How long have you been an SU football fan?

[lincolncuse]

A coach's dream: a goal line stand against a rival, followed by a 95 yard TD pass.

West Virginia 1995?

 

[Dinkyspond]

Watched last game from Archbold in 78 on national TV and Joe Morris ran wild. I think it was on ABC and Chris Schenkel had the call. Got me hooked. Like other posters, it got me thinking "Wow, major college football is played in New York state." In early 80s, watched Sunday morning rebroadcasts of Cuse games on PBS station out of Albany (yes, they actually did this). They were locally produced broadcasts with Dave Cohen and Dale Drypoulcher on the calls. I think they were only home games, although I think they did some road games too.

 

[CuseGrad94]

Watched last game from Archbold in 78 on national TV and Joe Morris ran wild. I think it was on ABC and Chris Schenkel had the call. Got me hooked. Like other posters, it got me thinking "Wow, major college football is played in New York state." In early 80s, watched Sunday morning rebroadcasts of Cuse games on PBS station out of Albany (yes, they actually did this). They were locally produced broadcasts with Dave Cohen and Dale Drypoulcher on the calls. I think they were only home games, although I think they did some road games too.

I didn’t go to many games as a kid and I listed to so many on the radio in the 80’s and that SUper Sports broadcast on Sunday morning was the greatest! Getting to see what I visualized in my head, was awesome.

 

[Dinkyspond]

I didn’t go to many games as a kid and I listed to so many on the radio in the 80’s and that SUper Sports broadcast on Sunday morning was the greatest! Getting to see what I visualized in my head, was awesome.

I'm glad somebody else remembers those broadcasts. I looked forward to them on Sunday mornings. They were a springboard to my fandom which led me to eventually attend and graduate from SU. "SUper Sports" was such a corny name but it was so corny it was good!

 

[sufandu]

I remember watching a bowl game with my dad, I think after the 1989 season. I remember being at someone elses house because they had a satellite dish. My town didn't have cable yet and I guess it wasn't on network TV.

The 1990 season was the first one I cared about and really paid attention to. I remember having to listen to a bunch of games on the radio that year. Our old non-remote control 24" console TV died right after the season. My dad decided to shop around for a big screen. He eventually settled on a 46" rear projection (remember when those were state of the art?). He told the appliance place we got it from he would buy it only if they could deliver it before December 25, so we could watch the Aloha Bowl.

 

[SmilinBob]

My dad was a huge SU fan and told me the stories of Jim Brown always getting up slowly after each run like he was hurt only to do what he always did and then get up slowly once again. And...

"Ernie Davis could run backwards as fast as forwards.".

So in 1970 I was already a fan but also liked Michigan St., Michigan and sorry to say PSU. Grew out of that pretty quickly.

Then Roys Runts made the Final 4 and basketball started to be my #1 as I also that year got a huge basketball poster before the 74/75 season from Joe and Shirly Szombothy who were customers of my dad. That said, it bugged Joe I was more of a basketball fan. He'd smile now because football is by far ahead of hoop.

I can't really say when the football bug really hit me to be honest but my first game was at the Dome for being an employee of the week or the like and actually went to the Maryland game by myself as there was no one else from work there. SU got crushed.

Regret never going to Archibald. Nice to read the stories of it though, thanks to all of you for that.

 

[OrangePA]

We fell for the Orange in 2021 the first time we were in the Dome. It was the Wake game, lost in OT. Before that I was a casual fan for about a year but after seeing them live I was hooked.

Should have won that game. Lost four games that year on the last play

 

[OrangePA]

The first game I watched was the ‘66 Gator Bowl. Was rooting mightily for Czonk and Floyd against the Southerners from Tenn. I entered ESF ‘68 and became hooked from then on. Was super impressed that the first game that season, which was on the road at Mich St, was televised (a 14-10 loss). The first game I attended was the home opener in Archbold against Maryland (which we won 32-14).

Pretty much the same for me - 1968

 

[billorange44]

September 21, 1963 vs Boston College. First game of the season.

 

[CapitalO]

My 1st game was in 1973 at Archbold stadium we got trounced by Navy but in 1980 I was working full time and started buying season tickets up until 2017 I still get up to a couple home games each year and watch the rest on tv.

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

1994. I started watching them when I applied to attend, which I did beginning in 1995. I was so gaslit by the next 4 years into thinking we had a national contender of a football program :|

 

[Laxfanshutt]

Mid 80s.. Coach Mac ruled!!!

 

[storange]

56 years

 

[orange79]

Since forever. My parents (before I was born) would drive from Rochester to Syracuse to watch Jim Brown play. I was casual fan until I attended and watched my first game in Archbold (a loss to Bowling Green(?), IIRC). All in from then on.

HURLEY FOR HEISMAN!!!

 

[mvorange]

For me it was 1954 when I was 8 years old. Don't remember any of the players. My Dad watched the game on B & W TV with me hounding him on every play. I learned many of the rules of football that day. First game in person was Navy in 1966. Remember Ernie and Larry in the backfield. We won and Navy was a tough opponent back then. Had season tickets 1987-2021. 1st game I brought my son to was WVU in '87. That was the loudest I ever heard. Son is still a big fan.

 

[DMDMD]

When I enrolled in the Fall of 2003, its been… not super.

 

[buckets30]

Love reading everyone's stories on this thread. I've been a fan for about 20 years, not really sure why, my family was always cuse fans but much more so basketball than football. We would go on a trip away from television every labor day weekend and I would always try to find the first Cuse fb game of the season on the radio.

First game in person was WVU in 2011, the energy and excitement around that game was awesome. I was hooked on live sports in general and the dome in particular after that.

 

[All4SU]

In a past life I was an SU student when Archbold Stadium was built and cheered in the team under HC Buck O’Neill.

 

[OrangeMon]

Back in the early '70s, my Dad would take me and my brother to the Navy vs SU games at Archibald (he was a Lieutenant Commander for the Navy). Those were my first memories. Later, in the mid-'70s I was lucky to become a ball boy for the SU football program (my mother worked in the football department at SU). That's when I really started following SU football and have ever since. Been a season ticket holder since the early '90s.

 

[pattycuse]

1987. During the week leading up to Penn State, the paper had an insert that said “Let’s go 6-0!”. My father, who was an alumnus, STH, and ultimately 25 year employee of the university, helped me cut it out (I was 8) and hang it in the living room window. Started going to games the next few years with my family and never stopped. Had season tickets myself since 2005, wrapped up my masters at IST in 2007 and brought my five year old daughter to her first game this year.

 

[tipphill]

1965 Little a junior; Csonka a sophomore. Before that vague memories of 1959 when a was very young.

But then there is the matter of my "championship binoculars". I wear them to every game and tell my children that when I go toes up one of them will have to carry on the tradition. They are the binoculars my Dad wore (with a new strap these days) during the 1959 season - he was a season ticket holder. Dad's been gone for 25 years and it's 64 years since 1959, but it's a connection to both my Dad and SU.

Still miss my Dad every day. I'm hoping not to long for the good olds days of SU football for much longer. Give me the new good old days!

Fan forever. Alum. Townie. I'm a veritable triple threat!

Townie as well go orangemen

 

[Orangedontrhyme]

I have all you folks beat. Born in 1942, I, SU class of 1964, just turned 81. In my earliest years, on game day if my parents were not at Archbold, my father, SU class of 1926, would set up a card table in our living room and work on his scrap book while listening to SU football games on WSYR. WSYR came in fine, despite living 2 hours (by Thruway) east of Syracuse. At the time, I was 4 or 5 years young. Before the Thruway, we drove on route 5 to 'Cuse, a heck of a trip.

I was probably 6 years of age when I saw my first game at Archbold. I was so little that I hardly could see over the people sitting in front of me. Our annual seats were on the north side concrete 1/3 of the way down on the 45 yard line. I remember as a little kid on those cold November days how cozy I felt sitting among the adults with their winter coats and the cigarette smoke actually smelling good as it intermingled with the cold air.

I remember things the young people here don't know, like the post World War 2 quarterbacks Bernie Custis, Avatus Stone, and terrific athlete Pat Stark. I remember seeing nationally famous SU baton girl Dottie Grover. I remember when SU, Colgate, and Cornell were known as The Big Three, and the other two guys actually would beat SU. Saw a Cornell game at Schoellkopf Field after a snow storm, in October 1957; I have its program.

I watched the SU Alabama 1953 Orange Bowl 61 to 6 loss on TV. Took us years to get over it. SU probably should not have gone to that bowl, and I think we were not the first choice of the bowl anyway The band's unis for that game were nice looking dark blazers and straw hats, that they wore for a few years after, even in the Syracuse bad weather.

Met Les Dye, who my father somehow knew. Les became the SU athletic director.

Saw Jim Brown's first varsity game. It wasn't long before my father wondered why he was not starting; I think he began on the 3rd string. Saw him score 43 points against Colgate.

I, as a high school senior, attended all the home games of the '59 national champs and one away game vs Boston U at Fenway. Dad tried out a colored TV, new back then, just happened it was during the weekend SU played UCLA that year, so saw the game in color. The TV went back to the dealer on Monday.

As a student, and as I've mentioned before, for the school year ending June 1962, football players on my floor, Sadler 2, were Dick Easterly and Bob Stem next door, Pete Brokaw and John Brown across the hall, and Ernie Davis and John Mackey in room 264. Met Jim Brown when he visited the floor (I was the first to see him when I came back from class) to see Ernie who never showed, so I and some floor mates had a nice conversation with him. Saw the 71 to 0 Colgate game. Was in the student section near the field when the powder of the cannon that was shot off after a TD exploded, injuring students on the field near it; the cannon was never again used in Archbold.

Probably have seen in person, watched on TV or computer, or heard on the radio all or part of 95% of SU football games. Donated about 35 items from my or my father's collection of SU memorabilia to Jim Ridlon's assemblage of 100 years of SU football.

I am a proud Syracuse U fan, one who goes way back.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Since my freshman year in 1975. All the games my senior year was on the road because the Dome was being built.

 

[CuseLegacy]

In my family there are generations of SU alumni...going back to the 1890's.
Therefore, it was preordained that I would be a fan...so preconception.

 

[suloyalfan]

Well, I’m almost 47 and have been a fan for as long as I can remember.