38 replies to this topic

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I've told mine before, but here's the shortened version:

During the 1983-84 season, my parents took me and my brother to a Devils/Flyers game at Brendan Byrne Arena...I was 13 at the time. My parents were not hockey fans, but someone gave them the tickets. The Devils got waxed, but I was instantly hooked and became a Devils fan that day. Had they taken me to a Rangers game, I likely would've become a Rangers fan...I was truly a blank slate at the time, as far as NHL hockey was concerned.

I didn't really get to watch them much until the '87-'88 season, when my dad finally subscribed to SportsChannel. I did read the papers and followed the Devils through that medium once I became a fan, but I didn't truly connect with them until I could watch them regularly on TV. Once I got my license in 1987, I started driving myself to games. Since I went to Monclair State College in the fall of 1988, I was able to go to games constantly...the arena was only about 20 minutes away, and tickets were easy to come by, and not terribly expensive. I've been hardcore ever since.

[peteyvegas]

Right around the time the Devils came to town, my former team (Rangers) traded one of my favorite players. I got fed up and said " F**k 'em" That did it. Took a lot of crap from the guys in the bar and unfortunately, moved right before we started beating their asses. So I never got to give them the business back.

[Pepperkorn]

in a nutshell...

free tickets in 1998.

They did the rest.

[NJCroMag]

I can't get into details, but let's just say I was strong-armed into becoming a fan and really had no choice. And, should I ever change allegiances, many lives will be lost.

[slight pause]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GO DEVILS!

[jim777]

Right around the time the Devils came to town, my former team (Rangers) traded one of my favorite players. I got fed up and said " F**k 'em" That did it. Took a lot of crap from the guys in the bar and unfortunately, moved right before we started beating their asses. So I never got to give them the business back.

Similar story here. I was so furious with the Islanders for trading John Tonelli I wrote them off. If I recall correctly that was the '85-'86 season. I had already started to defend and root for the Devils after the Gretzky crack (even though I though he was right then) because I hated the Rangers and more specifically their fans.

But trading Tonelli while he could still play was too much for me to take. Seeing Patty LaFontaine eventually in a Rags jersey didn't help either! I still have a soft spot for the Isles, but it lessens every year.

[Pepperkorn]

I can't get into details, but let's just say I was strong-armed into becoming a fan and really had no choice. And, should I ever change allegiances, many lives will be lost.

[slight pause]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GO DEVILS!

My Gawd, man, you STILL believe that?

Edited by Pepperkorn, 15 March 2012 - 09:51 AM.

[justdo3043]

NHL the original....slept over my cousins one night which happened to be the same time they got the game...choose the home team and became a quasi fan...wasn't until the 94' series against the rangers that i really became a fan

[Marshall]

Hockey cards. 1994-ish. Not that I could see a game on TV until 2002 or so, but I still got hooked.

[John Wensink]

My now bald uncle gave me my first Devils hat when i was around 4 somewhere around the 94 playoffs. I really dont remember.
But my first game was not until 99, when the devils first played Nashville. Since then I cannot stop watching... So I blame him...

First nephew, what does my being follically challenged haveto do with anything Devils? But thanks for the credit/blame of passing on my fanaticism.

My story is starts as a 13 year old learning that a real liveNHL team was coming to New Jersey and will use the name New Jersey! I washooked before they were even named. Still following (and converting) the Devils30yrs later.

[DaneykoIsGod]

Watching highlights of the '94 series with the Rags on SportsCenter is what piqued my interest. Seeing New Jersey lose to New York didn't sit well with me, and my alliegance to the Devils was born.

My first game came the following year when my Cub Scout pack got discounted group tickets. The Devils ended up pummeling the Panthers 6-1, and I drove my family nuts by singing Rock 'n Roll Part 2 -- duh nununununuh HEY! duh nununuh -- all evening once I got home (it isn't much on lyrics, but it's catchy and I heard it six friggin times that afternoon).

My Dad ended up getting us tickets to another game that season, also against Florida. Being the hockey newcomers we were, we didn't know any better than to get there WAY too early. Players were still arriving and I recognized Stephane Richer in a baby blue suit signing autographs. I ran back to the minivan to find something autographable in time to get the last player to arrive. It just so happened to be Jimmy Dowd, who hails from my hometown. The Devils won that one too, and I remember Claude Lemieux scoring on a breakaway. It might've been the first breakaway goal I had ever seen, 'cause it was definitely one of the most exciting things I had ever seen in my life up to that point. I think the final was 4-2 (with an empty netter maybe?).

As if all of that wasn't enough of a hook, line, and sinker, the Devils winning the Cup that spring just put me over the top. I was in North Carolina starting a Scouts camping trip at the time. We all watched the game on a tiny little TV in the corner of the waiting area of Granny's Chicken Palace up in the Smoky Mountains of Asheville, NC. For the rest of the night, one kid in particular ran around screaming "HOW SWEEP IT IS! LEGION OF BROOM!" over and over again. During our two-week stay down there, we had a Carolina kid come up to us and say with his thick drawl, "We herd yer boys won the Cup! Now what in the hell is the Cup?!"

[95Crash]

First nephew, what does my being follically challenged haveto do with anything Devils? But thanks for the credit/blame of passing on my fanaticism.

My story is starts as a 13 year old learning that a real liveNHL team was coming to New Jersey and will use the name New Jersey! I washooked before they were even named. Still following (and converting) the Devils30yrs later.

Maybe he didn't want us to confuse you with his other uncle with the full head of hair.

[John Wensink]

Maybe he didn't want us to confuse you with his other uncle with the full head of hair.

None of his uncles have hair!

[MDPucks]

Told mine earlier but here's Cliff Notes:

Grew-up in Monmouth County in a baseball-football family just before the ice rink boom and became a hockey fan after watching the entire Islanders-Capitals Game 7 Easter Epic in 1987. That summer my parents bought me a Devils jersey for my birthday and I pestered my old man into taking me to my first NHL game on Halloween night against the Gretzky-Messier-Fuhr-Kurri Oilers. Devils won 5-4 in OT and we both had a blast. We saw 2 other games that season and the Devils went on their legendary playoff run ending the Isles dynasty then beating the Caps before falling to the Bruins in Game 7. I've stuck with the Devils now through 4 moves up-and-down the East Coast and now play a little adult pick-up hockey in the DC area as an adult novice ice hockey player.

I've been to every Eastern NHL rink plus Hartford except for Toronto, Buffalo, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Florida. I've been to 24 NCAA hockey rinks as well.

[njdevsftw]

Was a big time local hockey fan in Norway at the start of the 90ies. My dad gave me a Chicago Blackhawks cap & shirt in 92, but I soon realised following a west coast schedule team as a European fan was to much work. So picked an east coast team that wasnt the Pens or the Rags ( because the were relatively popular). Ended up with the Devils and they've stuck since.. Not very romantic I know, but thats thar.

[sirbutlust]

i always liked the devils as a kid cause they were from JErsey and i got the Bergen Record which actually follows them a little. that said, i never watched any games cause my parents woudlnt get cable so i was never into hockey. i liked baseball back then, yankees caue they were on channel 11 a lot but that was 86 and EVERYBODY was mets fans (most of them now are those yankee fans that act all die hard and insult anyone who roots for a different team, ironic) but then i went to college, didnt watch hockey though i had cable, which sucks cause i missed the 95 run. Got apartment later on and roommate was devil fan but still not into hockey but i started to watch, they lsot to the avalance in the stanley cup that year. then here and there i saw games and went to a ranger devils preseason (8 fights that gamei twas awesome). finally i met my now wife whose a huge fan and got into them in 2008 i believe, when they made the playoffs and played the rangers and sean avery was a douche and did that waving thing. I remember having violent diareaha that game. that said i think i jinx them. however i do notice they seem to fall apart after someone breaks a milestone (that one season where marty got the 551 wins, i was at and they fell downhill after). this year they fall apart for a whiel after elias gets teh devils record for goals. theres others i forget right now. Last year when the minister of my church would come over to talk about us with our wedding plans, a devils game, and they were playing minnesota and the minister is from there and mentioned that was his team and wondered why someone would root for the devils.i told him its not for the real devil and told him the story of the Jersey Devil. after he left we put the game on and saw some bizzare bounce off the boards that should have gone behind the net actaull y go at teh net and Hedberg try to get it frantically but miss and miracoulsy go in. I could blame the minister and gods intervention or i could blame hedberg. anyhow im rambling. HOw could you not like the devils if you are from Jersey. People who are ranger or possiblly Flyer fans (im in the north so i deal with ranger fans) get a pass from me if and only IF they are over 42. there was no devils when the y were kids, they had the Rangers. anyone else is just a poser who feels they need NYC to feel good about themselves. They are most likely hte people who feel super proud they can tell you how to get from A to B in NYC and that makes them superiour.maybe they like blue, i dont know. im rambling.

[mouse]

My dads a Rags fan, but not a hockey fan. I began to care a little in 94, because I hated the bandwagon Rags fans who didn't know anything about hockey (I know, most of them). I just wanted them to lose. There was 1 Devils fan in my class, a fvcking die hard, I think he was an STH. I respected him, and have enough state pride to root for the Devils anyway, though I'm usually a New York sports fan. 1994 was the worst sports year of my life, Rags in 7, Knicks lose in 7, Yankees have a good shot at World Series (which would have been Mattingly's only one) and the strike wipes out the season.

After 94, I didn't care as much. I enjoyed the cup, but I hated the Rags more than I liked the Devils. After the cup, I cared less and less about either team. My NY rooting interests came back, and I kinda rooted for both. My least favorite possession is the Rags comforter I got in 6th grade. At some point, the Rags began to annoy me. I don't like it when teams spend to win and do nothing else. The Yankees get a pass because 1) they're my team, cradle to grave. They could commit genocide in Darfur and I'd still root for them and 2) much as they overspend, they have legitimately good scouting. Anyway, the Rags spent mindlessly, and I began to hate them again. I half assed watched the Devils into the 2000s. Got NHL 2000, always played as the Devils, began to recognize/appreciate the players. Madden was also the first player I really loved, so I cared more about the team when he got there. Watched most of the 2003 Cup Run, though not much of the regular season, and I missed a lot of game 7 against Anaheim on a trip with my brother (though we watched the 3rd and the cup presentation).

I started playing hockey in college. I'm terrible, but I began to really appreciate the game. Throw in the fact that the Knicks were unwatchably bad, and hockey became my winter sport. Once that happened, it became my sport. Now it's moved up to religion status.

[Jmorc2003]

My dad grew up in Slovakia so naturally has always been a hockey fan. He followed the Rangers until the Rockies came to NJ. I remember being really little and my dad going to games by himself, and finally he took me to my first game when I was in first grade (must have been '86 or '87. Devils vs Blackhawks at Brendan Byrne Arena. We sat behind the goal, about 1/2 way up the lower level. At one point, the puck came flying over the glass and my dad jumped up to catch it (no nets behind the goal back then) and the puck took off his finger nail.

Other early Devils memories...

We used to always go on "stick day" and get real street hockey sticks, with stamped devils signatures. Those were the only sticks I used for a while. I didn't know better.

Went down to the glass to watch warmups and Bill Guerin tossed a puck over the glass to me.

My dad's brother from Slovakia was visiting and we went to see the Devils play either Hartford or North Stars (I know they had green unis), and the Devils went down 6-0.

Saw lots of rowdy Devils vs Flyers tilts. Started hating Flyers fans at an early age.

[DaneykoIsGod]

The Yankees get a pass because 1) they're my team, cradle to grave. They could commit genocide in Darfur and I'd still root for them

This is perhaps the most unequivocal statement of fanhood I've ever seen. Bravo, sir.

Edited by DaneykoIsGod, 19 March 2012 - 08:08 AM.

[Exit56]

Mom worked at a Travel Agency in Wayne in the early 80's, her boss was Dick Trimble's wife (former director of off-ice officials). He gave us tickets, and I managed to con my mom into letting us get sports channel so I could watch on TV too. He got us tickets to the 84 all star game, and brought me to the Campbell Conference practice pre-game, and introduced me to Wayne Gretzky. I was only 6 at the time, so I didn't really know about the mickey mouse thing, I just knew how good #99 was. I remember shaking his hand very clearly.

Chico was my first, I ran across the ice world parking lot in my skates to get his autograph when they were practicing there.

Moved to Tx in 1985, it was hard being a hockey fan there until the stars came to town, but I moved back to NJ in 1995, bought season tickets, etc..