Football fans fall close to home
Some college fans are born. Others are recruited.
We asked SportsNation to tell us why they follow their favorite college football team. Hundreds of people representing 54 schools responded. The most common source: family and friends who watched and listened to games on Saturdays, took them to games when they were young, wore college gear, and as one fan described it, brainwashed the next generation of football fans.
"Anthony 'AC' Carter was my first true sports idol; I had to wear jersey No. 1 for any sport I played," wrote NotoriousRJF. "My uncle had three boys who attended Michigan and he became a supporter and bought season tickets. Each year he would give us four tickets to a game, usually the Notre Dame or Michigan St game, and we would go. One trip to the Big House and it was cemented: Go Blue for life, Hail to the Victors!"
The second most common source of favorite teams from South Bend to Southern California was geography. Proximity breeds passion.
Surprisingly, more people cited players and coaches as an influence, from gum shared by coach Bear Bryant to an Iowa State team that treated the hotel staff well to Joe Paterno's no-nonsense style, than cited winning.
Of course, there are also fans who fell in love with a jersey, played on a youth team with a shared mascot, attended college and gained a team or otherwise found their favorite team.
Here are our favorite stories. You can tell yours in the comments section.
Oregon broadcast memories
debrink1313
Being from a family of limited means and in a time when the Oregon Ducks were hardly EVER on television, I can remember spending my fall Saturdays with my dad raking the millions of leaves our poplars dropped with the pickup parked nearby and the excited tones of Ducks play-by-play man Jerry Allen calling the action.
I can remember the road I was on and the unit I was scanning when Oregon finished off an upset of UCLA in the late '80s and listened as Allen told of the mob on the field and the goalpost being uprooted and hauled out of the stadium.
Michigan coaching connection
PawPaw08
As a youth my attraction to Michigan Football was superfical and self-serving. I thought their helments where cool, blue was my favorite color, they chanted "Go Blue" a lot. That was easy to remember and the coach's name was Bo.
Entering my sophmore year, in an attempt to turn the football program around, my high school hired Don Moorehead (Bo's first quarterback) has the head football coach. By then I understood the game of football and understood Michigan was not just another college football team. By today's standards I wasn't that good and undersized, but I wanted to play for Coach Moorehead for the mere fact that he played for Bo.
Michigan football, in my mind, is best described by one phrase, "Those who stay will be champions." You never quit, you never stop trying, you keep pushing foward.
Lately I have been making the journey to Ann Arbor for the homecoming game. For me, that's the game I want to attend, knowing that many former wolverines are home at the "Big House." I still think their helments are cool, my favorite color is still blue and there is Michigan football, then there's everybody else.
Alabama gets rolled
auburn_tiger1
Switching allegiance in Alabama is almost unheard of, but at the age of 18, I made the leap. It started with two years of cheerleading camp at Auburn. While I was there, I fell in love with the campus and traditions. I also wanted to get a degree in engineering, and in the state of Alabama, engineers go to Auburn.
My final day of camp my senior year, I did the unthinkable. I had my mom take me to TigerRags, the one-stop shop for all things Auburn, and purchased an Auburn T-shirt. You should have seen her cringe as she purchased the article of clothing that would seal my fate. I went on to attend Auburn, ended up getting a degree in journalism and spent almost every Saturday in the fall cheering for the Auburn Tigers. I'll never look back. War Eagle!
Florida State business decision
Scalpem86
When I was 5 my dad started his business in New York, and we went over to his business partner's house for the first time. Before getting there my dad (who was a Brooklyn College alumni, so he had no real college allegiance) he tells me "OK, our friends are Seminoles fans, so when we go there, don't say anything about Gators or Hurricanes. They like the Florida State Seminoles."
As an impressionable young kid, this request to be nice to my dad's partners became a full-fledged obsession with the garnet and gold. I even dressed up as Bobby Bowden for Halloween one year. Now, 18 years later, I'm an FSU alumni, a former Marching Chief and I couldn't be prouder to be a Nole!
Notre Dame network
1onemaderton
My mom sat us down I was around 5 or 6 in front of the TV and said "boys you need to learn about football." Being from a small town (you guessed it, South Bend) we only had three channels back then. ABC, CBS, and NBC (sorry ESPN you was still a twinkle in some dad's eye then). It was WNDU. Get the picture? Notre Dame University.
I watched all the games from that day on. And the replay on Sunday mornings too! Ara Parseghian had just become the head coach and things were a changing. After my first national championship I was hooked. When I got older I used to sneak in the stadium and dream the big dream.
UCLA's the ticket
bruwinfan5931
My aunt began taking me to games during my middle school and high school years (between 1994 and 2000). This was when UCLA had some pretty strong teams; they always were in the Pac-10 title hunt and even came close to the championship game in 1998. These were some of my most cherished memories during this period.
Now approximately 15 years later, it I have the season tickets. And every year, I make sure to take my aunt to at least one home game. It is a small way of saying "thank you" for all the great memories we enjoyed together when I was growing up.
Florida ends uncertainty
kwad5
Growing up in Tennessee surrounded by Vols fans, somehow I just could not make myself root for them. I tended to be against them, just for spite, and to be different. Anyway, the small university I attended did not have a football program so I needed to find a team. I cheered for UCLA for a while because I liked their colors. Then Notre Dame because I liked Lou Holtz, and The Rocket. Then Alabama because they were Tennessee's biggest rival at the time.
However, for the past 10 years, I've been a die-hard Florida Gator fan. My youngest son, Ty, who is 13 now, is and has been a sports fanatic since day one. When NCAA College Football came out on Playstation and he was 3 or 4 years old, he would pick Florida every time and win constantly, so Florida became his favorite team.
Since he loved them so much, I became a Gator fan too. For the past 10 years, we are true blue (and orange) Gator lovers. We made it through the Ron Zook years.
