How you became a Penguins fan ?

[Sidney the Kidney]

I was going to be a Bruins fan, but Shero convinced me it would be in my best interest to follow his team instead.

 

[MuffinMerc]

Officially a fan since last night, for obvious reasons.

 

[Note Worthy]

Growing up in St Louis, it's really hard to establish - or even convince myself - that I'm not a bandwagon fan, but as a kid, the actual flightless bird fascinated me and the original EA Sports NHL Hockey was one of the only video games I owned. The one that even came before all this NHL 94 B.S. that's all over the internet news these days. I loved Coffey, Jagr, Lemieux, Barrasso as Stars with numbers (no names) and pixels. And they were Penguins.

I got turned off of hockey after the Blues' disappointing 90s with the Gretzky fiasco, the lockouts, the heartbreaking Blues failures to threaten for the Cup. It wasn't until after college with the 08-09 Cup Finals for my 'Other' team and 2010 Olympics were too tempting not to tune into that I began to call the Pens my team and the Blues only my Western Conference team.

The last two years I have been yearning for a Blues-Pens finals. It seems so close and so far.

Right there with you. I'm a little late though as I became a Pens fan in Malkin's rookie year and have followed them since.

 

[AZPenguins]

Pretty much this and ESPN.

 

[JohnnyOduyasGirl27]

I've been a Pens fan since 1998 or 1999, i didn't like hockey as much when i was really little, but since then i enjoy it ever since!

 

[kes81sel]

When Crosby was drafted

 

[Honour Over Glory]

When Crosby was drafted

Didn't you just hop on the bandwagon? Your name screams oiler fan, same as your previous one.

 

[LarryNJ]

Grew up in Pittsburgh and I attended a game with my buddies dad and about 5000 others to see these guys play. That 5000 quickly tripled about a decade later for some reason.

They were actually called the Century Line but changed the name to honor our 200th Birthday.

 

[KaylaJ]

We don't get winter here, never even made a snowball. Needless to say when the TV was showing hockey highlights I was amazed by the size of the ice surface, the fast movement, and a guy named Mario going through people (it probably also helped he was on a team named after penguins). Back then any kind of hockey game was few and far between on TV (ESPN2 didn't come out til some yrs later and even then we didn't get it for a few more yrs) so I would tape any one that was on, watch ESPN for any highlights, scour the newspaper and cut out box scores and pictures of games.

Getting the internet was the best thing that ever happened to me as a hockey fan. I could watch box scores (they were behind, but better than watching 10 minutes of a bottom line during NCAA basketball or football season only for it to go to commercial during the NHL scores), eventually the radio feeds came around, and there was also chats. I guess in the end I had to be a bit obsessive to stick with it, but it's neat to have seen it grow as much as it has not only here but in other areas.

 

[Allie Kitsune]

Told the story before, but here it is.

Raised in Hershey Bears country when they were the Flyers' affiliate. So my father took me to a lot of Bears fans, and he was a casual Flyers fan. He tried to get me to be into the Flyers, but I was wasn't into it, or watching hockey on TV in general at the time.

A few years later, I was stuck bored at the house of the woman my father was dating. I was flipping channels and stopped on a hockey game, which the Penguins happened to be playing in. I went with them over the opponent (which I believe was the North Stars) since the Pens were a Pennsylvania team, ended up sticking with them ever since.

 

[Zbynek]

Born and raised in Mt. Lebanon, grew up down the street from Larry Murphy, grew out my first rat tail in hopes of actually becoming Patrick Lalime.

 

[steelrazor]

Same here. The day the big guy came to the burgh.

 

[The Tang]

Just the standard living in teh city thing. Plus watching Lemieux on ar egular basis made it pretty easy to enjoy

 

[BHD]

Outside of the Canadian teams, they were the only team I recognized when I was young. So I rooted for them when I started watching (2004ish).

 

[BreakfastatMarios]

I'd have to say around 1988/1989.

Use to listen to Lange though on the radio mid 80's and became a Lange fan before I became a penguin fan

 

[tigga334]

been a fan since 1987. i was born in pittsburgh but we moved to northern va in 86. my father was teaching me about home and it just happened to be hockey season. he wasnt a huge fan at the time but he took me to a game in the cap center to see the pens. ive been hooked ever since. we moved back home during then 90 91 cup run

 

[Pinguinla]

Shamelessly joining the bandwagon due to the Iggy trade, Calgary were the first NHL team I ever heard about and Iggy has been one of my favourites, I would love him to win a cup with Crosby

 

[jinx33]

Very nice to read all your stories folks. Me too i wish someday i'm gonna come watch a game at CEC. And discover the city.

About Lange, i still listen his games on radio while watching Center Ice, because he's just too good with Bourquey, and i can't stand at all Steigerwald.

Actually pretty happy the first game i got to watch was Pitt, most of french people end up support les Canadiens, who got also a very nice fanbase.

 

[Ogelthorpe]

My Godfather has been the Director of Security of the Arenas since the late 70s. He took me to some games and got me hooked late in the 1980 season....That gold medal thing helped get my parents to want to watch more hockey too. I love to point out to people that think all Pens fans are bandwagon fans, that I actually was a fan prior to getting the big guy!

 

[Marns]

We don't get winter here, never even made a snowball. Needless to say when the TV was showing hockey highlights I was amazed by the size of the ice surface, the fast movement, and a guy named Mario going through people (it probably also helped he was on a team named after penguins). Back then any kind of hockey game was few and far between on TV (ESPN2 didn't come out til some yrs later and even then we didn't get it for a few more yrs) so I would tape any one that was on, watch ESPN for any highlights, scour the newspaper and cut out box scores and pictures of games.

Getting the internet was the best thing that ever happened to me as a hockey fan. I could watch box scores (they were behind, but better than watching 10 minutes of a bottom line during NCAA basketball or football season only for it to go to commercial during the NHL scores), eventually the radio feeds came around, and there was also chats. I guess in the end I had to be a bit obsessive to stick with it, but it's neat to have seen it grow as much as it has not only here but in other areas.

A lot of what you said is very similar to my introduction to the Pens.

I first got into hockey by downloading the PC demo for NHL2002 after school one day. The two teams were Pitt and Colorado. Pittsburgh had this really good guy who's name I couldn't pronounce to save my life. I remember trying to make the goalie skate with the puck and couldn't figure out why the whistle kept blowing before I could get past the blue line. Finally, after learning quickly enough how to play the game, I decided to download the full version, and my eyes were opened to the wonder that was/is the NHL. I kept playing as the Pens mainly because of this Lemieux guy.

Then, as Kayla mentioned, the internet helped fuel the passion. At game time (which was late morning on the east coast of Australia), I would go to the Pens site and open up the game summary/box score and hit F5 every minute or so to see if anything new had happened. Eventually, the Pens site introduced live streaming of the radio coverage, which -- once more -- opened my eyes. I would often write in to Bob Grove at 2nd intermission and occasionally have my questions read out. Each time, I'd cue up my mini disc player and record the segment. I'd get a huge kick out of them saying "and Andrew all the way from Aaaaustralia has written in..."

Every now and then, our friends who had cable TV would record a Penguins game for me on VCR and I would watch that ten times over. By this stage it was the X Generation, and despite how bad they were, I was well and truly hooked.

Fast forward to 2009 and I was spending my first year in Toronto with a mate. When the Pens made the Cup Finals, I called my Dad and told him they were back to the big show. He had been casually following since we got Crosby, mainly because he knew how hooked I was. He started looking for tickets to a game in Pit and said he'd pay half. So on the day of game 4, I took a Greyhound from Toronto to Pit and got to finally see my first Pens game -- the pivotal 4-2 win over the Wings. I stayed in the Burgh until a day or two after Game 7. What an amazing summer that was.

Anyway, long story. Thanks for reading. LGP.

 

[UnrealMachine]

By the grace of God I was born/raised in the greater Pittsburgh area. When I was a lad the games were still broadcasted locally (non-cable), so I was able to first watch them on a 13" black & white tv in 1986 (first memory, anyway). I even wrote an "essay" in first grade on how I wanted to be Mario Lemieux and shoot a puck so hard that it would break the goalie's mask (this happened that year). Years later, I discovered firsthand that being on the receiving end of a shot that knocked the cage off of my goalie mask was no fun at all {scene of me screaming to the ref to blow the whistle}.

 

[Ogelthorpe]

Officially a fan since last night, for obvious reasons.

Welcome!

 

[UnrealMachine]

Shamelessly joining the bandwagon due to the Iggy trade, Calgary were the first NHL team I ever heard about and Iggy has been one of my favourites, I would love him to win a cup with Crosby

No shame at all, pal. This isn't 1995 where you have to prove that you liked alternative music before Kurt Cobain died.

For what it's worth, I have several friends here that are also Flames fans. One of them owns MULTIPLE VHS copies of the 1989 Flames cup run and was in Calgary during game 7 in 2004 (sorry to bring that up).

 

[danzan]

I live in Australia, a place where there is only one channel on pay TV which airs 1 random game every couple of days. One day when i turned on the TV Pittsburgh were playing Detroit, it was the game where Jordan Staal scored a hattrick and backchecked Datsuyk to set up the GWG. I fell in love with Staal that day and the Penguins organization, thank god game center exist

 

[Pinguinla]

No shame at all, pal. This isn't 1995 where you have to prove that you liked alternative music before Kurt Cobain died.

For what it's worth, I have several friends here that are also Flames fans. One of them owns MULTIPLE VHS copies of the 1989 Flames cup run and was in Calgary during game 7 in 2004 (sorry to bring that up).

Haha very true, glad to be a part of it all! Oh..yes..2004...good times...think we got to the final that year, can't really remember.. In all seriousness though, I really hope Iggy gets it done this time around and we get some sort of revisit of Vancouver 2010's final. Just ordered some Penguins bits for me and my bro, plus the Penguins being in the EC makes it even better for me over here in the UK, much kinder on the sleep!