Tribute Why I’m a Rangers Fan

[Blueblood9]

For me I have immigrant parents that only watch soccer. Up until the age of 7 I lived in a house with my grandparents aunt and uncle and my 2 cousins. My older cousin was a sports fan and I gained my fandom from him including the football team in dc. I was 12 in 94 and like tawnos it was the age that solidified my fandom. Was more of casual fan until college. While in boston for college it was easy to talk hockey with people and that's when I started to go deeper into mybfandom and start following prospects. In fact one of my coworkers was friends of brian Boyle's and I went out drinking with him while he was still in the kings system.

 

[kovazub94]

...Red,white and blue are a
major deal in my corner of Germany, so I picked the Rangers...

What part of Germany is this? Guessing - somewhere close to to France?

 

[leetch99]

It was late Original Six era in Windsor Ontario. I was about seven and after school a bunch of us would walk to the local corner store to buy hockey cards...a dime a pack if I recall. The gum cut your cheeks. Anyway, my three closest buds were Leafs, Habs, and Bruins fans. No Wings fans, go figure as the Olympia was just across the river. So, I wanted to cheer for my own team...Black Hawks or Rangers which to choose? I thought the Rangers name sounded cooler. Bonus trivia question...I think my first Ranger hockey card was either The Chief or The Professor. Can you name them?

I posted it in a reply earlier...but here is my guess again ....Professor Bobby Rousseau ?

 

[Crease]

My grandfather had season tickets to the Rangers, which made my dad a fan. Apparently I would only sit still with hockey on the TV and could skate before I could walk. Very faint members of Beezer and Sandstrom growing up. The '94 team was my childhood. I am the first and only member of the family to actually play the game.

 

[Governor]

Father grew up a Rangers fan in a family dominated by Islanders fans due to the Isles dynasty. Just remember having Rangers clothing like beanies and sweaters growing up, as well as some of the memorabilia he has like the newspaper with Messier's guarantee on the cover, and the Frost Flakes box with Tony the Tiger wearing a Rangers jersey holding the Cup. Just kind of grew up thinking the Rangers were the best team in the league until I was introduced to the sport on TV by my dad; which naturally was the Rangers.

Didn't start watching religiously until 2005/2006 when I started hearing about this hot new young goalie the Rangers had in the lineup that people were saying may break Richter's franchise records, and of course Jagr's crazy year: not to mention Prucha scoring all the goals he did that year.

Nothing special or fancy. Just how I came to watching the sport and the Rangers in particular.

 

[ilezia]

From Finland.. Nothing too special in my story. Started following more of NHL and New York was the only city I had visited in the US at that point so it felt natural to start supporting the Rangers. I loved the city during my trip, which was a very ex tempore. Three stupid 19 year olds who saw flights on sale and decided to go for it. We didn't have a chance to go see a game then but I really loved the city. It was also in the winter, just before Christmas. It felt like anything is possible in New York, a feeling I haven't really had anywhere else even though I've travelled quite a bit and even lived for 7 years in London. Guess it was mostly our naivety and the great trip which I will never forget.

 

[TominNC]

I grew up in north NJ. When I was 10-11 around 1970 they were the only game in town. I was a NY team fan, following my Dad - Mets, Jets, Knicks, Rangers. Most of my friends went with out of town hockey teams over the next few years - Bruins, Sabres, Flyers, etc

Once I locked onto my teams, it was for life. I can't switch teams, no matter how much they torture me. I did give up on basketball completely, but Mets, Rangers, Jets are still my teams. For better, or mostly for worse. That's why I can be patient with this rebuild.

 

[leetch99]

Here's another clue...a centreman with four Cup rings.

Were they all Stanley Cup rings ?

 

[leetch99]

Were they all Stanley Cup rings ?

I will take another stab...it's driving me crazy LOL.....The Professor....Clint Albright 1948-49 . He wore glasses ....but not sure on the 4 Cup rings clue unless he won them in the Memorial Cup and the Allan Cup play downs . Yes...I had to Goggle the search but it was hard to find ...very hard and still unsure of the 4 Cups . EDIT....I found it. Pattison -Memorial-Abbott and Turnbull Cups . I doubt anybody outside of Liam Maguire would have got that one....after a week I had to start searching via Google . I actually sent Liam the question earlier today but had not heard back from him on it . EDITLiam Maguire also could not get it either . The 4 Cups tidbit was not quite on the up and up he figured . LOL...was tough going .

 

[MadHookUp]

So I was born in North Jersey, and moved to Pennsylvania when I was 4. Nearly all my family is from North Jersey/NY and I remember visiting my much older cousin when I was 7 or so, and I REALLY looked up to him. He started getting me into hockey, and I told him that I would root for the Devils, because I was born in NJ. I would also root for the Flyers because I live in PA. And I would root for the Rangers because it was his favorite team. Yeah... he wasn't going to allow that. He said I was a Rangers fan, and I was obligated to hate the others teams. And boy do I hate them, especially the Flyers.

I should also note that growing up in PA rather than NY, I don't have that same hatred for Boston(except Patriots) that most NY fans have. I've been getting interested in football more, but I am really a 1 sport fan for the most part. But I have no hate for the Jets. And even though I root for the Yankees, I would be happy to see the Mets do well. I have so much hate for Philly and their horrible fan base that I have no hate left for other teams.

 

[Maximus]

Born in Brooklyn in early 60's and tho my Dad was not a hockey fan, my brother and I learned how too roller skate and started playing hockey at around 5-6 years old. Still didn't know squat about the Rangers but I knew I loved too skate and I loved hockey above all sports.

As I got older, I learned how to ice skate at Abe Stark which is a famous rink in Brooklyn and it was an easy transition from roller skating. I started to know a bit more about the Rangers and started too read about players they had but still hadn't gone to MSG too see a game or anything.

My love tho for hockey grew even more as now I was able to skate faster and do shit I couldn't do on roller skates. Anyways one day, I'm about 9 years old circa 1971, our coach gathers us up at center ice and tells us that we have a special visitor and it was Rod Gilbert and he was on skates and wearing his #7 Ranger jersey.

I was gobsmacked from that moment on and from that day all I could think about and dream about was the Rangers an that maybe just maybe I could be good enough too play for them. Well that didn't come too be...the playing for them part unfortunately but the day Rod Gilbert came to Abe Stark rink, skated around with us and gave all of us an autograph, was when my almost 50 year love affair with the Rangers in earnest truly began.

 

[Maximus]

I grew up in north NJ. When I was 10-11 around 1970 they were the only game in town. I was a NY team fan, following my Dad - Mets, Jets, Knicks, Rangers. Most of my friends went with out of town hockey teams over the next few years - Bruins, Sabres, Flyers, etc

Once I locked onto my teams, it was for life. I can't switch teams, no matter how much they torture me. I did give up on basketball completely, but Mets, Rangers, Jets are still my teams. For better, or mostly for worse. That's why I can be patient with this rebuild.

Looks like was are pretty close in age. Myself, born in Brooklyn in early 60's until we moved to Rockland County when I was 13 in mid-70's, Rangers were for most part only game in town while growing up. I tell my story below about how when I met Rod Gilbert as a kid that was when the love affair with the Rangers officially began in '71.

But like you, Rangers, Knicks, Mets and Jets. I mean we couldn't possibly have picked 4 more frustrating teams to have as your teams as between all 4 teams, we are talking just 6 championships combined since 1969!!. Talk about awful but hey they are our "awful teams"...lol.

It's another reason why that whenever any of our teams do well, it's the equivalent of any other team doing well multiplied by 50. I was too young to truly appreciate the '69 Mets, Jets or Knick championship teams at the time.

But that's why peeps like me still wax poetic bout the '86 Mets so much and the '94 Rangers as those titles seem like they both just happened yesterday instead of 34 and 26 years ago respectively and why I remember it so very well and why my brothers in here who were around at the time remember everything about it so well also.

 

[EdJovanovski]

I also have a great appreciation for New York City, and the USA in general. Some of you may know of the health issues I’ve been experiencing, well after 8 months of trying to seek care in Canada to no avail, yesterday I emailed a doctor in NYC who’s world renowned in this field, he replied within a couple hours and I have an appointment with him tomorrow morning.

 

[aufheben]

I also have a great appreciation for New York City, and the USA in general. Some of you may know of the health issues I’ve been experiencing, well after 8 months of trying to seek care in Canada to no avail, yesterday I emailed a doctor in NYC who’s world renowned in this field, he replied within a couple hours and I have an appointment with him tomorrow morning.

I can’t blame you for not wanting to be a Canucks fan.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

My story is boring. Im just a New York boy who liked sports, my dad got me into sports as a kid and hockey was the first one. My oldest sports memories, besides the 1996 Superbowl between the Packers and Patriots for some reason, was the 1997 ECSF we beat the Devils, my dad told me that the Rangers were good and the Devils were bad. So I was happy. Then we got rekt in the ECF and I was so upset, I've hated Eric Lindros ever since. So then of course the rest of my childhood the Rangers were garbage and we didn't make the playoffs again until I was graduating High School lol. I kind of fell off a bit on my hockey fandom then, only following it loosely, I was more into football and the Jets who were actually good at the time.

2011 is when I got back into hockey in a big way, and watched every single game that season with my buddies. Some of my favorite memories. Been a die hard Rangers fanatic /hockey nerd ever since.

 

[OthmannOut]

I'm a Whalers refugee. Well, I was pretty young when the team moved. Spent a little while not following any team because I was pretty upset but because of the wolf pack I got into the rangers.

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

Because of Robbie Ftorek’s helmet

 

[Cmox]

It’s a simple story. In 1986 ( i was 6 years old) my uncle was staying with us. He said let’s put on the rangers game.Ill always remember this bc it’s the start of something. I see it’s hockey. I said this boring and pretty much protested. He replied “ it’s the greatest sport you’ll ever watch “ and he wasn’t lying. Hockey and the Rangers have always been my constant. I played and continued to watch. Whatever phase of my life the Rangers and hockey has always been there. Every friend, fashion choice, every music genre ( I stayed in the same music choice but it evolved with time), even through those angry pubescent years hockey never left. And now as a 40 yr old the Rangers / hockey is still there. I’ll die a fan.