OT: Canadian/Non-Illinois Hawk Fans

[Central PA Hawk Fan]

Not gonna lie, the unis and logo are the coolest...I was in middle school at the time, and hockey isn't exactly big around here to begin with (at least at that time in the early 90s), so I didn't have a connection with any of the "local" teams anyway (Pens, Flyers, Caps). And then I get the original EA Hockey for Sega Genesis and my brother and I played as the Hawks religiously. That Larmer-Roenick-Matteau line...so dominate. For some reason, I stayed a fan over the years, and to this day the Hawks are the only "non-local" team I root for.

 

[x Tame Impala]

So if I'm reading this right, if you weren't born in Chicago or the area, you're....jumping ship from some other team?

.

You're not reading it right at all if you think I'm placing any negativity on being a hawks fan who wasn't born in Illinois/Chicagoland.

 

[Bring Back GLR]

Being Canadian and having some French Canadian friends helped spur me on. One friend of mine was a huge Savard fan (this would be (89/90ish) and at the time I just watched hockey as a fan. Started watching Hawks cause of him and later on cause of Roenick, Eddie "the Eagle". Just loved the look of his gear, mask and their uniforms. Got a classic starter Hawks jacket and then just became obsessed with the team. Disappointed like all of us when Avs, Stars And Red Wings dominated the mid late 90s while the Hawks were being run into the ground. Even the dark years always had Amonte at least to cheer for and stuck by knowing they would eventually right the ship. Of course we all know what it would take for that to happen.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Very cool stuff guys! I love reading/hearing about these fandom origins. It's also really cool to learn about all the Canadian fans that have passed their fandom down through generations.

 

[sunsoutgunsout]

I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Everyone always makes fun of the teams I cheer for (Hawks and Dodgers fan, so I look like a bandwagon jumper) but I've been a fan of both for my entire life. My uncle was a scout for the Hawks for ten or fifteen years, so that explains that.

 

[monochrome]

Born and raised in New Jersey, and definitely a Devils fan, but the Hawks came first--and they're still my #1 team. Someone else got me into hockey, and they were a Hawks fan living in Illinois. It was right before the 2010 cup win. It was much easier to watch with them and learn about it through them. Before I even knew of the Devils I was rooting for the Hawks, essentially. Now I'm going to school in Chicago so it makes it even easier to be a fan.

 

[Madhouse Mafia]

I was born in Chicago. Went to my first Hawks game at the Stadium when I was in kindergarten in 1990. My dad always took me to "meet the Hawks" and "Skate with the Hawks" events. I have so many autographs from those great 90's teams. I remember standing in line for over 2 hours, almost in tears, to get autographs from Chelios and Steve Smith. I had so much gear for them to sign but when we got there they told us we had to buy the 8x10 for them to sign -_- Still worth it. Moved to Minnesota around the time I started high school and the Wild weren't even established yet so being a Hawks fan stuck with me. I was always kinda proud of it too. Sometimes I still go to a high school hockey game or my son plays mini-mites and there is tons of Hawks gear at the rink. I like it. Think its cool. Also, its so much fun to go to bars packed with Wild fans rockin' the 88 or the 19. They try to give me crap but a simple wink back usually suffices. Oddly enough though, in this small border town of roughly 4,000 there is one Chicago bar. A lot of Chicago area folks come up here for canoe trips.

 

[Sarava]

I just found out a few weeks ago that my grandfather was a diehard Wings fan. I was 4 when he died, so I never really knew him. I'm glad that didn't get passed down from generation to generation

 

[Marina]

Had/have a lot of family in Chicago and the first hockey game I attended was a Blackhawks home game... just started watching them I suppose. As for why I choose to waste my time posting here... nobody in Florida cares about hockey. Gotta get my fix somehow.

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

I just found out a few weeks ago that my grandfather was a diehard Wings fan. I was 4 when he died, so I never really knew him. I'm glad that didn't get passed down from generation to generation

My dad wasn't what you'd call a 'hardcore' hockey fan...but he'd definitely watch it and always loved the Leafs...and was a constant 'fist shaker' at the Habs, always wishing them the worst. After my dad died, when my sister and I were going through his stuff we found a bunch of Habs paraphernalia...from the late 60s/early 70s...my dad hadn't immigrated to Canada by then but his parents had (they'd moved to Montreal from the UK for my grandfather's job) and my dad, who was still in school then but stayed in the UK, would come over and stay with them when school was out. The stuff we came across was pretty awesome because it all coincided with the Habs huge Stanley Cup run. I wish he'd told me about all that! I don't know what made him turn against the Habs, given he'd kept his paraphernalia. Maybe it was just a function of laying roots in Toronto and not initially being a huge fan/loyalist to Mtl.

I should add to my earlier post that one of the reasons I started following the Hawks was because of my dad's pushing...the cousins I have who are actually in Chicago (well, the suburbs) are quite a bit younger than me - the eldest is 10 years younger and the youngest is about 18 years younger - and my dad was the one who said that I should try to get them watching hockey because that might be a 'common ground' we could have to engage with each other...and I figured that trying to sell them on the hometown Hawks was better than trying to interest them in the Leafs.

The funny thing is the plan failed..my cousins didn't really care about the Hawks at the time...but I kept watching them (and, like I said earlier, became more interested after they drafted Kane, b/c I'd been an Knights fan). Of course now, the Hawks are successful, they like to tease me about living in 'Leafs town'...funny given the fact i was a fan of the Hawks before they were!

 

[spaceboy]

Long time lurker, first time poster! Felt compelled to post in this thread since I've been explaining this to people since I was a little kid.

My grandpa grew up idolizing Bobby Hull and the Hawks. He stuck with them through everything and naturally, passed down his love of the team to me when I was growing up (I always joked with him that this was an early form of child abuse when they hit rock bottom, how times have changed ).

I became obsessed and the Hawks created a special bond that I held with him until the day that he died. Some of my greatest memories involve watching the Hawks, through the good and the (mostly) bad, throughout the years with him.

He became ill with lung cancer in early 2010, and told everyone that he just hoped that he'd get to see his Hawks win it all one last time.

Thankfully, he got his wish, and getting to watch Kaner score that OT winner with him is a memory I'll cherish for the rest of my life .

 

[Bubba88]

I always loved the logo, the jerseys and when I grew up in germany trading cards were popular.
We got to see 1 hour of NHL hockey every friday afternoon.

I quickly started to like Belfour and Roenick. After that it's hard to really follow them back in those days. Always looked up on the scores but it was just that. After the lockout when this Internet thing got bigger and bigger and streams were more available it was pretty easy to follow them and now, I'm here talking about the Hawks, watch all their ****ing games and still love it to see former hawks play in Germany like Bell and Richmond.

 

[member 151739]

Hockey isn't that popular here. But we do have our fair share of Kings, Ducks, and Sharks fans. Being from the west coast, we get the California sports channels so that's probably a factor in why that is. My older brother loved Jeremy Roenick, and because of liking him, he started to love the team he was on as the years went on. As a kid, I followed suit. I loved the Hawks, and I still do. Obviously.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Long time lurker, first time poster! Felt compelled to post in this thread since I've been explaining this to people since I was a little kid.

My grandpa grew up idolizing Bobby Hull and the Hawks. He stuck with them through everything and naturally, passed down his love of the team to me when I was growing up (I always joked with him that this was an early form of child abuse when they hit rock bottom, how times have changed ).

I became obsessed and the Hawks created a special bond that I held with him until the day that he died. Some of my greatest memories involve watching the Hawks, through the good and the (mostly) bad, throughout the years with him.

He became ill with lung cancer in early 2010, and told everyone that he just hoped that he'd get to see his Hawks win it all one last time.

Thankfully, he got his wish, and getting to watch Kaner score that OT winner with him is a memory I'll cherish for the rest of my life .

Welcome man! Great story by the way. Happy to hear your dad got to see a hawks cup win

 

[nottchi]

I grew up in deepest darkest Cornwall, UK. We had a very good county rugby team but no other professional sports so I didn't really follow any sports growing up. I latched on to my mum's home town of Nottingham for sports when I was a teen. They have a hockey team so I score watched them from afar as there was no coverage in the black hole.

I married a sailor from Chicago and moved across the pond. I was sucked into following the teams he followed so Blackhawks, Bears, Bulls and White Sox. We spent 4 years in Japan so had very little coverage of sports other than nationally televised events but we watched what we could.

Strangely, since I got rid of the husband and came back to England I've watched more Hawks games than I ever did in the states! I pay for Gamecentre Live and haven't missed a single game for the last 3 years, although if it's a boring game I will drift of to sleep! I have never been to Hawks game as I'm usually in Chicago at the wrong time of year but I hope to changed that this year, I really want to experience a game first hand.

 

[RedBaronIndian]

A Blackhawks fan from India.

I used to follow NHL in the 90s when ESPN carried it in India. Was not a fan of any particular team but had favorite players I followed like Selanne, Kariya, Jagr, Hasek.

Then University of lllinois accepted me for Masters in 2006. I lived in Little Italy which is very close to UC and easy access to cheap tickets on Student Id cards(courtesy Dollar Bill) had me hooked onto Blackhawks.

 

[HereCometheHawks]

I was born in Des Plaines, lived there until I was 12. I was very much into everything hockey...then my dad got a job in Michigan and we moved. It just so happened to coincide with "the dark years". So, the combination of the Hawks being awful, NEVER being able to root for the wings, and getting pretty involved in music, my fandom kind of died out.

It was pretty off my radar until the Winter Classic in 2009. It reminded me how much I loved and missed it. When the Hawks played the Wings in the Conference Final, I was hooked back in. I figured out for the 09-10 season that you could watch games online, and it was game over.

I moved to Atlanta in May 2010, so I watched the playoff's alone in my apartment. When we won I ran outside screaming....my poor neighbors.

Slightly OT: Yesterday I was eating lunch outside because it was GORGEOUS outside. I was wearing a Hawks hat, and this guy comes up and says "Go Hawks". Not super common, but there are a lot of transplants in Atlanta. We get to talking, and the guy goes "I actually went to school with Rocky, we grew up down the street from each other". Pretty crazy.

 

[spaceboy]

Welcome man! Great story by the way. Happy to hear your dad got to see a hawks cup win

Thanks man!

 

[TeddyFay*]

I grew up in deepest darkest Cornwall, UK. We had a very good county rugby team but no other professional sports so I didn't really follow any sports growing up. I latched on to my mum's home town of Nottingham for sports when I was a teen. They have a hockey team so I score watched them from afar as there was no coverage in the black hole.

I married a sailor from Chicago and moved across the pond. I was sucked into following the teams he followed so Blackhawks, Bears, Bulls and White Sox. We spent 4 years in Japan so had very little coverage of sports other than nationally televised events but we watched what we could.

Strangely, since I got rid of the husband and came back to England I've watched more Hawks games than I ever did in the states! I pay for Gamecentre Live and haven't missed a single game for the last 3 years, although if it's a boring game I will drift of to sleep! I have never been to Hawks game as I'm usually in Chicago at the wrong time of year but I hope to changed that this year, I really want to experience a game first hand.

Hello NottChi. I was also born in Cornwall (Falmouth). When work dried up at the docks, my Mom and Dad relocated to Hamilton, Ontario. My Dad got interested in hockey and asked who the worst team in the league was. At that time, it was Boston. So he became a Bruins fan. Around 10 years of age I had to have a team to cheer for. To create a rivalry in the house, I chose the Hawks. I suffered through the Bobby Orr years, but have certainly enjoyed the last 4. I have had people here in Florida ask me why I cheer for the Hawks and not some Canadian team, "don't you have any teams up there?"

 

[ToewsGretzky*]

Is it a crime to like a team that sports a pretty good core of my countries national team? I mean Toews, Sharp, Keith, Seabrook are the olympic caliber guys but then there are loads of other of my countrymen like Versteeg, Shaw, Crawford, Bickell, Brookbank.

 

[TeddyFay*]

Is it a crime to like a team that sports a pretty good core of my countries national team? I mean Toews, Sharp, Keith, Seabrook are the olympic caliber guys but then there are loads of other of my countrymen like Versteeg, Shaw, Crawford, Bickell, Brookbank.

Toews/Gretzky. Where do you live in Algonquin Park. I am on Pickerel Lake, near Burks Falls

 

[DayNah]

I grew in eastern Canada. Surrounded by Habs,Leafs, Edmonton(Gretzky era) and Bruins fans. My house was all Montreal. In early 84 the Habs were playing the Hawks on tv and I decided to "rebel" against my family and root for the enemy. Hawks won the game in Overtime. That was pretty much it.

Growing up in the 80's and 90's there was little to no coverage on TV so I followed the team in newspapers and magazines. I watched every game that came on CBC, French CBC(Habs) or TSN. Once the NHL games for Nintendo/Sega/Playstation started coming out I always picked the Hawks.

Kind of a funny reason to start rooting for the team, but that's the real story. Me, just like alot of you, lived through the hardships the team had to endure over the years. I remember July 1st every year and waiting for Chicago to do something. Every year was "going to be the year". And well we all know how that turned out.

I was the butt of a lot of jokes growing up rooting for the worst team in NHL for years. Guess all those years finally paid off. Funny now I talk to people and there's a lot of "I've always kinda liked Chicago". Hahaha yeah right!

 

[EmeticDonut]

Picked Chicago as my team in NHL96 whenever that came out, because I liked the logo and it had what looked like a pretty good team. Quickly started to follow the real team and the NHL in general via early internet and teletext.

 

[BladesofSTEELwFIRE]

Hawks fan in St.Louis.

Let's catch the Blues for 1st place!

 

[atomicfroster*]

I live in Victoria, BC, Canada. My dad was the youngest of 6 boys and they all cheered for an original six team (not one each but just there fave). So growing up we would watch them and i would get shirts and sweatshirts, i even had a street hockey goalie mask that was a replica of eddies. (omg i loved raantas mask) So it was really just breed into me. That and my whole fam hates the canucks.(closest team) I mean really what is there to cheer for there!?!?!