How & when did you become a college football fan? Who introduced you to cfb?

RollTide_HTTR

Hall of Fame
Feb 22, 2017
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I got into college football really late. Grew up a big NFL fan. Went to small elementary/middle/high school (without a football team) and decided I wanted to go to a big southern school that had football.

Problem was that I didn't know anything about college football. The first college football game I remember watching was the National Championship Game when Florida and Tim Tebow beat Oklahoma. Main reason I watched it was because my then girlfriend and now wife was a born and raised Sooner.

I did very little research on who had a good program I just wanted football. Long story short I loved my visit to Alabama (after kinda hating many of the schools i visited) and didn't realize who Nick Saban was or what was about to happen. Freshman year was 2009 and obviously after that anyone would be hooked.
 

TideEngineer08

TideFans Legend
Jun 9, 2009
36,284
30,893
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Beautiful Cullman, AL
My dad. The first memory I have was watching the 1990 Iron Bowl, that we won, 16-7. I had no memory of knowing at the time that Alabama had lost the prior 4 to Auburn. In fact I remember talking trash to my Auburn aunt that Christmas and she let me know then to hold my horses because Auburn had won 4 in a row before that year. This same aunt was married to my mom's brother, who was also instrumental in my upbringing as an Alabama fan. She's since mostly converted, as they've had 4 boys and season tickets all these years. But Dad was always who I used to watch games with before I moved out. I've got so many special memories of that time.
 

Bama in Quebec

1st Team
Aug 10, 2013
379
55
47
Quebec city
Season 92-93. I was at college studying for my CPA exams. Being canadian, being a semi-professional hockey player, hockey was all my life until I watched that game (the underdog Alabama vs the bad Miami Hurricanes). Of course, I chose for the underdog and the rest is history. I became CPA, I continued to play hockey and I've been a college football fan et most importantly a diehard bama fan ever since.


 

BamaMoon

Hall of Fame
Apr 1, 2004
20,931
15,930
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Boone, NC
"Alabama by birth, Crimson Tide by the grace of God."

Like many of you I never knew anything different. My dad and uncle were the ones who introduced me, I guess, but there was never a choice I made. I was just always all Alabama.

In the 70's we just got the "big games" on TV, so I remember listening to Alabama games on the radio with my dad. Anybody remember "Leonard's Losers?"

My uncle also worked for Drummond Coal and was personal friends of John Drummond so we went to tons of games in B'ham and Bryant Denny with tickets from the Drummonds. Witnessed those great teams during hte 70's and I've never looked back!!!
 

bamaga

Hall of Fame
Apr 29, 2002
13,378
8,238
282
JAWJA
I was never “not” an ALABAMA fan, I don’t know when I became a Bama fan, my fandom has always been. So I guess by default I have always been a CFB fan. I always remember watching college football games on TV because there were so few of them, they were all special.
 

RTR_UA#1

All-SEC
Jun 16, 2008
1,104
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67
Meridian, MS
When I was old enough to pay attention to football, my Dad and I would sit and watch Bama on TV (If we were lucky enough for them to be on that weekend). We listened on radio mostly. My Dad took me to games and I saw Johnny Musso run and get jerseys torn off....LOL.
I remember thinking no matter the score in the 4th quarter, Bama ALWAYS had a chance to make a come back and win!
I grew up with Coach Bryant at the helm.
Good times!!

Mike
 

Bazza

TideFans Legend
Oct 1, 2011
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New Smyrna Beach, Florida
I was actually born in California so I "followed" USC as a youngster growing up in the 50's and 60's. When I started college at Florida in the 70's - the die was set! :)

Although I will always be a Gator - I also love to follow and pull for Alabama because of their unique and storied heritage in the game (and in general). ;)
 

UAH

All-American
Nov 27, 2017
3,595
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We had a sportswriter for the Huntsville Times named Bill Easterling who wrote daily about the game and the upcoming match up throughout the Bryant era. This was before the days of constant ESPN coverage and TideFans so the daily Huntsville Times was eagerly anticipated and devoured. The week of the Tennessee and Auburn games in particular celebrated the great games of the series and had us all primed and ready for the game.

Later on his son Mike Easterling wrote for the times covering high school sports extensively in the region. He wrote a very nice article about a save in relief my son had in the state playoffs with a nice photo shot during the interview.

I have fond memories of the now practically defunct Huntsville Times for all those years of covering the Tide so very well.
 

T Bone

1st Team
growing up my dad ALWAYS had college football on the tube on saturdays, Dad was from iowa, we lived in alexandria,al but he always seemed to pull for whatever underdog was on at the time..........we had 3 channels........dad with popcorn, glass of water and some chocolate watching the games. You did not speak while dad was watching, you could come in and look all you wanted, but keep the lip buttoned up, dad was watching football..............dad has been gone 10 years now........wish i could sit there and not say anything and watch a game with the greatest dad of all time.............roll tide............t
 

aerospace_ray

All-American
Oct 5, 2009
2,963
397
102
Alabama
Parents took me to see Bama games in mid 70's at both Legion Field and Tuscaloosa. I remember the first time I saw Coach Bryant at Legion Field standing at one of the goal post. I knew then I was a BAMA fan for life. RTR
 

TideMan09

Hall of Fame
Jan 17, 2009
12,187
1,156
187
Anniston, Alabama
growing up my dad ALWAYS had college football on the tube on saturdays, Dad was from iowa, we lived in alexandria,al but he always seemed to pull for whatever underdog was on at the time..........we had 3 channels........dad with popcorn, glass of water and some chocolate watching the games. You did not speak while dad was watching, you could come in and look all you wanted, but keep the lip buttoned up, dad was watching football..............dad has been gone 10 years now........wish i could sit there and not say anything and watch a game with the greatest dad of all time.............roll tide............t
I've lived in Coldwater my entire life & played football at Walter Wellborn in high school..I always hated playing Alexandria cause Coach Ginn always had those boys ready to go to war..
 

teamplayer

Hall of Fame
Jul 31, 2001
7,571
2,329
282
cullman, al, usa
We had a sportswriter for the Huntsville Times named Bill Easterling who wrote daily about the game and the upcoming match up throughout the Bryant era. This was before the days of constant ESPN coverage and TideFans so the daily Huntsville Times was eagerly anticipated and devoured. The week of the Tennessee and Auburn games in particular celebrated the great games of the series and had us all primed and ready for the game.

Later on his son Mike Easterling wrote for the times covering high school sports extensively in the region. He wrote a very nice article about a save in relief my son had in the state playoffs with a nice photo shot during the interview.

I have fond memories of the now practically defunct Huntsville Times for all those years of covering the Tide so very well.
Like many others here, I don't remember not being a Tide fan. I do not recall a first game watched, but I know we watched and listened to the Tide play when I was a kid in the 70s. I do remember being in the boat on Guntersville Lake one Saturday and listening to the Tide lose. We were shocked that it could happen. It seems like it was to Georgia Tech, but I'm not sure. In the 80s, I also started reading the Huntsville Times every day. I used to clip the pictures that would be in the Sunday paper after games and put them up on my wall. I even got printed writing a rebuttal in 85 or 86. A reader (AU fan I'm sure) had written in to talk about how the Shula led Tide was overrated, so I wrote in to defend my Tide and got printed. I was 15 or 16 and proud as a pup. So, I guess I've just always been a Bama fan. Roll Tide!
 

selmaborntidefan

TideFans Legend
Mar 31, 2000
36,432
29,735
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How long do you have to read???

Mine actually began with an insult from an Ole Miss fan on a school bus in Illinois.

I was, of course, born in Selma, but I have no recollection of ever living there (we moved when I was about 20 months old). But Alabama - Lanett to be precise - was my favorite spot growing up because my grandparents lived there, so it was my youth hideaway. (In fact, my uncle played in the back yard with Bobby Hunt and Dave Hill, who both went on to fame at Auburn and later with the KC Chiefs in the NFL; Dave even won a ring in SB IV).

So one Thursday in September 1978.....September 14 to be precise (the day before Ali beat Spinks to reclaim his title).

My best friend lived right across the street on Chanute AFB. We tended to ride together and this particular morning the subject of football somehow came up. He was praising the virtues of the "Mississippi Rebels," and asked where I was from. I told him I was from Alabama and he told me how they "suck" and how much better Mississippi people and football were.

THIS is why I think you're sort of predestined to be an Alabama fan, one of the "chosen few." Because I didn't even know they had a team, but it hit a sort of "native" (for lack of a better word) instinct. Maybe it was my first experience with a mild form of prejudice. So I went home that day and asked my Mom about it. She told me what little she knew, including the fact the team was coached by "a Bear" (think of that from an eight-year old perspective for just a second.....).

Then I opened the newspaper and guess who's at the top spot in the published rankings that day?


Yup.


And I've lived and died with them ever since. But it all started with an insult. Forty-one seasons, eight national championships, and no end in sight.
 

BamaNation

Publisher and Benevolent Dictator
Staff member
Apr 9, 1999
20,434
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432
Silicon Slopes
TideFans.com
My dad got his Ed.S. at UA during summers when I was 2-4 and I vaguely remember living in Rose Towers during that time. I loved the fact that I was on a college campus and apparently always said I was going to be a "Bama boy." My parents were casual 'Bama fans but I was hardcore. My first solid Alabama football memory is of the 1979 Sugar Bowl and the last play, in particular.

As an aside, I only remember a handful of my friends being Auburn fans growing up. During the 80's that changed as some of the younger kids began to like the awbies for some unknown reason after Coach Bryant passed.
 

CaliforniaTide

All-American
Aug 9, 2006
3,618
14
57
Huntsville, AL
My parents (primarily my dad) always had college football on the TV most Saturdays in the fall that we were home, especially if it was a USCw game. So, we'd watch the other games and the USCw games. When I was 2 years old, and my brother was only a few months old, we attended a USC-Stanford game in Palo Alto at the old Stanford stadium (where the current stadium sits). My mom and brother didn't go the game, just stayed on campus with friends, and my dad and I went to the game with some of his fraternity brothers. During the second half, while USC was blowing out Stanford, my dad carried me down a long ramp that enters the field. Having no field pass on him, he just walked by the security line without being stopped, and we got to be on the USC sideline during a portion of the second half. I do not remember that event, but I've had many of my dad's friends tell me about it. Now, my family gets tired of talking about college football because "the media only talks about Alabama, Alabama, Alabama..."
 

ccc2259

All-American
Oct 29, 2010
2,571
70
72
Lower Alabama
In the mid-60's my 2 older brothers introduced me to college football on the TV. We lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the time, so my brothers were Ole Miss and LSU fans. But I was drawn to this team whose coach had the coolest name ever, "Bear". I grew up a Bama fan. I went to college in Birmingham, and saw more Bama games at Legion Field than I can remember, including the 1981 Iron Bowl when CPB won No. 315. My first game in person was the 3rd game of 1978 season when Bama hosted Southern Cal at Legion Field. Unfortunately, we lost that day.

IIRC, we were behind at halftime, but Bama took the 2nd half opening drive and scored a TD. At that point in time, there was absolutely no doubt we were gonna win that game...........unfortunately, it was not to be. Still, I was hooked for life.
 

bat123

All-American
My dad was working in Huntsville and we lived just north of B'ham so on this particular time we were up with him for the weekend, Saturday morning rolled around and he looked at me and said let's listen to the game. I was about five at the time and had really never paid much attention to his Saturday past time. Well back then televised games were few and far between so we went out to his car and dialed in the AM station and no reception, he looked at me and said "Close your door we've got to find the game" , so we proceeded to the interstate and drove until we picked up the station and sat on the side of the interstate and listened to the game.

Although I didn't understand at the time what was happening (I was 5) I knew it sure made my Pops happy and that was good enough for me, I rarely missed a Saturday with my dad or uncles from that day forward.:biga:
 

RTR2u

Hall of Fame
Nov 30, 2013
10,529
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Georgia
I've lived in Coldwater my entire life & played football at Walter Wellborn in high school..I always hated playing Alexandria cause Coach Ginn always had those boys ready to go to war..
And Lou Scales, too.

My fandom started in about 1971. I was in the third grade, and I remember my mom told me the Bama/Auburn game was on TV. She was a little nervous because Pat Sullivan was the QB for the barn. We won 31-7. I remember Bama fans had scores written all over our notebooks in school. My first encounter with how barners act was in 4th grade after 17-16. A classmate, a die-hard barner, came in exclaiming "War Eagle!" Hated them since.

I also remember the Nebraska-Bama bowl game where Nebraska whipped us. I think it was 38-6? Mom was nervous about that one, too. Now, I watch the games no matter what happens, but if the lead is in jeopardy Mom tells me she can't bear to watch and turns it off. LOL

I went to college at a different university besides Bama because it was much cheaper and closer to home. I have no regrets of that. I got away from the love of it in college because I had to attend so many games as a member of the band it just got old after awhile. Didn't really come back into the fold until Saban arrived.
 
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