What Made You A Tiger's Fan?

scrambo · Post by **scrambo** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:27 pm

Has this been done before?

I was asked this question today and im curious how everyone become a tiger fan. And for those living or from leicester what else made you a tiger fan other than living in leicester?

Here's mine - very girly lol

its sounds a bit daft. ive secretly liked rugby for a while but never really understood it that is til this year when i watched england down the pub and got into it far more than i normally do and so decided to read up about it and then thought about looking at the clubs and decided on the rugby union and then looked at the clubs there. Sounds daft but i picked tigers cos i like the animal (such a girly way to make a choice lol) but i read up about them and was actually pleased i picked tigers cos they are an awesome team not to mention having some pretty fit players lol. What's more one of my mates is a fan so thats a bonus i have someone at work i can talk to about the team as well.

notts tiger · Post by **notts tiger** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:41 pm

i became a tigers fan because when i was younger my grandad used to take me with,and its sort of a traditon- my grandad, my dad and i support them!

Hans Hullabaloo · Post by **Hans Hullabaloo** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:41 pm

2000-2001 i used to watch the WWE (back then WWF)on a Friday night and just before has Friday night rugby league was on, if we turned it over early we would catch the end,and i thought as a naive 11 year old that it looked fun, so wanted to give it a go. Realizing that league was a little difficult to pick up down south, i started to get interested in union. finding out that watching was far less painful than playing, i had the choice what team i should go to watch my first game, Northampton or Leicester (the most local clubs), me picking Leicester as "it was the only city of the two i had heard of". a few weeks later i saw my first game against Quins when tigers lifted the premiership trophy. haven't looked back since, becoming season ticket holders in the A+L stand and haven't moved since.

brooksey101 · Post by **brooksey101** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:45 pm

Dad didnt live with me and he took to a tigers game first time in 5 years of seeing them being hooked ever since!
Great team with some great role models

muttley75 · Post by **muttley75** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:46 pm

Scrambo,

I have to say that I was born at Leicester General, a, err, few (32) years ago, my old man had played for Leicester Swifts (remember them anyone? Bill??) a few times, I played for Stoneygate rugby club at Minis, I was taken to watch the Tigers as a kid (for some reason Dad never took me to Northampton!!) met Brace, Dodgey, Dusty, Stuey Redfern and all the others as a kid and they influenced me!

It really is that simple.

Have supported them ever since despite moving all over the country with my dad's (and subsequently my) job and growing up between 8 and 18 in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, where rugby is better than sex and playing ferocious, old Glaws style rugby for a club called Berry Hill.

mrsmoody · Post by **mrsmoody** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:53 pm

Well the first game my dad ever saw was Leicester v Baabaa's, and so he has supported them ever since. Back in october of 2004, he wanted to take us to the stoop (nearest ground) when Leicester were playing there, and afterwards I met some of the players and have been hooked ever since!

As they were the opposition in my first game, quins are kind of my second team...and also because they are nearest!

Gate · Post by **Gate** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:58 pm

I lived in Leicester at an impressionable age and my dad used to take me to the big matches (which back then - back end of the sixties - meant the Barbarians plus the odd match against a Welsh side. Then we moved North, and perversely, I battened more strongly onto the Leicester teams. Played a bit at college and some of my drinking buddies were from Lutterworth, so went to WR a few times and decided Peter Wheeler was God and Tigers were the dog's danglers.

My son is now Tigers-fixated and really loves the trips up to Leicester (if Gate Jr Mk II takes to it as well, my wife will also love it, as it will clear all three of us out of the house for whole day). And so it goes.

Rizzo · Post by **Rizzo** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:16 pm

I married a man who liked rugby, and Tigers.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:21 pm

Excellent taste Rizzo!!!

Goffer3404 · Post by **Goffer3404** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:58 pm

Going back to the days, when playing for South Wigston School, the schools got "Schoolboy tickets" (I got my first in the 70s, but they were still around a few decades later). Standing on the bank, or wandering into the Crumbie hooked you. Chalkie White has a lot to answer for, he created a way of playing that you just wanted to watch. The "5 in an England shirt" (Is the Argentinian connection a real surprise with Cusworth involved in both teams)arrived and the ground began to get busier. The Baa Baas was always a fixture, particularly the year that Barry Evans showed why Mike Slemen, super England wing, had come to the end of his international days, then there was the era of Deano Deano Heave Heave and the Underwood boys, and their mum's enthusiasm, in came Jonno, the rest you should remember and the hair on the neck is prickling. It's the pedigree of the club and it's players. There aren't many left that can boast the tradition of local boys for the local club. Some are trying to emulate, but they are decades behind. Ex-players, like them or hate them still want to commentate on Radio Leicester for us!

CJ · Post by CJ » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:06 pm

born and bred there. first sporting experience was watching county play the windies in 1957, then shortly afterwards Dad took me to WR in the days when the A& L was a slag heap. I even remember that East Midlands v all Blacks game in er, 1959 was it?

great club atmosphere - the hops in the club house on a Friday night - ah, those were the days. still a great club atmosphere. and it just so happens we've got a great and successful team as well.

once a Tiger, always a Tiger.

Bill W · Post by **Bill W** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:14 pm

East Miflands v All Blacks. That was the game when Dickie Bird hit Don Clarke and bounced off?? Wa it 59. Must have been layter!! But hey ho - happy days.

As you say once a tiger always a tiger!!

TigerS2 · Post by **TigerS2** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:57 am

Bill W wrote:East Miflands v All Blacks. That was the game when Dickie Bird hit Don Clarke and bounced off?? Wa it 59. Must have been layter!! But hey ho - happy days.

As you say once a tiger always a tiger!!

................

Back in 91 (I think) I was at a night club called Jokers, Alex Paps was there, (from Home and Away) and during the night, a few men in Hawian skirts and flowery necklases (Tigers players) came over and started chatting to my friend and I. They suggested that we came to watch Leicester Tigers one day. Never thought anything about it, until I had an opportunity to move nearer to the area in which the stadium was.. The first game I went to was in 93 Tigers v L Irish, in a Pilkington Cup game. I loved it and have been a STH ever since, though I never found out who the players were in the grass skirts.

Outlander · Post by **Outlander** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:29 am

In 1999, Meg, the kids and I visited England, Wales, and Scotland. We took a train to Cardiff (saw Tintern Abbey, Caerphilly Castle, and Cardiff Castle) and wondered about the big stadium being built near the station. A cab driver told us it was being prepared for the Rugby World Cup. Now, I had HEARD of rugby, but I knew absolutely nothing about it.

A couple years later, my son Chris was playing American football here in Minnesota. A teammate's dad was organizing a rugby club, and Chris wanted to play. I was skeptical, mainly because I didn't want him to be hurt and mess up his last season of football.

Still, he decided to play. Of course, being a typical dad, I was there watching him. Now, High School rugby in Minnesota is played in the spring, and if you think Eng. has dodgy spring weather, you should see March in Minnesota! Anyway, Chris was amazingly lucky. His friend's dad had arranged for the HS side to be coached by a visiting Englishman who had played for Rugby and Moseby (if I remember correctly) and had coached at fairly high levels. This coach was extremely good at teaching American lads how to put in a reasonable turn of rugby pretty quickly.

Now, at the spring banquet after the season, lots of bits and baubles were handed out. The coach, who has contacts with some of the old Tigers, had about a dozen copies of the testimonial booklet that was handed out for the ABC Club.

Well, as I was trying to figure out the sport, I drank that stuff up. Now, I am the sort of fan who, once hooked, is hooked forever.

Along came 2003. I began following the sport online in the ramp up to the RWC and followed ENG as closely as I could. As I followed the articles, I read about the heroics that Tigers had been achieving the previous couple of years. At this point, I had never seen Tigers play, but I was really getting hooked.

Then, a couple of years ago, my son told me that he had heard about a channel on the satellite dish that carried rugby. Well, within about 2 hours, I had signed up for Setanta Sports channel, and so I have been able to watch the last 2+ seasons of the Premiership along with lots of other rugby. Needless to say, watching Tigers every other week or so really locked me in as a fan for life.

Finally, as some here may recall, Meg and I were able to visit my son last fall when he played for South Leicester RFC for 6 months. We got to see him play and I was able to visit Welford Road. (I couldn't watch Tigers because he was playing at the same time!)

Well, that's my story. A bit odd, perhaps, but I am really enjoying rugby. I was a fan of the NFL for many decades, but now I have little patience with it. The commercials!

You know, I was watching a college football game on Saturday and I became disoriented. I looked at the clock in the 2nd quarter and it said 14:56 or whatever, and I thought, "OK, the half is about over." But the quarter kept grinding on. Then it hit me. Although for almost 5 decades I have watched American sports count down to 0:00 on their clocks, I have been so conditioned by watching rugby that I now expect a game clock to count UP to full time! Also, when I watch a player score a TD in American football, I wonder why he didn't ground the ball and I worry if he is too far from the middle, forgetting that football extra points are always chippie kicks in front of the posts. I think my sports brain has been addled!

Ze Stade Fan · Post by **Ze Stade Fan** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:26 am

April the 1st 2007. Fool's Day. Toigers 21 Stade 20 or som'thin' like that. I travelled from Paris in a pink T-shirt to shake 3275 hands while trying to keep my chin up, repeating steadily "good game" with a bitter grin. Got sore fingers and cramps in the jaw for a month.

Revenge. Revenge ! I crave for revenge !

Plus I always was a fan of martin Johnson. If there is anything such as the ideal rugby player, in my mind there must be some Martin Johnson in him. Great player, immense captain, simple chap and a gentleman.