When, how and why we become Boro Fans? Autobiography time.

Was born a mile from AP so it couldn’t have been anything else . I’m a big believer in that the club picks you and you have no right to pick your club . Will never forget the AP floodlights on a crisp night match glistening behind the waves of steam and smoke , not to mention the sounds all around ( even Bernard Gent ) . Monumental memories.
Blast , I think I’ve got something in my eye 😢
 
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my mum and dad were season ticket holders from 1968ish until the end of the 70's. ayresome angels, they missed about 2 matches during that period and even if a game was called off they would drive to the closest match they could. dad is a football nut. he would go to sunderland back in the day when boro were out of the top flight so he could watch sunderland play the big teams.

he took me to 2 games in the winter of 91. we got beat both times. remember slaven scoring. got a squeeze into the east stand.

i then got a half season ticket with my mum in the corner next to the east stand at ayresome for the 1994-95 promotion season £36 i think it cost.

we missed the first few games at the riverside but as soon as juninho signed we got season tickets as now a family of 4. we only stopped going 2 years back as pulis made us loose the interest.

i need to work on my son more over the boro. he has the shirts but no interest..... yet. i could see us going again in a few years time when he will watch a full 90 minute without needing to go to the toilet 50 times during the game!
 
Didn't really have time for footy until my first year at Uni when Euro 96 happened and I was hooked after that tournament. prior to that it was all about music for me (still is, but footy is a close 2nd) Born in Boro so it was the only choice, been a fan ever since.

My Brother used to go to AP as a teenager but I wasn't bothered so much.
 
My Dad lived by a certain maxim. Don’t let your life rule your Boro!
Started going in division 3, Rioch’s team. Was instantly hooked.
 
I was born in Guisborough '67. My dad is from Boro, but was more a rugby and basketball man. My mum came from Stockton and doesn't know anything about football. My parents bought Dickie Rooks old house on Cambridge Rd in '69 and the family moved there. That's the first Boro connection, even I never knew it. I went to Whinney Banks and then Green Lane before the family moved first to Sutton In Ashfield, near Mansfield, in 73.

The first football match i remember was the 74 Cup Final and then shortly afterwards my mum bought me an Arsenal shirt because I was expressing an interest in football. That was followed shortly by a Leeds United lampshade. As i wrote at the beginning my mum never knew anything about football.

On 17th April 76 a family friend took me to my first game which was Boro V Sheff Utd with Tony McAndrew scoring a hattrick. From that day onwards i've only ever supported Boro and would go to matches whenever we'd visit Teesside to see the grandparents.
 
4th generation Boro fan: apparently I used to shout "up the Boro" before I actually had any idea what it meant.

After that, I didn't really get interested in football until I was about 10, but there was never going to be any other club.
 
Born in Marske Dec 1950 Markse didn't have a footie team then. Dad was from Grangetown he was steeped in the Boro. When I was little he used to tell me stories about the matches. Eventually Dad took me into the Chicken Run for a Squeeze. April 1958. Cloughie got 2 goals but Blackburn got 3. Had to go right down the front and peer over the wall, 32000 in for an end of season game. From then on I was hooked been a ST holder since 1974.
Lived in Gateshead for 45 years both of my son's are Boro supporters despite getting loads of stick at school. It was good for them that they were there late 90's early 00's. So they could boast about our success and ask their classmates What happened in the Bill.
Can't wait to get back in September potentially going to be a great season with big crowds and a fantastic atmosphere. If NW team can get the team to perform then it could be memorable.
 
Two stories here- first mine. I didn't even know there wasa team in Middlesbrough. I only found out because a friend of mine at St Thomas's asked if I was going to the match on Saturday. "Eh, what match ,whatyou onabout?"
"Scunthorpe" he said. So we arranged to meet up at Albert Park and then go to the match together. He never turned up so I went on my own to the Boys End. As soon as I saw the lush green pitch the collywobbles started in my stomach and they have never stopped since. That was 1967.
The second story- One of our foster kids came to us as an emergency. He was two years old and the only song that he knew was a Christmas song. I taught him "Geordies at home watching the Bill.................." and he sang this all the time (Interspersed with his nursery rhymes of course). ................. The best thing ? When he was five he was adopted by a family where the dad is an ex Boro player. He of course goes to all Boro games.
 
Trug said:
Two stories here- first mine. I didn't even know there wasa team in Middlesbrough. I only found out because a friend of mine at St Thomas's asked if I was going to the match on Saturday. "Eh, what match ,whatyou onabout?"
"Scunthorpe" he said. So we arranged to meet up at Albert Park and then go to the match together. He never turned up so I went on my own to the Boys End. As soon as I saw the lush green pitch the collywobbles started in my stomach and they have never stopped since. That was 1967.
The second story- One of our foster kids came to us as an emergency. He was two years old and the only song that he knew was a Christmas song. I taught him "Geordies at home watching the Bill.................." and he sang this all the time (Interspersed with his nursery rhymes of course). ................. The best thing ? When he was five he was adopted by a family where the dad is an ex Boro player. He of course goes to all Boro games.
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Fantastic story, brilliant. (y)

I also had the collywobbles in my stomach every time that I went in the boys end but I put that entirely down
to the smell of the bogs that was wafting around and not from the sight of that lovely lush green pitch. :oops:
 
Copied and pasted from another recent thread:

My nearest club is Crystal Palace, with Charlton and Millwall also in contention, and as a kid I loved playing and watching football, but I reached the age of 10 without having chosen a team to support. My dad nurtured my love of the game, but he was a huge non-league fan so he didn't push me towards any of the teams in the 92. I'm sure if he'd been a Palace or Charlton supporter then I would've done the same and that would've been it.

Anyway, I was 10 years old and I randomly decided that Nick Barmby was my all-time hero, and he played for Spurs, so I thought I'd support them. But only a few weeks later, he moved to Boro and I announced that I was now going to support them instead. I had no idea that Boro was one of the furthest possible clubs from where I lived, let alone the misery and heartbreak they'd bring to my life. My dad laughed and told me it would never last. But it did. Even when Barmby moved on. I stuck faithfully with the Boro and it's now been 26 years of dedicated support and love. I adore the Boro with all my heart and I can only hope to be accepted (much like Yusuf and some others) as an adopted Teessider even though I have absolutely no connection to the area.

My visits to the Riverside are severely limited by time, money and working hours, but I go to a lot of away games and I enjoyed being a holder of a Boro Pride card when they existed. It's been a few years since I was last at the Riverside, but I'd arranged a trip last April which sadly never took place for obvious reasons. I'll be back there as soon as I can. UTB
 
Parents were from Leeds and big Leeds fans, as a family we moved around the country arriving in Middlesbrough in the early 70's at the age of five. I began to take an interest in football and among the other lads in Hutton Rudby primary school I swore my allegiance to the Boro. Moved away from the area in 76 and kept my faith. Dad was fantastic and would take me to matches at Leicester and Coventry when we played them, Never took me to a Leeds match.
 
" Only hope to be accepted ( much like Yusuf ) as an adopted Teessider ".

Yourself and Yusuf are legend supporters in my eyes and you don't need to be adopted, you both have the Boro in your hearts and
that's something that no Boro supporter could ask more of.

You're both already one of us.

To be as passionate as you both are for a team that has no connection at all is remarkable and to be admired by all Boro fans.

C'mon Rotherham :ROFLMAO:
 
futureboy said:
Copied and pasted from another recent thread:

My nearest club is Crystal Palace, with Charlton and Millwall also in contention, and as a kid I loved playing and watching football, but I reached the age of 10 without having chosen a team to support. My dad nurtured my love of the game, but he was a huge non-league fan so he didn't push me towards any of the teams in the 92. I'm sure if he'd been a Palace or Charlton supporter then I would've done the same and that would've been it.

Anyway, I was 10 years old and I randomly decided that Nick Barmby was my all-time hero, and he played for Spurs, so I thought I'd support them. But only a few weeks later, he moved to Boro and I announced that I was now going to support them instead. I had no idea that Boro was one of the furthest possible clubs from where I lived, let alone the misery and heartbreak they'd bring to my life. My dad laughed and told me it would never last. But it did. Even when Barmby moved on. I stuck faithfully with the Boro and it's now been 26 years of dedicated support and love. I adore the Boro with all my heart and I can only hope to be accepted (much like Yusuf and some others) as an adopted Teessider even though I have absolutely no connection to the area.

My visits to the Riverside are severely limited by time, money and working hours, but I go to a lot of away games and I enjoyed being a holder of a Boro Pride card when they existed. It's been a few years since I was last at the Riverside, but I'd arranged a trip last April which sadly never took place for obvious reasons. I'll be back there as soon as I can. UTB
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Just had to " bump " this.
What a great story from futureboy. (y)
 
NZBoro1 said:
Probably through osmosis from my dad and grandad, first game was in 76, Tony McAndrew hat trick v Sheff Utd. From there it grow, around 79 starting going on my own with a gang of mates in the boys end.

We emigrated to South Africa in 81 after dad took redundancy from BS, followed them on a very crackly radio and my nana sending out the gazette every week.

Moved back in 84, and continued going, also doing away games with my girlfriend (now wife) .

Joined up, moved around the UK, and was able to get to more away games, but less home games.

Got a season ticket with my brothers in law, we divvied up the games so we all could use and see the home games. Think this was 98?

Move to NZ in 07, able to follow them on the net now, and through this, which is great. Mam still sent me the back pages of the gazette up until 2 years ago, started when I first joined up in 89.

So long suffering.
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Your mam must have spent a fortune.
 
Born and bred just outside Whitby. My cousins lived in Berner Street which is right next to Ayresome Park and they were Boro fans so we got hooked - it was the time of Charltons Champions. My first match was a couple of years later in 1976. We went to the odd match over the next few seasons but I only became really interested / obsessed once the 80s started. Only when I started secondary school in Whitby did I realise that most people supported L**ds or Liverpool. I always find that a mystery as our house was only 21 miles to Ayresome Park but 70odd to Elland Road. The situation did improve though over the years and there were a lot more Boro fans in the 90s and onwards.
 
JaenBoro said:
Born and bred just outside Whitby. My cousins lived in Berner Street which is right next to Ayresome Park and they were Boro fans so we got hooked - it was the time of Charltons Champions. My first match was a couple of years later in 1976. We went to the odd match over the next few seasons but I only became really interested / obsessed once the 80s started. Only when I started secondary school in Whitby did I realise that most people supported L**ds or Liverpool. I always find that a mystery as our house was only 21 miles to Ayresome Park but 70odd to Elland Road. The situation did improve though over the years and there were a lot more Boro fans in the 90s and onwards.
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I know a few Boro fans born and bred in Whitby.
 
Dad started following the Boro in 1974, started taking me to games exactly 30 years later. Had a season ticket in 05/06 but was about 7 so couldn't really appreciate anything outside the big moments. Got my first proper season ticket in 08/09 and fell in love with it properly, did my first away day at Wolves on that FA Cup run and had my heart broken at Goodison, performance that day made me think we were truly robbed and my obsession with the club has lasted to this day.
 
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