200 replies to this topic

[MadDog2020]

I've been thinking about this subject for a while and how interesting it would be to find out from people in/out of state and around the world what made them become Devils fans. I saw a post by mddevsfan today and that has me starting this thread.

For me it was a rocky beginning, I was an Islanders follower -geez I how I could I root for the Rags? and then when a new team moved to town, I gave them a chance (but what funny uniforms !) That game I got a free ticket and they gave away the large #1 foam hand and 19,040 fans started pointing it at the ref screaming "A$$hole... A$$hole" kind of sealed the deal for me.
So many games - I took Mrs Diablo to her first hockey experience during a Rags/Devs playoff game - she was utterly frightened (of me mostly) Then there was 1994 and such bitterness...... but 1995... 1995 such joy... The years rolled and I was able to bring my daugthter to her first game -- to see the happiness when she started dancing 'cause "womp there it is" played and the horn blared... and yes they scored 7 that night... priceless.
That pretty much tells my story, Im sure there are lots interesting ones out there, close and afar.
Lets Go Devils !

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When I was 6 years old, I discovered the great sport of hockey. Then I heard we had a team in New Jersey. I figured- "HEY, THAT'S WHERE I'M FROM!!" 21 years later the rest of history.

[mddevsfan]

Out of all the reasons of becoming a devs fan, it all started playing NHL98 in my P 1.33 computer during the 1999-2000 season.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

See! I knew there was some truth to my theory!

[BlueSkirt]

I was save by wolf when i was a baby
A lonely baby in the swamp...
Wolves teach me .... and one day they bring me to The King of the Swamp... the Devils of New Jersey...

He gives me to the Almighty Scott Stevens etc etc...


ok.. i watch hockey during olympic game and saw many impressive players..." wooo i like this young player ! Elias ? ok... cool... sykora ? cool name... Wooo hard hit .. Holik ? Cool "

"damn.. they all are on the same NHL Team ! WHAT ! what kind of name ?! Devils ?!!! But i'm the Son of Mephistopheles ! This is a team for me ! ... ok watch this season... WOoooo CHAMPION ?! they are lucky to have me... "

something like this...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

have you been to Amsterdam recently... ?

[Elias Sports Bureau]

I was save by wolf when i was a baby
A lonely baby in the swamp...
Wolves teach me .... and one day they bring me to The King of the Swamp... the Devils of New Jersey...

He gives me to the Almighty Scott Stevens etc etc...


ok.. i watch hockey during olympic game and saw many impressive players..." wooo i like this young player ! Elias ? ok... cool... sykora ? cool name... Wooo hard hit .. Holik ? Cool "

"damn.. they all are on the same NHL Team ! WHAT ! what kind of name ?! Devils ?!!! But i'm the Son of Mephistopheles ! This is a team for me ! ... ok watch this season... WOoooo CHAMPION ?! they are lucky to have me... "

something like this...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

have you been to Amsterdam recently... ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just like the Yankees, it's all about aura and moustic!!!!

[John Wensink]

Up untill I was 10 (in 1979) I lived in Lyndhurst, followed the Rags and played street hockey everyday.

My family moved to Wayne, where no-one I met followed or played hockey.

For the next 3 years I just played baseball...until I read about a hockey team coming to NJ. The were going to have a contest to pick the name and everything! All of the neighborhood began to watch and play. A real live team for us in NJ!

My dad got season tix for several years (with a few buddies) and I went to alot of games. I was hooked, I dropped everything but hockey.

Now at 36 I do not play much anymore, but I did in college.

The Devils and hockey are the only sport I follow. (My wife as well & I started my 2yr old too!)

As for history, '94 was the worst at the time, but now looking back I feel '01 is worse. '94 tought them how to win, '01 is just a lost cup.

I've followed the DEVS the entire 23 years they've been here and I hope to continue along with all the other great fans here.

LET'S GO DEVS!

[poohbear]

Watched a few games with my then boyfriend-now husband but couldn't get into it. Then in 2000 I watched the finals for him as he was away and couldn't see them. I learned how to follow the action! And as I've said before, I got hooked and told my husband not to write them off when they were down. I loved that I got to rub it in his face after. "Told ya so, told ya so!!"

Truthfully, it was probably the first time I saw Marty's eyes behind his mask.

[UnderDogX]

Ahh, i remember it like it was yesterday

It started for me when I moved to NJ...I had been talking to this girl online for a long time all the while I was living in TX...I didn't really care for hockey however my step brother played and so it kinda got me into watching a bit but more importantly playing the NHL games on Sega. That introduced me to Roenick when he was back with the Blackhawks. Well, when I did decide to move up here my, now fiancee, said she wanted to take me to a game. The game happened to be against the Coyotes...who now had Roenick on their team...I wasn't really too hyped about the game but I had an open mind especially since I was going to see the man who many a time I had beat my snotty little step brother with, I mean she briefed me about the Devils and their players...Gomer was a rookie then and since he was really the first hispanic player in the NHL and I'm from TX I could appreciate (being half hispanic myself) that and designated him my "favorite" player. Well a little into the game I jokingly said the only way I was going to enjoy this game was if I saw a fight. Well a few things happened that night...Gomer had a nice goal, and Oliwa got into this awesomely brutal fight and Elias had a breakaway goal...From then on, Elias (after making a sweet deke to score on the breakaway) was my favorite player and Devils hockey was a new love!!! Now my fiance and I have a wonderful 2yr old son together and we are planning on taking him to his first game this season!

[IAmCanadian27]

My dad has been a huge hockey fan all his life, so as a little kid I would always see him watching games. Usually I would just watch for a little bit because they had the glow puck around that time, which I thought was cool, lol. As a got older, I would watch more of the game with my dad. Then at the beginning of the 01-02 season, I finally decided to really pay attention to a game and I ended up getting hooked. Now my dad likes to brag that his sixteen year old daughter is the biggest hockey fan of the family.

[westcoastdevfan]

I grew up in New Jersey and had plenty of access to Boston Bruins games, I became a big fan of Ray Bourque. I was hooked on hockey. Then there was this guy called Grtezky that rocked the NHL in Edmonton. Then I saw Mike Bossy's 500th goal and my love grew more....By the time I was 8 I knew the Canadian national anthem by heart. Then I found the green and red wonders from the swamp. They were a sorry bunch but they were my home team. I remember sitting in front of the TV with no picture, just sound and hearing Doc Emerick call John Macleans goal that propelled the Devils into their first playoff appearance. I was able to go to a couple of game during that run with my cousin (who was a huge Islander fan) and I was hooked for life.

[MantaRay]

Grew-up an avid hockey fan. Although born and raised in NJ became a Sabre fan after watching Gil Perreault and Jim Schoenfeld---back in the day. My brother and I had a huge rivalry as he was a big Bruin fan.

1982 that all changed as Dr. McMullen brought us our own team and never looked back. Thank Odin for Dr. Mac!

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

I was a Devil for Halloween at age 5 in 1990 and started collecting cards/following them more and more.

[CaptainRafalski]

I was born in Brooklyn New York in 86, the first game I ever watched on TV was a Devils game and the first game I ever attended was New Jersey-Winnipeg in 1993. My mom tells me that I have been a Devs fan since the word go. I even have a tiny Devils jersey hanging in the basement .... one of the green and red kind lol.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

My parents took me and my brother to my first game at Brendan Byrne arena waaaaaaaay back in 1983 when I was 13. Although they got spanked by the Flyers (they pretty much got spanked by everyone back then...they won all of 17 games in each of their first two seasonS in New Jersey), I was hooked instantly. I didn't know a whole lot about hockey back then...all I knew was that the Islanders were awesome (they were right in the middle of their 4-Cup run), and that the Rangers didn't really appeal to me.

I didn't get to see them a whole lot from 1983-88, but went to a game here and there and followed their progress during that time. I remember at the beginning of the 1987-88 season, when the Devils were in first place with a 12-5-2 record, thinking "Wow, here we go, we've finally arrived!" Then they slumped and went back to being the same old Devils...until they replace Doug Carpenter with Jim Schoenfeld and brought up Sean Burke. And since my dad had just ordered Sportschannel, I was now watching as many games as I could. It was during that crazy stretch when John MacLean scored his overtime winner against Darren Pang to put the Devils into the playoffs that I really and truly became a Devils fanatic. That playoff run was insane...the donut incident...John MacLean's belated ascendance...Sean Burke...missing the Cup final by one game...I still remember so much of that season. To this day Johnny Mac remains my favorite player. I remember feeling physically ill during a pregame show when he announced that he didn't want to be a checker and had asked to be traded.

Anyway, I got my license on June 24, 1987 and have been driving myself to Devils games ever since. At one point I lived in Clifton and went to almost every home game during the 92-93 and 93-94 seasons. I'll always remember June 24, 1995 fondly...my 25th birthday and the day the Devils won Cup #1. And since I had tickets for the last two rounds of the playoffs that year, I got to see it all. I love baseball (Mets) and football (Patriots), but no sport and no team get me as fired up as ice hockey and the Devils do. Best sport and best team ever!

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976, 07 October 2005 - 12:14 PM.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I grew up in New Jersey and had plenty of access to Boston Bruins games, I became a big fan of Ray Bourque. I was hooked on hockey. Then there was this guy called Grtezky that rocked the NHL in Edmonton. Then I saw Mike Bossy's 500th goal and my love grew more....By the time I was 8 I knew the Canadian national anthem by heart. Then I found the green and red wonders from the swamp. They were a sorry bunch but they were my home team. I remember sitting in front of the TV with no picture, just sound and hearing Doc Emerick call John Macleans goal that propelled the Devils into their first playoff appearance. I was able to go to a couple of game during that run with my cousin (who was a huge Islander fan) and I was hooked for life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was Gary Thorne, not Doc Emerik.
Remember the last game in that Devils-Islanders series? Devs had a 6-2 lead, then the Islanders suddenly turned it on...we barely hung on to win 6-5. Burke seemed to lose his invincibility somewhat after that game...The Devils went 7-7 after that. (Beat the Caps in 7, lost to the Bruins in 7).

[Nieuwy25]

March 17, 2002.  A little trade involving Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner.  Joe's gone, but I'm still here!  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yay!!! And luckily, so is Jamie!
Are you still a Leafs fan, Nieuwy? My sis down in Florida is already watching the Panthers more 'cause he's there.

No - I never did "take" to the Leafs. Even though Joe had a better year (stats-wise) than he did as a Devil, I'm glad he's not up there any more. Too many bad characters for my taste.

[njdevz89]

when i was little i was a redwings fan (97-99) because they had the russian 5 and im russian, at that time i lived in brooklyn but hated the rangers, in 1999 i moved to nj and just became a devils fan bcasue they're the home team, eventually my dad and my brother became devils fans too.

[Risky]

My little brother made me watch the playoffs with him in 1994 when I was a high school freshman. Even though they lost to the Rags, I was totally hooked and have been ever since.

It was good time to get hooked.

[SueNJ97]

I always loved hockey since I grew up in New England and high school hockey was a big deal. We were in Whaler territory but I never took to them because the announcers tried to pretend they were a real hockey team and they just weren't. I remember one of their announcers, the immortal Andre Lacroix, saying when they were behind something like 8-1, "Oh, one more goal and they will be right back in the game". You just couldn't take them seriously and they wouldn't admit they were struggling, either. But I wasn't really a fan of the Bruins, Rangers or the Isles, I just liked hockey. Then one day I was watching a playoff game between the Devs and the Pens on TV and it was when they disallowed all the goals. I was SO po'd, it was obvious it was wrong. I became a NJ fan at that moment and have been one ever since. In 1992 I happened to get a job in northern NJ, bought season tix and settled in.

[langs15]

I started playing hockey and then my uncle played as well but he gave me the first seats......

[LizDevil30]

The Devils made me a hockey fan.