC/URI were big deals for Dad and I.

 

[tobias funke]

what the hell did you do with a pony

 

[Joker]

imagine trying to give away a pony today...in a raffle???....jeezus...you'd get 40 years after all the special interest nutters got done with you

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

1977 was the year I started watching the NFL,I was 13 at that time.

I began watching the Redskins and Chiefs for that season since both teams were often on MNF and I just loved listening to Howard Cosell who was an amazing announcer in his day.

I guess you could say I was a Chiefs and Redskins fan for one season.

In 1978 I began watching Steve Grogan and I just admired his play,but what really caught my eye was the Pat Patriot logo and the all American color uniforms....those Unis were by far the best in the NFL at that time and I just began watching them more and more...so much that I had a shrine of Pats merchandise by 1980 and bought $300 leather Jackets since I loved the logo and team so much.

32 years later and here I am in this forum talking about my extreme passion for this team

 

[kpreh]

1974- I was 6 years old..--kind of disco girl

I was picked on by my brother from day one -jerk used to make me cry when the Pats would lose(which as we know happened often)

First person I called when they won the first Super Bowl-my brother-sometimes he is still a jerk about my team, he's one those "fans" who goes for the other team no matter who it is.

 

[SEA_Pat]

I was a young lad of 11 years old living in Toronto and had been weaned on the CFL when the best player there moved over to the big leagues and signed with the Patriots in 1973. The next year he set the single season combined yardage mark. Good ol' Mini Mack Herron. It was that plus the pathetic Buffalo Bills inability to sell out their stadium leading to constant blackouts of their games, with the AFC affiliate broadcasting the Pats as a substitute. Thank goodness! Otherwise I'd be haunted by "wide right" and watching my team never get over the hump and win one.

Mind you, never saw this glory run coming. But who could?

 

[Gumby]

from Sam Bam Cunningham to
Grogan &
Hannah
& Stanley Steamer.

Glory Days.....but fell just a little short.

 

[Razor's Edge]

Prior to me joining and playing in a junior football league, 1965-66, age 11-12.
I watched the Giants if I really watched at all, but we had some patriots players come to our banquet, Larry Garron is one I remember as well as Jim Nance. After that I became a Pats fan, been that way ever since!

 

[reflexblue]

I think it was around 1924 or 1925, when Pat Patriot was still on the team. Pretty sure I am one of the first fans ever hopefully everyone is super-impressed w/me now.

You win, heres your prize

 

[Batman]

For me it was sometime in the 90's My father is a huge Football fan and supports the raiders (poor him) I picked up his copy of NFL gameday as a kid not knowing anything about the sport I thought the patriots were england so always used them. Over time I started to learn how the game worked and started to enjoy it more and more, then i started to follow the patriots more and more with my father taping the games during the night for me to watch.

 

[patman52]

I was 8 or 9 when my father took my older brother to a game. He came home excited and I got involved, the next year was when they won the East but lost to SD

 

[BlueThunder]

Looks like I could hang with quite a few guys/gals here and talk about the old days !

I became a Patriot fan during my time in the military 1962.


Started watching football in the mid 50's but back then there were no Patriots so I was a Giants fan. (Yes there were tv sets back then)

Conerly,Svare,Grier, Gifford,Rote,Triplett, Tunnell, Webster..

Smash mouth... no ticky tacky contact rules...FOOTBALL :rocker:

 

[zoostation]

In the early 70's. My dad was an original season ticket holder for the new stadium (no not Gillette).

But they weren't the disco 70's..... they were the kick a@@ rock 70's Sam Bam Cunningham highlights with Led Zeppelin blaring in the background.

1976 is when I really started to understand the game and that year may have been the most talented Patriots team. Seriously.

 

[Peachhead]

I've been a casual fan since I was a kid in the 70s. I didn't understand the game much. But hey, they were the home team.

I become a big fan in the 90s when Parcells was here, and then a total fanatic once BB took over. I still remember, like it was yesterday, the news conference when BB resigned as the "HC of the NYJ". Then the guy from the Jets (Tannenbaum?) went ballistic.

 

[BlueThunder]

Where are all the bandwagon fans?

 

[IndyKen]

Way back in 1960 when I was 11. I remember my Dad was very excited one day - he told me "We're getting our own pro football team" - so I was hooked from the very beginning.

 

[olschool]

I was a kid growing up with the hated Giants and YA Tits Up televised in Boston. We also had the Browns on another of the 2 networks and I loved Jim Brown. When Billy Sullivan got the Pats franchise I became a fan abandoning the Red Sox but still loving Bill Russell and the Celts. Went thru decades of frustration but it was worth it.

Frustration is right. They were rarely on tv, and it was a quest to find where they were playing their home games in the early years.

The first time I went to Schaefer stadium, I remember a river of urine running out of one of the rest rooms in the fourth quarter. What a dump that place was, even when new.

Still, they were OUR team, we just had to love 'em.

 

[Gostkowski for 3]

when Curtis Martin and Terry Glenn hit the scene as young stars in the 1995 and 1996 seasons. I was pretty young at the time and growing up about 10 miles west of the stadium.