Where Are We From/Fan History.

[BuffCuse]

Born in Auburn. First year i really remember watching sports is 1986-1987 so it was a good time to start following SU. I remember all the orange all over Auburn around the final four that year and the heartache of Keith Smart. Would usually go to at least one basketball and one football game a year. Best live memory of that period is being at the Florida football game. Moved around a few times around high school moving to Lewiston (north of Niagara Falls) them Clifton Park (north of Albany) then Norwich (north of Binghamton I guess you could say). Went to college at a small school south of Boston. Returned home to CNY in 2001 to go to medical school at Upstate. My new wife bought me season tickets for basketball for the 2002-2003 season. Greatest year of my life. Watched the final four and championship games on the big screens at the dome then celebrated on Marshall. Moved to Buffalo after med school and have been here since. Between residency, fellowship and two kids I don't get to quite as many games these days but have an understanding wife who is not a big sports person but knows at least a couple nights a week Dec through April she is putting the kids to bed on her own.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[Gotothehole]

Grew up in Bermuda. Class of 1994. Live in Brooklyn NY.

 

[edowd26]

Did I do one?

 

[DonLightfoot]

Born in Kingston, Ontario in 1948. Still live in the area.

I became an Orange fan in the early 1980's. It was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and I was flipping through our ridiculous cable menu for something to watch. On CBS they were showing a College Basketball game inside this huge dome with about 30,000 people on hand. I said to myself "WOW". Forget who the opposition was in that game, but probably Georgetown. So I watch some of it and the announcers comment on the fact Leo Rautins was Canadian. Well, I've been hooked ever since. Been proud to see other Canadians flow through the program as well.

 

[SUfaninAZ]

Oswego first 22 years
Phoenix AZ last 19 years
Everyone I knew growing up was a Syracuse fan by birth and continues to this day.
Go Orangemen!!!

 

[HakAttack]

These stories are amazing. It's truly amazing to read how Syracuse basketball ties us all together. There's so many generations of fandom here. It's really incredible. I plan on raising my kids as Syracuse basketball fans.

It really puts things into perspective for me. People laughed when I told them in high school that one of the criteria I had to apply to colleges was a "big time" sports program. I wanted to feel part of a community, part of a family.

The crazy thing is that I feel even more connected to Syracuse now that I'm an alumnus. It's funny how that happens.

 

[HtownOrange]

Oswego first 22 years
Phoenix AZ last 19 years
Everyone I knew growing up was a Syracuse fan by birth and continues to this day.
Go Orangemen!!!

Being an Orange fan is a birthright! Of course, like America, we allow others to become Orange fans, in spite of their birth. Also, like America we are very careful about allowing undesirables in, like Georgetown fans.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Hundreds and hundreds of posters on this site, I want more responses!

 

[AlaskaSU]

Slow day at the office...so I thought I'd throw this out here.

Where are we all from/what's our SU fan story?

For me, although I remember watching Orangemen teams with Preston Shumpert, Jason Hart and Etan Thomas back as a teenager living in NJ in the late 90's on ESPN, my fandom didn't really start until I took a trip to SU during the 2003 NCAA tournament run to see where I was going to be going to school that next fall. It was a cold and rainy day that Friday (I'm sure many of the students were in Albany watching the sweet 16), but once I saw the Orange spirit throughout that NCAA run, I was hooked.

I was unlucky enough to arrive on the hill one year after the NC Season in 03', but lucky enough to witness a TON of terrific Orange ball while I was there. Was a student season ticket holder for four years of undergrad, plus two more of graduate school right afterwards. Don't think I missed a home basketball game from 03-04' to 08-09'.

Many memorable moments. The Terrence Roberts three to beat Rutgers in 06' (and the fur coat he wore afterwards), Warrick throwing it down over everyone, winning back to back BE Tourney titles in 05' and 06', Gerry's last game, Multiple court stormings: (Senior Night in 07' against GT, GT again in 08'.) Flynn in 09'...the list goes on and on.

Favorite SU player has to be Hakim Warrick, dude was absurdly quick and had the longest arms ever. He had springs in his shoes.

Now that I've graduated and am still local, working in the upstate NY region, I've still been able to make it up to a bunch of games. Was at the GT game in 2010 when we blew them out of the building, and made it to about 4-5 games last year.

Nothing like gameday at the Dome during conference season, or the excitement of being an SU student during March Madness. Nothing like it.

I've forged some great friendships with SU fans due to our shared passion for hoops (Mason's architect younger brother happens to be a close friend) and I look forward to the next 50 years of my SU fandom.

In my family there are 2 Cuse BA's, a Cuse Law School Degree and my Maxwell Masters. I've sat up late in an Alaskan radio station, more than once, in the 70's, crouched over a ticker tape machine (yes they existed) to keep up with the scores of Cuse basketball games in progress. Thus, I assumed that I was the biggest nuttiest fan, but many of you guys have me beat.

 

[boulderorange]

Grew up on Skaneateles Lake. First season I really watched was the 2003 champ team (also first game I attended at the dome). I remember watching GMAC's big east tourney run in my history teacher's class. He would project the game on the wall, and we all skipped class to watch. I was too young to watch Mcnabb play, but as a lifelong Eagles fan Mcnabb is still my all time favorite football player.

In my senior year now at CU-Boulder. Found this forum when I moved out here because I needed some sort of Cuse sports talk in my life. This forum actually made me a much bigger (more obsessive?) fan than before. All my friends in Boulder know so much about Syracuse athletics because I talk about them incessantly. They also root for us!

Money is tight as a student right now, but in the future I'd love to travel to Cuse football/basketball games. Sounds like a blast. I should be back in the area for Thanksgiving, maybe I'll try to meet some of the board members at the Pitt tailgate.

LGO

 

[OttoMets]

Grew up on Skaneateles Lake. First season I really watched was the 2003 champ team (also first game I attended at the dome). I remember watching GMAC's big east tourney run in my history teacher's class. He would project the game on the wall, and we all skipped class to watch. I was too young to watch Mcnabb play, but as a lifelong Eagles fan Mcnabb is still my all time favorite football player.

In my senior year now at CU-Boulder. Found this forum when I moved out here because I needed some sort of Cuse sports talk in my life. This forum actually made me a much bigger (more obsessive?) fan than before. All my friends in Boulder know so much about Syracuse athletics because I talk about them incessantly. They also root for us!

Money is tight as a student right now, but in the future I'd love to travel to Cuse football/basketball games. Sounds like a blast. I should be back in the area for Thanksgiving, maybe I'll try to meet some of the board members at the Pitt tailgate.

LGO

I'm going to be in Denver the weekend of the Florida State game (or, if it's a nooner, on a plane). Any good SU bars out there?

 

[boulderorange]

I'm going to be in Denver the weekend of the Florida State game (or, if it's a nooner, on a plane). Any good SU bars out there?

Blake Street Tavern is the SU alumni spot. I haven't been there yet, so I can't speak to the experience.

 

[OrangeFair44]

Born in '86 and grew up in cuse suburb. My pops been working for SU 35ish years and mother has put in around 20yrs now. Older brother is an alum, as well as I ('08). The family bleeds orange to say the least.

First real/great memory was 96 ncaa vs georgia when cipolla knocked down the bucket to tie and wallace took it home for the win. I was so eccited that following football season to see mcnabb and co take on UNC in the dome... we know how that ended. They totally redeemed any previous wrong doings with VT game years later (wish I was there, glued to the t.v. instead).

I cant explain how excited I am prior to the start of every season, both bball and fball. Gets even better when we meet or beat expectations. Try to watch every game. Competitive or not. I love when we blow out teams (colgates/wagners) and see the stars showcase and have then get a glimpse into younger future of cuse athletes.

Ahhhh yess, so happy I found this board last year.

Leggo cuse!

 

[CaptainSyracuse]

It was 1/17/82 vs. Gerogetown, the first game Patrick Ewing had at the Dome. Her name was Michelle Munn. I just checked the Post Standard archive. She fractured her skull falling from the paramid but survived. An article a year later talks about how she wa snow married and living in Florida and planned on listening to that year's Gerogetown game on the radio.

The 30th anniversary of that near tragedy will be next Tuesday, the day after the Pittsburgh game.

Actually, I remember it happening during the 1981 bigeast championship game at the dome. SU vs Villanova.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Actually, I remember it happening during the 1981 bigeast championship game at the dome. SU vs Villanova.

It was against Georgetown in 1982.

 

[HakAttack]

Bump...I wish this thread could be tacked.

 

[HakAttack]

P.S. for anyone suffering through tee withdrawal, his story is on here too...

 

[rosconey]

first big time game that got me hooked- dc's first ,my buddy murf and i snuck into the student section and sat 2 rows from the front under the basket- made espn when the did a freshman piece and showed dc's first su hoop

 

[OrOrange44]

Born and raised in York Pa.
Father was a 3 sport star at York High
Father earned FB scholarship to CUSE
Freshman team went to Cornell or Colgate (cannot remember which) to watch the varsity play
Stands in which my father was sitting collapsed and his knee was destroyed, no more FB for him
Usually school would yank schollie, but SU said based on circumstances and my fathers character they would allow him to continue on schollie...father graduated from SU in the 30's
My father was forever indebted to SU...and remained close to SU FB
Ben Schwarzwalter (sp?) used to come to our house in York for dinner
Father scouted local York talent and would invite the players to the house and provide them with info about SU
Fond memories rooting the Cuse on in the 75 FF ?
Went to SU in 76/77...JB's first year...the Louie/Bouie show (26-4 I believe w HUGE win at L-ville)
Got placed in the apartments out by Manley and remember trudging thru the snow to games with my buddy John O' Mahoney
Those were the days of the ECAC and huge games w St B and St Johns
Pretty awesome atmosphere at the Zoo
Had to drop out in spring 77 to care for dying father
Moved to Oregon in 81 and got geology degree...now run a geology consulting firm
I live and die for SU hoops...been rooting for SU teams since old enough to understand sports
Sure appreciate this forum which allows me to feel closer to the team I love
I played FB and baseball so I do not know alot of the finer points of BB so I do not post much but read alot
Never been to the Dome but someday I hope to come back and see a game and meet some of the wonderful people associated w this board

Lets Go Orange...kick some Pitt butt !!!!!

OO44

 

[HakAttack]

Born and raised in York Pa.
Father was a 3 sport star at York High
Father earned FB scholarship to CUSE
Freshman team went to Cornell or Colgate (cannot remember which) to watch the varsity play
Stands in which my father was sitting collapsed and his knee was destroyed, no more FB for him
Usually school would yank schollie, but SU said based on circumstances and my fathers character they would allow him to continue on schollie...father graduated from SU in the 30's
My father was forever indebted to SU...and remained close to SU FB
Ben Schwarzwalter (sp?) used to come to our house in York for dinner
Father scouted local York talent and would invite the players to the house and provide them with info about SU
Fond memories rooting the Cuse on in the 75 FF ?
Went to SU in 76/77...JB's first year...the Louie/Bouie show (26-4 I believe w HUGE win at L-ville)
Got placed in the apartments out by Manley and remember trudging thru the snow to games with my buddy John O' Mahoney
Those were the days of the ECAC and huge games w St B and St Johns
Pretty awesome atmosphere at the Zoo
Had to drop out in spring 77 to care for dying father
Moved to Oregon in 81 and got geology degree...now run a geology consulting firm
I live and die for SU hoops...been rooting for SU teams since old enough to understand sports
Sure appreciate this forum which allows me to feel closer to the team I love
I played FB and baseball so I do not know alot of the finer points of BB so I do not post much but read alot
Never been to the Dome but someday I hope to come back and see a game and meet some of the wonderful people associated w this board

Lets Go Orange...kick some Pitt butt !!!!!

OO44

Wow. I'm speechless. What a story, and what a special relationship that SU had with your father.

 

[Todd Gack]

I'm 35, moved to Camillus in kindergarten, and got sucked into SU hoops in fifth grade during the 1987 tourney run. I'd only been a fan for a couple weeks that March, but I was singularly devastated by the loss. I somehow remember SU being up 52-44 midway through the second half (that could be totally inaccurate, but it's what I recall) and thinking the game was over. That taught my 10-year-old self never to assume anything. Coincidentally, the assistant coach for Bob Knight was the ex-hoops coach at the high school my dad had gone to in southeast Illinois, and as a result I was all but certain my dad was secretly rooting for IU, but he wouldn't admit it. "Too bad," was all he would say when it was over. "Too bad." I went to college out of state and always loved coming back at Christmas break and going to an SU game, even if it was usually a last-game-before-conference-play cupcake-type game. I think distance made the heart grow fonder, as my fandom sure grew during those years. In 1998, on spring break, the female friends I was with were rather annoyed that I was glued to my Walkman (remember those??) for several days listening to NCAA games. By 2003 I lived up by D.C. and watched the last four games of the tourney with some board folks at Park Bench Pub. On the night of the title game -- happiest day of my life till my wedding -- I'd set up the VCR back at my apartment to tape the game. I lived with two women at the time, one nice, one bitchy. The bitchy one tried to turn off the VCR's timer so she could watch "Boston Public." The nice roommate, a Spartans fan, warned her that it wasn't a good idea to do that. Lol. Good call.

Skimming this thread -- I was at the Park Bench Pub for the Texas game. Of all the gin joints. I also think you're the guy who memorialized the UVA frat boys' mesmerization with Otto at last year's IU game -- I sat directly behind them. Let me know where you'll be during this year's tourney and I'll be 25 feet away -- good things will happen.

 

[orange79]

Born and raised in York Pa.
Father was a 3 sport star at York High
Father earned FB scholarship to CUSE
Freshman team went to Cornell or Colgate (cannot remember which) to watch the varsity play
Stands in which my father was sitting collapsed and his knee was destroyed, no more FB for him
Usually school would yank schollie, but SU said based on circumstances and my fathers character they would allow him to continue on schollie...father graduated from SU in the 30's
My father was forever indebted to SU...and remained close to SU FB
Ben Schwarzwalter (sp?) used to come to our house in York for dinner
Father scouted local York talent and would invite the players to the house and provide them with info about SU
Fond memories rooting the Cuse on in the 75 FF ?
Went to SU in 76/77...JB's first year...the Louie/Bouie show (26-4 I believe w HUGE win at L-ville)
Got placed in the apartments out by Manley and remember trudging thru the snow to games with my buddy John O' Mahoney
Those were the days of the ECAC and huge games w St B and St Johns
Pretty awesome atmosphere at the Zoo
Had to drop out in spring 77 to care for dying father
Moved to Oregon in 81 and got geology degree...now run a geology consulting firm
I live and die for SU hoops...been rooting for SU teams since old enough to understand sports
Sure appreciate this forum which allows me to feel closer to the team I love
I played FB and baseball so I do not know alot of the finer points of BB so I do not post much but read alot
Never been to the Dome but someday I hope to come back and see a game and meet some of the wonderful people associated w this board

Lets Go Orange...kick some Pitt butt !!!!!

OO44

Wow. Great story. You're first year at SU was mine too. Where did you live? I was in Brewster-Boland.

 

[OrOrange44]

Wow. I'm speechless. What a story, and what a special relationship that SU had with your father.

Yeah my blood runs Orange
Been reflecting since I wrote that
I wanted to learn a trade and my father badly wanted me to go to college and get away from the junior mafia as he called my friends
He pretty much forced me and pulled strings to get me into SU

Some of the best times of my life from the opening David Bromberg concert on the quad
Had never seen so many handtrucks of kegs
Lucked out getting put into the apartments and not a dorm
Used to get cases of Molson Golden for like 7.50
And then to stand and scream w 15,000 drunken souls for SU hoops I was addicted for life
Often wonder what life would have been like had my father not gotten cancer and I had stayed at SU
Not the way the game works

Anyway I do not care for Jamie Dixon so I hope we kick some panther ass tomorrow

OO44

 

[OrOrange44]

Wow. Great story. You're first year at SU was mine too. Where did you live? I was in Brewster-Boland.

I registered late, and got placed in these apartments out past Manley were transfer students were housed
I was with a bunch of people from Rutgers
They were old army barracks and had underground tunnels connecting them
I think they were called the Vincent Apts. ??????

 

[orange79]

I registered late, and got placed in these apartments out past Manley were transfer students were housed
I was with a bunch of people from Rutgers
They were old army barracks and had underground tunnels connecting them
I think they were called the Vincent Apts. ??????

Yup - Vincent Apartments. Funny - I was a transfer after one year at Fordham. Guess I was lucky I was placed in B-B. Thanks for sharing.