How long have you been a Wings fan

[jaster]

My first game at the Joe was in 1986 with my grandparents, so I guess since then. My parents weren’t sports fans, but my grandparents were big Wings and Tigers fans, so lots of games with them at JLA and Tiger Stadium as a kid.

My grandpa was a bricklayer for Darin and Armstrong in Detroit, and they had a suite at JLA. I recall a few times as a little kid my grandpa getting access to the suite and getting to go. One time, when I was a very little kid, we got on the elevator to go up to the suite, and a couple Red Wings healthy scratches that night got on with us (back when the healthy scratches actually did watch games from the press box lol). Wish I could remember who they were, this was mid/late 80s. Anyway, my grandpa was very tall. And bald. He picked me up in the elevator and, allegedly, I exclaimed, “grandpa, you don’t have any hair!” Guess I hadn’t noticed until then. The two players found that pretty hilarious. I think I managed to embarrass my grandpa a little bit, which would have seemed impossible to me at the time, he was handsome and built like an Abrams tank. That might have been the last time I went up to the suite

Edit: Oh yeah, my gramps woulda turned 94 today, which is why I was thinking of him and shared that story, ha.

 

[HoweFan]

Probably since I was 5-6 years old so maybe 68-69 years. Always a Gordie Howe fan

 

[PelagicJoe]

The lure was a box of 1990-91 Pro Set Hockey cards. My uncle purchased a box each for me and a cousin. It was shop that sold comics and cards. Wish I could remember the place but it's also where he bought me issues from the Death of Superman series a few years later. I think it was in Livonia or Westland.

My cousin was already into hockey and wanted the Fedorov rookie card. I can remember him telling me "Just look for the McDonald's sign in the background". We blazed through the packs. I ended up with 2 Fedorov rookies and my poor cousin yielded zilch!

Twas my Wings fandom origin story.

The 90-91 and 91-92 Pro Set cards were awesome because we could get a whole box for like $10.

 

[TheOtherOne]

97 was a good year to start!

 

[FMichael]

40

 

[Shaman464]

37 years. Born in Detroit.

 

[14ari13]

97/98.

A true fair weather fan. Lol.

I played NHL 97, got frustrated I couldn't score a goal so I decided to take a good team and try to score. I 1st chose kings, but struggled to score and I thought Yzerman and Shanahan were cool names so it was the wings. I had no idea what NHL was.

 

[HisNoodliness]

The wings were playing the Lightning in Tampa where I was born. Red was my favorite color. The rest is history

 

[OldnotDeadWings]

Either 61 or 62 years, can't remember exactly. I was 8 or 9 yeas old that Christmas in northern Saskatchewan and was thrilled to get a Montreal Canadiens' jersey from Santa, my favourite player at the time being Boom Boom Geoffrion. Sometime during the holidays, wearing my new jersey all the time, sleeping in it, my Aunt Penny said to me something like, "You know your Dad used to play ball against Gordie Howe."

I kept wearinig the Habs' jersey of course, trying to pound slapshots against some plywood stuck in a snowbank around our backyard riink. I had always known of Gordie but nothing of the random connection with my Dad. But the next time the Wings were on HNIC, I followed him as best I could on the b&w TV and was kind of overwhelmed how calmly dominant he was, just a tower of indestructable strength. So, Wings soon became my team.

Years later, I talked to my Dad about his Junior and Senior ball-playing days in Saskatchewan, and it wasn't just Howe he had pitched against, but also other NHLers like Bert Olmstead, Emile Francis and others who were good ballplayers in the off-seasons. Asked how he did pitching against Howe, he just laughed. "Eh, not so good."

 

[dalem177]

Was not a sports/hockey fan. Living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Knew and worked with fans so heard names, woes, "dead things" occasionally. In 95/96 my buddy/roomie Kevin H who was a sports freak expressed his amazement that I wasn't a hockey fan because I didn't "hate" sports, just wasn't my thing, and he claimed the NHL was everything I wanted and nothing I didn't want as a potential viewer, except maybe the regular season could get punchy. He also said it would be a great time to introduce me to it since the Wings were becoming serious contenders.

So I watched a few games and ate a lot of Mr. Pizza and started to learn how to watch hockey on TV with Kev's help. Over the next year I watched more and soon was watching regularly and caring about the outcomes even after I got my own place. I've lived in Minnesota since 2001 and wanted to become a Wild fan, and I'm happy when they do well and have been to a handful of games, but even though I live here, without cable it's impossible to watch the Wild without sailing the seas. So they are a distant second to me.

Based on how and when I became a fan, and since they'd handled the Cap Era so well I figured it would be no sweat to move on from #s 5, 40, and 13 and just continue to romp all over the league.

I have learned the reality.

I voted for "30" since it's about 29ish and there's no "20-30", just "<=20".

Lastly, for almost the first time ever I'm contemplating getting a jersey, especially since I'm hearing bad things about the new vendor. Any hints on good shops for jerseys?

 

[GreatGordie9]

Probably since I was 5-6 years old so maybe 68-69 years. Always a Gordie Howe fan

I miss the big fella. As far as I'm concerned the greatest player of all time.

 

[Our Lady Peace]

2002 cup was the crown of my hockey and Red Wings fandom. 22 years ago and I'm 28 now so I had it good from the very start

My Bruins fan grandpa wanted a hockey buddy so he threw all the hockey books, magazines, cards, figurines that mostly so happened to be Red Wings at me and then he topped it off with an Yzerman jersey on my 7th birthday. Still have it!

 

[RabidBadger]

Since 2012 when I moved to the Detroit area. I grew up in NE Ohio where the few hockey fans split their allegiance between Shittsburgh and Detroit. I didn't care for either and bounced around with my fandom.

I actually despised the Wings dynasty teams. I remember a friend asking if I was going to become a Wings fan right before I moved here and I was like, "***k no!". 1 month later I was sporting a Wings shirt and going to the games. Presto-change-o!

You can't call me a bandwagon fan having gotten on board during the team's declining years.

 

[TKB]

SInce March of 1977, family moved from Dayton to Detroit.

 

[SantosHalper]

My grandpa was a bricklayer

Hey!! So was mine, from the early 1930's to early 70's. I don't have a cool sports related story involving him, since he was too busy raising 9 kids and participating in couple wars. But i got a pretty hilarious story involving his father.

My great-grandpa and his brother were owners of a massive ranch and their main source of income was raising and selling horses. But instead of saving the money and paying whatever they had to pay, great-grandpa and his brother decided to drink everything and spend the rest on prostitutes. So then the bank took the ranch in early 30's. Then my grandpa became a bricklayer, great-grandpa died in 1935.

My mom heard these stories when she was a kid and thought it was BS, but then in late 60's/early 70's she became a nurse and her first patient was a 100-year old lady. That old lady's husband visited his wife every day in hospital and use to tell stories about the old days. And that old man was a former farmer and he was from where my grandpa is from. And the old man saw my mom's nametag and recognized the name, asked do you have relatives there? And started to tell stories about my great-grandpa and his brother, exactly the same stories what my mom heard when she was a kid.

Mom realized that the stories were true, that old man and his wife were born in early/mid 1870's and great-grandpa was born in 1877. And they were neigbours, my mom was too embarrassed to admit, so she just said "not a relative, just a same last name"

 

[JohanFranzenstein]

Been bleeding for this team since '02. I remember watching most of that playoff and all of the Final with my older brother and mom. There's home movies of me watching the playoffs in '97 and '98 but I didn't count those since I was too young to remember/understand most of that.

Was just thinking about how much it sucks when people who are casual/bandwagon fans try to talk the Wings with me, because it feels so personal, and I can't articulate how much this team has meant to me over most of my life.

Either way, I love this team and always will, through the great times and the shit times.

 

[SirloinUB]

I became a fan of the Red Wings on August 1st, 1997 which I guess puts me at 27 years.

Brent Gilchrist was a distant relative and I cheered for whatever team he played on. From there, it was convenient to stay a fan of the red wings

 

[Go Wings]

Since I was 10 so this will be my 34th year.

I love the Red Wings

 

[GreatGordie9]

I first met Gordie Howe on June 6, 1966 at a hockey banquet in his honor(Gordie Howe Day). This was in a small town called Kensington which is in Prince Edward Island. I was 12 and certainly in awe. He shook my hand and thought I may lose my fingers. At that time Gordie represented Eaton's Canada.

 

[14ari13]

Is it only retired people on this board?

 

[dj4aces]

I'm turning 44 in June, so I clicked the closest option: 40.

Is it only retired people on this board?

Forums and message boards aren't all that popular with the 20-30 year old crowd. You're more likely to find them hanging out on a Discord server instead.

(I'm also on Discord, but still, not a whole lot of older folks who use the app... or hell, even folks my age)

 

[Austrianwing]

Is it only retired people on this board?

Just because you are old doesn't mean you are retired.
At least my old age doesn't look like it will shape up to involve much retiring...

 

[Roomba With a Bauer]

I watched a bench clearing brawl with my dad in 1988 on PASS, I was 5. Been a fan since then but I didn't watch every single game until like 1993. A few years ago my wife made me a quilt out of all the Wings shirts I've had over the years. It's one of my most prized possessions.

The spring of 1997 is still one of my all time favorite memories. Wings car flags everywhere. Stands set up on street corners in the random tiniest cities in Mid-Michigan selling Red Wings merchandise. It was a fun time.

 

[Austrianwing]

I don't think I could honestly have called myself a truly die-hard fan before the '97 cup, but enough so that I remember being distinctly pissed off losing that series to the Sharks in '94.
I really liked the international flavor of the roster for one thing.
By the time the wings brought the cup back home in '98, with all of the emotions playing for Vladdy, it was quite clear to me that I would be a fan until the day I kick the bucket

 

[Henkka]

30 years.

Somewhere from early 90's it did start. When russians started to arrive.