How long have you been a Blues fan?

[KingBran]

Think back to your first memory of watching the Blues and realizing you loved hockey and the Blues were your team.

I know, a lot of us have baby pictures in Blues gear our parents put on us but when did you consciously realize you were a Blues fan?

Click to read more...

 

[PiggySmalls]

For me was the 1993 playoffs. I still remember being in awe of how Cujo played. Since then I have been hooked. So 26 years of happiness & agony so far.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

I became a Blues fan when Paul Kariya was signed by St. Louis. He was my favorite player for a long time, so I always followed the teams he played for. When he was in Colorado, I was an Avalanche fan. When he was in Nashville, I became a Predators fan. And then he came to St. Louis, so I became a Blues fan.

He never went to any team after that, you know, because of retirement and stuff, so I stayed a Blues fan.

 

[542365]

Went to a Sabres-Blues game in '97. My dad got his boss's tickets like two rows behind the Blues' bench. Fight broke out right in front of us. It was great and I remember watching as many games as possible from then on. Didn't start getting very serious and studying the draft and the prospects etc. until early 2000s. Jay McClement was the first prospect I remember being excited to see.

 

[AVictoryDive]

It was right before they moved into the Enterprise Center, known then as the Kiel Center. Brett Hull owned the town at the time and have just stuck with it ever since.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I moved to St Louis in 2005 and was gifted a pair of tickets to a game from a kind colleague. She was pretty down about the team (I had no idea about the recent Pronger trade, or how they were the worst team in the league at the time). We went (my son was 5y old) and had a blast. Tickets were cheap, so we went to several games that year. I've followed the team closely ever since, even though we only lived in St Louis for 3 years. My son is about to graduate from high school in a couple months, and time has flown by.

 

[Hrkac Circus]

I became a fan in the '87-'88 season. I remember Hull coming to St. Louis from Calgary. Being a new and uneducated fan I remember thinking "Ramage and Wamsley for this guy? Are we sure?"

 

[Note Worthy]

I'm only 29 but I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. If we're talking being a serious fan where I actually know what's going on then I'd say since I was 9 or 10. So I went with 20 years.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

I’ve been a fan my whole life, but I didn’t start SERIOUSLY paying attention (following prospects, read into actual strategy and the intricacies of the game, etc.) until about 2010-2011, so around 18 years old for me.

 

[The Note]

I’m 26 and remember for my 7th birthday getting a Demitra jersey. Been along for the ride ever since.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

My father was a die hard and part of the One before I die club, unfortunately he passed before ever seeing it happen. I am 36 and cannot remember a time when Blues hockey was not on the TV growing up, OHHH BABBBY echoing throughout the house.

 

[execwrite1]

Started in the 1968-69 season when I went to Althoff High School in Belleville. Dan Kelly and Gus Kyle.

Yikes - I'm old.

 

[Dbrownss]

My uncle got me hooked in 95/96 but I was very young. So I liked the Blues but by no means an expert. The San Jose series kinda curbed my enthusiasm....Owen f***ing Nolan......

Bout that time I was a mid/late teen so my attention was drawn to other activites. I always kept tabs on the team but I wasnt able to really become an avid informed fan till I controlled my own media exposure till around 2010ish moving forward .

 

[jbron]

I actually became a Blues fan growing up in Louisville, Ky. Listening to games via KMOX on a small transistor radio as a kid starting in 1969.
The reception was quite good especially at night. Lived in St Louis from 1983 till 2015 before moving to the Seattle area.

 

[Punished ROR]

Born in 84, I grew up in Troy, IL. My aunt babysat me and my siblings and she was a big hockey fan, so we always watched the games when they came on. My grandpa was Jim Bolen, KMOX people might remember that name. Between the two of them, got to see a lot of Blues games. Learned to hate Chicago from a young age, naturally. Can't remember much of the late 80's teams, but I loved Hull and Oates and Shanahan. My first favorite player was CuJo.

My fandom would take a turn, though. My aunt would take us to games vs. the Nordiques, hoping for an easy win. Seems like Joe Sakic always lit us up. I loved the Nords' blue jerseys, too--things a child notices, I guess. My family moved to Kansas in 96, same year the Nords moved to Colorado. I was still a Blues fan, until that damned Stevie Y slapshot. I hated the Wings. Hopped on the Avs bandwagon for the rest of the post-season ... but seeing them beat the piss out of Detroit, then go on to win the Cup, hooked me.

Remained an Avs fan for the next 20 years. But ROR was my favorite player since Forsberg, and the way management treated him (and other players over the years, tbh) ticked me off. Decided if he got traded, I'd go where he was going. That led me to Buffalo, which was ... ahem ... interesting, and now back to St. Louis.

Can't tell you how much it feels like things have come full circle. I hope ROR plays the rest of his days out in STL, but I'm pretty sure I'm back for good.

... Unless we do some insanely short-sighted Buffalo/Colorado shit in the off-season and start dragging ROR's name through the mud and trade him for a pile of poo. Then who knows. Don't really see that happening here, though.

 

[TheSilverSkeeter]

I turned 5 during the 90-91 season, and Brett Hull's 86-goal Hart run got me hooked.

 

[Colt55]

Think back to your first memory of watching the Blues and realizing you loved hockey and the Blues were your team.

I know, a lot of us have baby pictures in Blues gear our parents put on us but when did you consciously realize you were a Blues fan?

My dad would take me and my older brother to the checker dome to watch them play. I was a fan from as long as i can remember.

 

[KingBran]

I became a Blues fan when Paul Kariya was signed by St. Louis. He was my favorite player for a long time, so I always followed the teams he played for. When he was in Colorado, I was an Avalanche fan. When he was in Nashville, I became a Predators fan. And then he came to St. Louis, so I became a Blues fan.

He never went to any team after that, you know, because of retirement and stuff, so I stayed a Blues fan.

Thats actually really cool. I always wondered what people who just followed their favorite ayer around did after they retired. I figured they found a new player to follow.

 

[KingBran]

Born in 84, I grew up in Troy, IL. My aunt babysat me and my siblings and she was a big hockey fan, so we always watched the games when they came on. My grandpa was Jim Bolen, KMOX people might remember that name. Between the two of them, got to see a lot of Blues games. Learned to hate Chicago from a young age, naturally. Can't remember much of the late 80's teams, but I loved Hull and Oates and Shanahan. My first favorite player was CuJo.

My fandom would take a turn, though. My aunt would take us to games vs. the Nordiques, hoping for an easy win. Seems like Joe Sakic always lit us up. I loved the Nords' turquoise jerseys, too--things a child notices, I guess. My family moved to Kansas in 96, same year the Nords moved to Colorado. I was still a Blues fan, until that damned Stevie Y slapshot. I hated the Wings. Hopped on the Avs bandwagon for the rest of the post-season ... but seeing them beat the piss out of Detroit, then go on to win the Cup, hooked me.

Remained an Avs fan for the next 20 years. But ROR was my favorite player since Forsberg, and the way management treated him (and other players over the years, tbh) ticked me off. Decided if he got traded, I'd go where he was going. That led me to Buffalo, which was ... ahem ... interesting, and now back to St. Louis.

Can't tell you how much it feels like things have come full circle. I hope ROR plays the rest of his days out in STL, but I'm pretty sure I'm back for good.

... Unless we do some insanely short-sighted Buffalo/Colorado **** in the off-season and start dragging ROR's name through the mud and trade him for a pile of poo. Then who knows. Don't really see that happening here, though.

I could see ROR staying here. Especially if the Blues stay competitive. Avs / Wings were a fun time. I hated the Avs for having a gift-wrapped team from the get-go. But I am over it now.

 

[BluesTraveller]

1977, my 3 older brothers took me to see them play the North Stars at the Checkerdome.

 

[DeuceNine]

Going way back to the Liut days, watching his domination. Really hooked me then, and obviously stuck with it. Met Liut a couple years ago during Goalie Night or whatever it was called, really closed the "fan loop" for me. Dude's tall BTW

 

[mk80]

Grew up in Lancaster, PA as a Hershey Bears fan (11 time Calder Cup Champions) and still follow them which is why I also like the Caps given their affiliation with the Bears. But we moved to St. Louis in summer of 05 when I was 11 and immediately adopted the Blues and have been a fan since.

 

[Alklha]

It would have been at the tail end of the 1999/2000 season.

I've told the story before that my disabled brother got free tickets to an NFL Europe game and an opposing player, Kurt Warner, spoke with us for a bit and gave us a few things. Followed the NFL that season, but only picked a team when Warner became the Rams starter the following season. After the NFL season finished, started watching hockey and the Blues were the natural choice.

Weird how the first year I follow the Rams they won the Superbowl, the first year I got into baseball and followed the Cards they won the World Series... the first season I started watching the Blues was that defeat to the Sharks

 

[BlueDream]

Good thread.

I'm only 26 but I've been a fan for 20 years.

Even when I was 3 years old I started developing a love for it. My dad is a big fan so he would have me watch games with him (obviously I didn't know what was actually going on, but I LOVED goalies). I just thought goalie gear looked awesome so I became obsessed. I learned who Grant Fuhr was and thought he was amazing because he was a goalie. My parents bought me a Blues goalie helmet, and my mom made me goalie pads made out of foam. I constantly wore both around the house, and would play hockey in our basement all the time.

From there it just continued each year, I would get more and more into it. My first playoff series that I actually remember watching was the Blues-Sharks series in 2000, when I was 7. In the early 2000's is when I realized I really loved this team, and I knew who all the players were. I remember blowing the series lead to the Canucks in '03 and being upset about it.

 

[amosmoses]

My mother in law gave me tickets to a game in the 2008-09 season. I debated about even going because I knew nothing about hockey. I ended up going and have been a huge fan ever since. I’ve gotten several of my friends into hockey since then. I always tell people to just go to a live game and you will be hooked.