Just curious...me, it was through my ex, who I met while living in London in 1990, she grew up in Shepherds Bush and I met her in the journalism dept at City U. Huge R's supporter to this day, along with pretty much her whole family, though she does have a younger brother who took to Chelscum which is a point of eberassment.
Mine is not quite so exotic. Being an MLS fan, and after getting Fox Sportsworld I decided I needed an English team to support. This was 1997. I was born and lived in England from 1967 - 1975 before I moved to Dallas and was a Chelsea fan as a youngster. Not sure why. At the time, picking an EPL team seemed like glory-hunting. Chelsea didn't feel right at the time and no one else grabbed me. I am a Cure fan. You may or may not have noticed. I knew Robert Smith was a QPR fan from way-back, so I looked into the club. I liked the history, the team name and the uniforms. And supporting them can in no way be considered glory-hunting. I think I started following them the year they got relegated from the EPL. Now I've got a QPR calendar hanging in my office. 3 replica jerseys - including the green one and both my sons have jerseys they wear - to school even. A few books and a trip planned in a year or two to catch a game at Loftus Road.
My sister spent the spring semester in London the year QPR won promotion to the old 1st division...'83 or '84 I think. She brought me home a bunch of soccer magazines which had quite a few stories of QPR's promotion. I guess I took to them because promotion seemed an interesting idea to me and with Rangers in their name they had a familier sound to them. I really wasn't able to follow them much till about 1990 or 1991 when we got Fox Sports Chicago and their English highlights show. That really got me interested in them again and then with a subscription to Soccer America it was pretty easy to keep up with them. For a few years there I would keep track of most any team that had Americans on them but always QPR were my first love. Now I don't really follow any team overseas other than QPR. Of course the internet has been great for keeping up with them.
Several years back, I tried to get a feel for the London clubs via the internet, between the official sites and, more importantly, the unofficial ones (including supporter group ones). I gathered as much information as I could and over time leaned toward the club because they "felt right" to me. I followed them online a bit in the 98/99 season and a bit more closely in the 99/00 season. I went over to London for the first time during the 00/01 season and went to my first match and that is what truly clinched it for me (QPR 2, West Brom 0 -- 13 Jan 01). That trip and subsequent ones turned me into an avid supporter. Loved the supporters, loved the area, loved the ground, loved just about everything about the club -- I was hooked. I've now been to 16 matches on 15 trips to the UK. I generally plan my trips around QPR home matches (or big matches like the play-off final or the promotion clincher at Wednesday last season), but if I happen to be there otherwise, I still go to see QPR wherever they are (which is why I've been to Preston and Cheltenham). You never know how life will change, so I'm trying to go over as often as I can while I can afford it. Still, it's now a Saturday morning tradition for me to listen to the commentary at 10 a.m., along with breakfast and/or beer. With QPR World's commentary, replay highlights, post-match interviews, and other features, I feel like I'm nearly as closely connected to the club as friends I've made who have season tickets in the Lower Loft (and I know as much or more about the club and its staff/players as I do about local club DC United).
This is a good point, I think I know more about QPR than I do about the Revolution, and the Revs aren't that far away. MLS can learn SO MUCH about promoting their clubs just from taking a look at the World sites. If there was a Revs World site, man I'd be there all the time.
Queens Park is the name of the area I grew up in. There is actually a park called Queens Park, and it was right across the road from my house. Even under those circumstances, most of the local kids didn't support QPR. There were a lot of Spurs and Arsenal fans (and even some Chelscum fans about). I was drawn to QPR because they were not the glamorous club but they played a beautiful free-flowing style of footie -- first Rodney Marsh and then Bowles and Gerry.
Yeah, QPR were originally from north London. Hence the name. Sorry to hear you grew up next to some head hunting scum.
Back in the heady days of early 90's cable tee-vee highlight broadcasts from England, I watched religiously, every week. I really loved Trevor Sinclair, and I also liked the "look" of Loftus Road; so compact, such great fans. I made my mind up then. It took me a couple more years (I blame Ryan Giggs) to develop a healthy, righteous hatred of Man U.
My fiance and I met because we're both big DC United and US Men's National Team fans. He is a big fan of QPR as well, and so far I've gone with him twice to see QPR play. So, while I am not as hardcore as he is for QPR (at least not yet!) I do enjoy keeping up with their goings on and seeing them in person when finances allow. And I also enjoy saying, "Supah Hoopsah!"
Yeah, I see what you're saying. My wife is quite happy to not be known as Mrs. Doolittledog. Since we have met she has become a pretty big Des Moines Menace fan, we have had partial season tickets the last two years. She likes seeing MLS on T.V. but so far hasn't wanted to make a trip to Chicago for a Fire game. She says she likes QPR and wants to get some baby clothes from their shop but not sure she lets her saturdays turn sour if they lose. She might possibly become a bigger RRR's fan if I try your approach and get her to start saying "Supah Hoopsah!!!"
It is very fun to say! And it helps that when we listen to the games on Saturday mornings, he makes breakfast!
For the '93 - '94 season I was living in London for work. Where my company had me living wasn't far from Loftus Road. At the start of the season they had one yank on the team. I went to a few game there that season. I wouldn't condsider myself a huge supporter, but always like to see how they are doing.