Who are you, and what made you a fan?

[MesaCougFan]

There has been some talk recently about going with real names instead of monickers. A few years ago I started a thread like this. I have been on Cougar Corner for at least 12 years now. I used to live in a small town outside Detroit Michigan called Wixom, so I went by WixomCougFan. I moved to Mesa, AZ about 8 years ago so now I'm MesaCougFan.

I served my mission in the Michigan Detroit Mission and married the most beautiful woman in the world who happened to grow up in Livonia, Michigan. I have 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls). I secretly try to re-live my athletic glory days through my eldest son. He is my little sports nut. My wife and I met at Ricks College, and graduated from there. We received our Bachelors degrees from Utah State University. After USU, we lived in Michigan for 8 years.

I can't stand the Big 10. I would cheer for MSU over Michigan. I can't stand the major conference bias. I can't stand the Pac 12. All of my friends in Mesa either went to ASU and love ASU, or just love ASU. I could take or leave the Devils. Many of those friends regularly gather in my home to watch BYU football games, as to kind of support me and the Cougars so I will do the same when they host an ASU party.

I have loved the Cougars for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Richland, WA and when I was in 5th grade my mom bought me a BYU logo football from Griggs in Pasco, WA. I had that ball with me every waking minute until I accidentilly lost it on the roof of Badger Mountain Elementary school. My dad and I would drive 25 miles to the Benton City chapel to watch satellite broadcasts of the Cougars (boy it's nice to have an ESPN deal now). I am raising my children to love the Cougars. My three oldest have told me that they want to play for the Cougs. None probably will, but it warms my soul to hear them say it.

[Schmoe]

I was born in So Cal, and then moved to Utah when I was the ripe-old age of six weeks. I lived on BYU campus for the first four years of my life while my dad went to school there, as had my grandfather (the first year being our football NC). We had home teachers who were often BYU football players, there was one gigantic lineman, I don't remember who, but we kids would just climb all over the dude because he was just a mountain to us. We had to be careful not to drive to the grocery store for milk on gamedays, so I always knew when gameday was. We went to a couple games when I was very young and I've known the Cougar fight song since I was three or four years old.

After my dad's graduation, we stayed in Utah (hard to go back to living in So Cal after that), and went to the occasional game. When I was a teen, my dad joined the Cougar Club and we had season tickets, and my fandom wasn't even broken by the grumpy blue hairs that we sat by at the games. I even had some buddies whose priest quorum adviser was Travis Hansen, so we'd play ball with him on Wednesday nights sometimes.

After high school, I chose not to attend BYU (had friends already there and when I visited them, the atmosphere just wasn't for me), but continued to root for all BYU sports (except lacrosse, whom we played against). I also bought a guest pass through my friends and we had fourth-row seats on the 40 for one glorious season (then BYU changed everything, as they seem to every couple years, and we got screwed, but it still didn't dampen my Cougar spirit).

Now that I've graduated and have a real career and family (married into the family of a former football starter), I have much less money than I wish I had to spend on anything, much less BYU sports. I try to get to at least one football game a season and can't wait for a few years down the road when I can do more.

As far as other football teams/schools: I loathe the PAC and dislike all the schools in it (didn't used to, but they've all managed to do something to sour me on them). Didn't used to mind the Big 10, but the whole Leaders and Legends thing is pompous to a new degree. Don't care much about the ACC or AAC, will only root for Vandy in the SEC, and actually really like the Big XII.

Used to root for the Jazz, but Larry H. Miller's passing (God rest his soul) has ruined the franchise, so now I root for the Clippers (because I can't root for the Lakers, bleh!). Don't really have a pro football team, but I follow players and watching Peyton Manning play is like watching Jordan play basketball to me. I root for the Redwings, I have no idea why, and I root for the Dodgers because my dad is a fan and worked at Dodger stadium as a teen.

[Wolverine]

I grew up in Jackson, Michigan (30 miles south of East Lansing and 30 miles west of Ann Arbor). The Spartans were mediocre as a kid and Bo Schembechler and the Maize and Blue ruled the state. I hate everything about Ohio State from Woody Hayes to Archie Griffin to the criminals Art Schlichter and Maurice Clarett. It warmed my heart to see Sparty put on the beatdown last Saturday. I am the youngest of six kids in a divorced home of a non-member father and a less-active mother. My oldest sister made it out to BYU in the early 70's and would send me postcards of Cougar Stadium, the MC, and all kinds of newspaper clippings about BYU sports as I was flat out a sports geek. I spent spring break in her apartment (honor code violation?) when I was 11 and spent the week shagging baseballs at games, and trying to get a live glimpse of Kresimir Cosic and Bernie Fryar. I actually shot hoops for a few minutes with Cosic in the Smith Fieldhouse one afternoon. Talk about a dream come true. We lived for awhile in the early 70's in Denver with an aunt and uncle, and my uncle was a BYU alum and huge fan. He took me to my first BYU football game in Ft. Collins which happened to be Marc Wilson's unexpected first start and record-breaking performance. Needless to say I was hooked on BYU by this time. I ended up moving in with this same Aunt and Uncle my Junior year in high school. They played a huge role in getting me on my mission to Guatemala, off to school at Ricks upon my return where I met the love of my life (going on 32 years in 2014), and finally to BYU 1984-1986 (NC year was amazing). My lovely wife loves to play the anti-BYU role and even wore a Notre Dame sweatshirt into LES when we played the Irish. Her conversion has been a slow and painful process . We have 3 wonderful children, all married, and 3 beautiful grandchildren. My son is a hardcore Cougar fan and my daughters and daughter-in-law tolerate our love affair with BYU sports (we did allow the ladies to leave at half-time of this year's Idaho State game). I taught high school Spanish for 11 years in CA and WY and was a boys head basketball coach for 7 of those years and assisted in fb, sb, cc, and track. I have been a HS Principal in Idaho for 16 years and I am now an Elementary Principal and Federal Programs Director for our district. I usually make it to 2-3 fb games a year (broke down and bought season tickets this year), and 3-4 bb games each season. I have watched the Cougs in person in fb on the road in Ft. Collins, Laramie, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Anaheim (bowl game), Tallahassee (awesome road trip), and Logan. I was in Denver for NCAA bb Jimmer's Senior year. I bleed Cougar Blue through and through (still hurts that Cougs_Rule considered me a Ute Troll at one time....ouch ). I am a huge Denver Bronco convert, cheer for the Rockies and Avalanche (Jazz in lieu of Nuggets), and still want to see the Wolverines, Sparty, Tigers, Lions, Red Wings, and Pistons have success. Did I mention that I hate everything Ohio State?

[Schmoe]

Wow, Wolverine and I were at BYU at the same time and have very similar careers, I'm just twenty-some-odd years behind.

[Wolverine]

Wow, Wolverine and I were at BYU at the same time and have very similar careers, I'm just twenty-some-odd years behind.

Trust me. You don't want to catch those 20 years up too fast

[jvquarterback]

My Dad was active duty army for ten years before he decided to go back to school and got accepted to BYU along with my Mom.

My first cougar game (age 6) was the loss to AF in 1982 which I watched with my Dad while he studied. My parents went to school at BYU from 1982-1986 and had season tickets every year. Maybe this tells you a little about me but the only two games I remember from 1982 were the AF loss and the loss to Ohio in the Holiday Bowl while I was sick with the chicken pox.

My Mom dated Adam Haysbert's older brother in high school and we would have he and Leon White over for dinner a few times a year and all the kids in our apartment complex would be so jealous. Also Jason Buck and Shawn Knight came to my grade school and played a game with us at recess. Satema Gali and I smoked them both though.

Took a road trip to San Diego for the Holiday bowl in 1984. Probably my best sports memory as a kid.

I watched a bunch of games at our chapel on Saturday mornings growing up that kept me out of trouble.

I went to BYU from Jan 1998-Apri 2000 after repenting of going to a "better" academic school pre-mission.

My 5-year-old daughter is a rabid BYU fan after watching football games on ESPN and a couple women's soccer and volleyball matches. She's taking me to the bowl game for her first game and my Christmas present so I'd say my job is done there.

[Mars]

I grew up outside the state of Utah, so no one I knew was much of a BYU fan growing up. My father was not LDS, my mother was. But my Dad was a big 49ers fan, so I got to meet Steve Young once and he took a picture with me. I became the first member of my family to attend BYU (and in fact I didn't apply to any other college after hearing a speech by President Hinckley on education broadcast in my Stake Center). My first football game ticket was a birthday present, and it snowed and BYU looked horrible and lost. I was truly converted to BYU while on my mission, and truly converted to college sports fandom my first year home, which I then tried to pass on to my wife once I got married.

Kind of ironic how much I now love the color blue, considering that I was born on a red planet...

[BoiseBYU]

I really like reading all of your stories. I graduated from BYU and it was a great blessing for me. How could I not want to cheer for the school and especially what it aspires to represent? I'm not much of a sports expert and don't really have a whole lot of expertise to impart, but I enjoy your allowing me to follow along and enjoy the ride.

[Mars]

P.S.

My Christmas wish this year is to have Catholicmat stop by and say hello!

[Gunk]

Grew up primarily in California - Bay Area. Growing up, BYU was a dirty word in my house. Not because we are Utes but because my parents didn't think BYU was a legit institution of higher learning, just a place Mormons went to get married way too young. Not a lot of sports were watched in my house except for baseball. We watched the 49ers but not religiously. If a college game was on it was a Pac10 game, the conference of my parents alma mater.

When my oldest sister went to college, she took her perfect GPA to BYU much to my parents disapproval. At Christmas time my sister brought us all BYU clothes, which I absolutely refused to wear in public. Once my parents saw the top notch education my sister was getting and no sign of a husband (she served a mission) they warmed up to BYU. Eight years later and two other siblings that went to BYU there really only was one option. I barely scraped in, bought a student pass with my new found friends and attended my first BYU football game...first in-person football game ever.

Served a mission in Brazil and picked up where I left off. Attended every football game while at school and just about every basketball game. Met my wife, who ran cross country for BYU (part of the BYU Hall of fame team), during my Junior year. Graduated in 2003 and got married a week later. After waiting 6 months for my wife to finish up her degree we moved back to California.

Now have two kids. Still live in the Bay Area and I work in marketing/PR for tech companies. Only reason we have cable is to watch BYU games. I am the most devoted in my family. My mom now watches just about every hoops game with me. My wife and kids are big BYU fans too.

Greg Wrubel follows me on Twitter.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]