How did you become a Liverpool Fan?

Discussion in 'Liverpool' started by Takkie, Nov 4, 2004.

  1. Takkie

    Takkie Member

    Jul 7, 2004
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    to borrow a topic from the arse board, how did you all become Liverpool fans?
    myself i only became a fan recently, at the beginning of houllier's last year so i guess you could say i'm a bandwagon fan. I became a fan when i was home sick and i was flipping through the channels and saw and english premiership match, Bolton vrs Liverpool. i didnt know who was who, but Bolton was already 1-0 up so i started rooting for the underdog , the white jerseys that i thought was Liverpool. then baros equalized and i realised to my embarassment that i had been rooting for the wrong set of players and that the red jereseys were liverpool, then Baors scored again to give liverpool the 2-1 win over bolton, and since then i've been as devoted a fan as i can be. oftentimes i wish i had become a fan earlier because my lack of knowledge about past seasons has gotten me into arguments a couple of times (like when i suggested we look into getting friedel to replace dudek, without knowing friedel had ever been liverpool property.)But for the most part, i've enjoyed being a liverpool fan.
     
  2. lackadaisical

    lackadaisical Member

    Jul 9, 2004
    memphis
    After the 1998 World Cup when I saw Michael Owen, Owen was my favorite player til this summer.
     
  3. Matt Clark

    Matt Clark Member

    Dec 19, 1999
    Liverpool
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    When my Dad took me to stand on the Kop for the first time, back in 1981. Can't remember who we played and only my mind's eye tells me we won 3-1. I can remember not touching the floor for the first 20 minutes after kick-off though. The awld feller thought it was all a bit dangerous so I spent my visits over the following years in the Paddock with the other Dads'n'Lads types. Didn't get back onto the Kop until about 1987!!
     
  4. imasyko

    imasyko Member+

    May 16, 2002
    Spring City, PA
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Combination of factors:
    1. four mop headed singers
    2. my Dad's side of the family all from Liverpool, PA
    3. first saw English First Division soccer on the old 'Soccer Made in Germany' show with Toby Charles (best announcer ever, IMO). This was in the 70's and they showed edited (cut down to 1 hour) versions of English and German league games. Seeing Kenny Dalglish play was all it took to make me a lifetime fan, though it's only been in the last few years, with the advent of this forum and broadcasts on FSW that I have really had a chance to follow the team.
     
  5. usscouse

    usscouse BigSoccer Supporter

    May 3, 2002
    Orygun coast
    Osmosis..! Back in the early 50's the Liverpool / Everton thingy was a lot more intense. And in 51 the pool went down to the 2nd Division right after they had one of their best showings in the first. It started with a Wembley FA Cup loss to the gunners and we never recovered.
    I stuck with the team and Billy Liddell through seven years of second div. play. Got to see some of the pre-war greats like Sir Stan Mathews when he played for Stoke, he was in his 40's then and could still put on a show.

    And then came "Shankly"

    Guess I'm just a glory seeker...!
     
  6. timberley11

    timberley11 New Member

    Sep 27, 2004
    Buffalo, NY
    After watching them beat Chelsea to clinch the league in 86 (King Kenny), and then sitting with me father (he supports Man Utd) watching them win the FA cup that same year against Everton.

    The classic goal from Ian Rush which knocked the camera over in the back of the net. :) . Like every young Liverpool fan I then went out in me garden and re-enacted that whole game
     
  7. 655321

    655321 New Member

    Jul 21, 2002
    The Mission, SF
    Robbie Fowler
    My friend from the record store I worked at
    the La's/Boo Radleys/Beatles
    Fox Sports World
    Patrick Berger (believe it or not!)
     
  8. bjb7223

    bjb7223 New Member

    May 29, 2004
    Florida
    My pa brought me up a red starting in 1981.
     
  9. zpjohnstone

    zpjohnstone Member

    Feb 27, 2001
    Finger Lakes, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was living in the stuffy confines of southern England. I had only been there for a few weeks and came down ill, so I thought I would stay in. Got some cough medicine, but I didn't know they put codeine in their over-the-counter cough medicine. Took too much medicine, turned on the TV, and lo and behold there were some guys in red playing soccer. I come from a place where you're either red (UofL) or blue(UK), so choosing who to side with came naturally. The synergistic effect of the codeine and McManaman's hypnotic dribbling around midfield found me in a catatonic state.

    Turns out some of my new freinds had Liverpool connections, so about two weeks later I took the train up there . . . .



    Ah, the 80's . . . . .
    [​IMG]
     
  10. kopiteinkc

    kopiteinkc Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 1, 2000
    Shawnee
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Good thread.

    Born in Liverpool in 1964 there has never been any doubt I would support the Red half of Merseyside as both my parents were Reds. My Dad refused to ever go to Goodison and got mad at me for going there to see England schoolboys play there.

    My Dad told me stories of going to the 1950 Cup final in the pouring rain that we lost 2-0 to Arsenal and he was mad that Bob Paisley was dropped after scoring in the semis against Everton.

    My first memory of seeing Liverpool play is the 1971 Cup Final (again against Arsenal) and I watched it on telly. I vividly remember my Mum crying after Charlie George scored for them in their 2-1 win and I don't ever remember her crying before in my life. I guess at 7 years old I was rather impressionable.

    By the time Keegan scored two in 1974 against Newcastle in the cup final and I was 10, I was avid as can be and had the red shirt with a number 7 on it and everything. Still the greatest cup final display I have ever seen.

    After that it was time to go to Anfield 100s of times, and then eventually Rome, Wembley, Villa Park, Hillsborough, etc.

    The rest is history ....
     
  11. liverbird

    liverbird BigSoccer Supporter

    Sep 29, 2000
    Mars
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, I'm of a certain age and in the States one didn't get taken to football games but rather baseball. However, my mother's sister (who hadn't any children) was married to a Bavarian man who took me and his Irish father-in-law to see ethnic football in New Jersey. German-Americans, Kearny Scots, Brooklyn Italians, etc. So I knew the game. Supported the Washington Diplomats with Cruyff.

    The only European football one could see was from "Soccer made in Germany". I was able to identify with the team in Red led by Dalglish because of the following: The Fab Four, Mersey Sound, that both my Irish grandfathers learned the building trades in Liverpool on their way from Mayo Ireland to New Jersey, and that at the time I had cousins in Liverpool.

    Being a football supporter in the States in the 70s and 80s was very hard with no TV access to speak of and results hard to find in any newspaper. I kind of lost track of it but as 1994 and the US World Cup came around I got energized again. My kids were playing football and it began to show up on TV again. Then came the internet, Summers Restaurant in Arlington, digital cable, ppv access etc. Liverpool was the only choice -- for all the reasons above and the entire history, both happy and sad, of the club.
     
  12. Boundzy

    Boundzy BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 1, 2003
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I grew up playing soccer in elementary school, but never watched it on TV as there were no opportunities, and subsequently did not have any soccer-related “heroes”. I never paid attention to the sport until 2001 when my wife and I got FSW for the first time through Dish Network. I enjoyed watching the EPL and found that I was anticipating the slate of EPL weekend games as much as, and in many cases more than, the NFL lineup. For the first half of the 01-02 season, I was primarily a neutral observer; however, as I continued to watch, I developed a fondness for certain players and teams, and, not unexpectedly, a dislike for certain players and teams. By the end of the 2001-2002 season, there was no doubt that I was a LFC supporter. I had researched the history of LFC and discovered a proud, rich tradition that further cemented my support. I have supported LFC over this short period, and will continue to support LFC.



    As a side note: It has been a rewarding, educational, entertaining, and often amusing experience perusing the BigSoccer LFC board. The occasional troll or village idiot notwithstanding, the level of discourse and relative dearth of meaningless and infantile name-calling is refreshing. Thanks!
     
  13. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I started playing soccer in Galesburg Illinois in the late 70s as a teenager. There was no youth soccer there, but the community college started a club team that mutated into a town team that played in the Central Illinois Soccer League, and with the exception of a couple of us high-schoolers, it was mostly guys in their 20s and 30s. That's how I started with soccer.

    Then one day my father, a WWII veteran who spent a good bit of time in England before the invasion of Normandy, had a few visitors. We'd had Australians roadtripping around the US stop in before, but these were our first English guys, men that he met during the war under circumstances that were never really made clear to us. Anyway, two of the guys (and I can't remember their names if my life depended on it, and my Dad died a couple years later, so anyway...) were shocked to find out that my brother and I played soccer, so they told us these great tales of the Kop, and this guy named Shankly, and more great tales of the Kop, and foreboding hints that the game was going to go through some dark times (I may be projecting backwards on that one, as my brother has no memory of that part). They came to one of our matches and had a few beers with my dad and afterwords said the match was comparable to a "pub-league," which meant very little to me at the time.

    But after that, while I was already a fan of the late lamented Chicago Sting, I started to pay attention to the English league. The only way you could do that in those days is to read the Tuesday edition of the New York Times (which got to Galesburg on Thursday if we were lucky) and check the scores and the "standings" as they were called, in the unlikely event there was room to print them... though occasionally you got the second, third, and fourth divisions as well. Anyway... I wasn't born into it... no one is in Galesburg, Illinois, but I'm glad to have fallen into it.
     
  14. ScouseCat

    ScouseCat New Member

    Jan 10, 2003
    Melbourne, Australia
    I was flicking through the channels one night when I was about 13 years old, and came across the English soccer. Now being from Australia and following a team called the Geelong Cats in the Australian Football League, we had two players playing for us called John Barnes and Gary Ablett. (Ablett is arguably Geelong's greatest ever player)

    Anyway, when Liverpool's game came on the tv and they also had two players in their team called John Barnes and Gary Ablett, I knew Liverpool was meant to be my team.
     
  15. youllneverwalkalone

    Apr 3, 2003
    Houston
    I was also drawn by one of my favorite bands of all time: The Beatles. Also my whole side of my dad's family was born in Liverpool, and as far as I know, they were all reds. And before I knew that, I started becoming interested in the EPL at about 9 and really liked watching Liverpool play. Really it started then, and then the Beatles and my dad's side of the family gave me all the more reason to fully support them. I have been a die-hard fan ever since.
     
  16. Flying Weasel

    Flying Weasel Member

    Mar 22, 2001
    Harrisburg, PA
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    After I graduated from college in spring of 1993, I got an apartment with a friend and had my own place and own TV and cable for the first time. At that time we had the SportsChannel which showed some soccer (EPL game of the week, EPL highlight show, Serie A game of the week, and some other stuff.). It was the first time I could watch soccer on TV. And before then my only means of exposure to soccer from Europe was thru Soccer America magazine/paper (you know, scores and standings on a one-month delay!!!) So I didn't have any favorite teams. I also began buying the soccer magazines that the local bookstores carried (SHOOT and Soccer Star--more about photos than substance) which helped me learn the teams and players, including Fowler who burst on the scene that fall and Ian Rush in his twilight. But I hadn't picked a team yet.

    Anyway, I was dating this girl when I graduated and we lasted thru the summer and into the fall (when she returned to school for her senior year). In anticipation of Christmas she asked a friend of hers who was studying in England to buy a soccer jersey and send it back to be my Christmas gift. Well, we broke up the first weekend in December and my parting gift (since she had no other use or interest in it) was this soccer jersey. It was a Liverpool replica--the away green centenary shirt. Well, despite the connection to our break-up, I made the team of Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Mark Wright, Steve Nicol, Neil Ruddock, John Barnes and even Julian Dicks, my team. And it's been that way ever since and always will be.
     
  17. LiverpoolFanatic

    Liverpool FC, Philadelphia Union
    Feb 19, 2000
    Lancaster, PA
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It seems like I've done this before...

    Moved to England in late 1997. Knew bugger all about English footy (some would argue I still don't) but had liked soccer as a small kid before moving to the soccer wasteland of small town Texas.

    I thought I'd be a big rugby fan when I moved to England, but it was beyond me. THen I started watching footy, England friendlies before the World Cup, and Match of the Day. Liverpool had an American goalkeeper, who I felt never really got the shot he deserved (others will argue with me on this point) and then I noticed that England had four players playing for Liverpool --Macca, Ince, Folwer, and some kid named Owen. So I got to know the players before the club, and I liked what I saw of them. I saw Owen come on against Morocco and score that wonder goal before scoring THE GOAL at France 98. There was a slight American connection, and the rest is history. I gave my heart to Liverpool FC. Now my fiance is getting into watching the games with me, when we get a chance (still no FSW) and consoles me after bad results (like this past weekend). I even gave up watching helmet ball, which I had grown up with in KC and TX because I love footy more.
     
  18. royalstilton

    royalstilton Member

    Aug 2, 2004
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've followed football as much as a Yank can via the tube for many years. I knew of the storied history of the Reds, mostly from a distance. I had not yet purchased my DirecTV system when I travelled in Ireland in 1998. At that time I didn't have a favorite team, but I've always been an England and Holland fan, going back to Cruyff and total football, and my first exposure to football was First Division matches on Sunday on PBS in LA.

    I was in a shoppe in Letterfrack in Ireland and came upon a Liverpool "away" goalie shirt that was probably a year out of date. It is black and orange, the Halloween costume shirt for almost adults. At the time, I never thought that purchasing the shirt would amount to something special. When I came back to the US I fairly soon after got DirecTV, and one of the first matches I saw was the 7-1 drubbing of Southhampton. Although Liverpool did not have a good season -- 7th in the table -- I liked what I saw.

    The final stroke was learning about the "This is Anfield" sign in the tunnel. I don't know why that hits me so hard, but it's almost like hearing a girl say "Yes."
     
  19. 655321

    655321 New Member

    Jul 21, 2002
    The Mission, SF
    And that was the final "stroke", huh??
     
  20. youllneverwalkalone

    Apr 3, 2003
    Houston
    HAHAHAHA, that was definitely the funniest thing i've heard all day!
     
  21. London Wanka

    London Wanka Red Card

    Nov 11, 2004
    London
    My first friend in England back in 1991 was a Liverpool fan. I also ended up living in Liverpool, luving the people. Still got mates up there and go up whenever I can.
    PS Someone mentioned the la's - rather randomly I used to go out with Lee Mavers' cousin. :)
     
  22. XabiAlonso

    XabiAlonso New Member

    Nov 11, 2004
    München
    The old man, a Scot, was a Celtic supporter living in England and he loved Kenny. When Kenny left Celtic my dad decided it was about time he started supporting a team in England and Liverpool was the only choice. I picked it up from him.
     
  23. Wingtips1

    Wingtips1 Member+

    May 3, 2004
    02116
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    while at a camp as an 11 yr old, one of the coaches played in liverpools reserves. he had his shorts and hat, and I would ask him all kinds of questions. this is where it started.
    but it blossomed as a 14 yo while I was playing in France. I was able to see alot of games and liverpool was on quite a bit, and I was hooked.
     
  24. Red Bird

    Red Bird Member+

    Sep 30, 2003
    Oxford
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    A pre-bung Bruce Grobelaar did it for me. Too bad he turned out to be bent but I was already hooked by then. At boarding school in Zimbabwe, from '81 to '86, we used to live for Sunday evening when we would crowd around a black and white TV and watch delayed highlights (3 weeks delayed!) of English football. First went to Anfield in 2000. It was even better than the dream.
     
  25. Pottertons

    Pottertons New Member

    May 28, 2003
    Canada_GTA
    Daft question, but was it also your first time watchin any sort of football outside of the US? Cause, to not know which team is which is quite striking? :)

    Anyway........


    Although some may say that I hopped on the bandwagon because we were still somewhat in our glory years, the main reason was because of my MOM.

    It was about 20+ yrs ago, my mom used to always watch Liverpool, because of John Barnes. Being Jamaican hereself, it was a dream to see someone from here home create such a big impact in England. Also not to mention (correct me if I'm wrong) but Barnsey was the 1st black England International???

    So, from that point on, my main focus was on Liverpool. The Fortress!!!

    Never got the chance to go to Anfield, or any live match for that matter, before I made the move to Canada in 89'.

    funnily enough, went back to visit moms a few years ago, and she still had my first LFC shirt (bit raggedy mind, but it was the home one with the white vertical pin-stripes.) and a plaster-o-paris plaque that I made in middle school of the Liverpool badge. Goodness, must of been about 9 or 10 when I made that thing. 29 now.

    Would she let me take them back to Canada with me.????

    HELL NO!!! LOL :D
     

Share This Page