How you became a Penguins fan ?

Freeptop

Registered User
Jun 17, 2009
2,335
1,200
Pittsburgh, PA
I've always been a nerd, so I wasn't much of a sports fan as a kid. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was definitely aware of the Penguins, and Lemieux and Jagr specifically, though.
After I graduated from college, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. While I was out there, Lemieux came out of retirement just at the right time to catch me in a bit of nostalgia for Pittsburgh. We were in Sharks territory, so it wasn't hard to start following hockey a bit in general. That got me casually started. Then Lemieux played in the Winter Olympics. Watching that got me utterly hooked.
Of course, that all happened just in time for Jagr to leave the Pens, and for them to enter a dark era. Still, I was following the Pens via the on-line radio stream while at work (3 hour time difference helped), even though they were losing most of the time. I remember being so greatful that Ric Jackman scored in overtime to end an 18-game losing streak. It helped being able to follow the Sharks as well, but Pittsburgh was my hometown team, so they were always number 1 for me.
Then I moved back to Pittsburgh in the summer of 2006. Just in time for them to draft Staal, get Malkin to come over, and to get back into the playoffs again. I guess I picked a good time to come back!
 

Tom Hanks

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Nov 10, 2017
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It all started when......

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orby

Registered User
Jun 16, 2013
6,639
5,155
Erie, PA
www.youtube.com
Intermittently watched when i was a kid in the 90s/early 00s - I knew a few players' names (Lemieux, Jagr, Straka, Hedberg, and for whatever reason, Kasparaitis) - but wasn't a huge fan. The first year I paid close attention to was 2007-08, particularly the stretch run after the trade deadline. That team was awesome. I've been hooked ever since, although I lost interest for a while during the late Byslma/Johnston phase.
 

AlphaMikeFoxtrots

The Sounds of Silence
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Oct 17, 2014
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I grew up ~aware of hockey; my dad played through HS and is a Gordie Howe fan. We didn't follow at all, though (except some poking fun at hockey hair) until I happened across a freaking Mighty Ducks marathon in the fall of '13, and thought the pro version might be fun. Lemieux was a name I remembered from my fuzzy youthful recollections, so one of the first games I picked to watch was a Pens game. Watching on my phone, without much frame of reference, I figured out real quick how dangerous 87 and 71 were on the ice - everyone else looked behind somehow, including, at times, their teammates. Haven't looked back since!

I used to get salty when my then-preferred sport of choice, bull riding, got preempted on OLN/Versus for the playoffs :laugh: now I'm trying to figure out which road games I can reasonably catch from MT, since driving to Pittsburgh takes a few days now instead of a few hours from VA.

That Bylsma-led Olympic team was the first time I'd actively rooted against a US team; I was already sick of him by then. I only had that short dose of him and still want to throw things when his name comes up!

tl;dr the flying v made me do it
 
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