When and why did you become a Wings fan?

[edmundbenz]

I am a Pistons fan since High school way back 88. When they faded in the early 90's, the Wings was on the rise. I don't know any hockey at that time, but when ESPN started to broadcast hockey, I began to like hockey and was watching Fedorov, Yzerman and Lidstrom. Although it was painful to watch them swept by the Devils in 94, it was the time that I started to love it along with basketball and has been following them since then. LGRW.

 

[Dead Thing Fan]

Wings Fan

Was born in 1953 in Montreal. Started watching hockey in 1958 and Gordie Howe was the reason I became a Wings fan. I waited 39 yrs.(including suffering through the dreaded dead thing era) to see the team win the Stanley Cup. With out a doubt, being a Wings' fan has taught me both patience and loyalty.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

About 1994, I was a wee lad.

I'm not sure why, to be honest. All I knew was that in my family you were either a Leafs fan or a Wings fan.

Needless to say, I made the right choice. Though I do have somewhat of a soft spot for the Leafs.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

In the early 80s we moved houses and the seller of our new house left three hockey sticks in the garage (two Northland and 1 Vic). My brother and I fell in love with the sport and I was in learn to skate classes the following year. My rents started taking us to IHL and Western games shortly thereafter. The Wings really, really sucked at the time. I was really young and couldn't figure out why the Wings were so bad yet the Tigers so good. Both of my parents were from the east side of the state and followed all of the Detroit teams. Things started to take a turn for the better when they brought on Demers to coach.

 

[Mister Ed]

Steve Yzerman. That's the only reason I started in 1996, when I was 9 years old.

 

[Retire91]

Probably mid 80's when I started playing casual pond and pickup hockey. I don't remember the exact year but I remember players like Rick Zambo and Gerard Gallant and talk of trading Stevie Y so he had a chance to win the cup lol

Fedorov sealed the deal for me, watching him play the game was memorizing to me and I got to meet him randomly at lakeside mall a few days after his first game when he didn't speak English yet. I had no idea the Red Wings would go through the up years they did but boy what a ride to witness two cup winning cores back to back.

Couldn't count how many games I have been to. Will always be a redwings fan.

 

[YpsiWings]

I intensified that interest in 2008 and was lucky to celebrate the Stanley Cup win soon. I know what you are thinking right now, but I am sure that I would have become addicted anyway

This is my "when" as well. My best friend is from Golden, Colorado (home of Coors) and a huge Avs fan. Our deployment ended in the spring and he got me into watching the playoffs, been addicted ever since.

I was born and raised in Iowa, but my Mom is from Walled Lake, Michigan. My uncles made sure when growing up that I would be a Wolverine and Red Wings fan.

My friend quit watching the Avs-Wings series with me, Franzen went nuts. What a series by the Mule. I love hockey.

 

[SlavaKozlov]

I was born in Detroit, and my family, extended family and the friends my family hung around with were all big into hockey. I was born in 1986, so it was after the Wings turned the corner from being horrible and everyone was excited about Yzerman and the team being on the rise. There would be Red Wings watch parties at people's houses in my family's group of friends, so it was kind of always a part of my life, even if I don't remember those days so much, because I was young...

We moved away from Detroit to Cleveland when I was 4, there wasn't any other team to cheer for here during that time (well before Blue Jackets...). Most hockey fans in the area were Pens fans, because that was the Lemieux/Jagr era. I just stayed a Wings fan because of my ties to Detroit. My earliest memories of being a Wings fan is the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. Losing in the finals to NJ and the start of the rivalry with Colorado, then seeing them win the Cup.

Not a terribly exciting story, I could have stopped at "I was born in Detroit" to answer the question, but figured I'd embellish on that. For all the other sports, I pretty much cheer for the Cleveland teams, because those were the games I was able to watch on TV growing up, so I am a Browns and Indians fan more so than Lions and Tigers, but I like seeing them do well too. I was actually a Dolphins fan for football growing up, for some reason, it was pretty much after the Browns left to go to Baltimore, and I think I just wanted to see Dan Marino win a Super Bowl because of how good he was. I really don't care about basketball. Michigan over Ohio State (ugh...). But the Wings are by far my #1 team.

 

[14ari13]

97/98
I did not know much about nhl. I just played nlh and thought yzerman and shanahan were cool names. It turned out the wings won the cup in 97 and 98, but I did not know.

 

[Zetterbergs Beard]

I jumped on the bandwagon in the '08 playoffs. I used to be a casual Canucks fan just because they were the local team, but when they missed the playoffs in '08 I jumped. Been a Wings fan, and Wings fan only, since.