Why are you a Sabres fan?

[Barnabov]

Just re-reading old posts & saw the one below from PA saying he became a Sabres fan after getting a cardboard cutout of Gilbert Perreault - pretty cool how something so small can start a lifelong interest in a team.

 

This will be the first year where I get to watch every Sabres game (my wife is giving me Center Ice for my birthday) - will be nice after years of following them in every other manner possible (even driving around to get the national AM feed out of Boston at night when they turn the power up & the Sabres we're playing the Bruins) - will be good to see some games too while up at 3 am with the new baby. Thankfully the Sabres have had some great playoff runs and you can hang on during the regular season then watch them wall to wall in April, May & hopefully into June.

 

My point is that it's hard to see Sabres action unless you buy Center Ice so impressive to see so many posters from nationwide (part of the high taxes & cold weather diaspora from WNY). Would be fun to see how others became fans...

 

Personally, I was living in KC and had a friend from Buffalo - we were watching the playoffs I think in 96 and I remember noticing Mathew Barnaby for the first time - he had just received a penalty and instead of sitting in the box looking all sheepish like most players, he was absolutely rock-star tantrum tearing up the inside of the little glass cubicle - bouncing off the walls, throwing equipment, screaming & swearing - definitely made me notice him and lead to 10 years 24/7/365 SABRES fandom. I also still follow Matt's career and all the teams he's been with since but I'll always think back to that tantrum and then the great playing he did through the rest of the playoffs and what a cool team the Sabres had then and how great it's been to see it evolve and change to the current version.

 

Sorry for the lengthy post but as I said on another topic, not much else to keep us occupied right now (well, other than the stack of real work I should be doing).

 

Barnabov

 

 

post Today, 02:51 PM

Post #51

PASabreFan

 

 

 

Physically Challenged Polecats 7, Offseason 2 *******

 

Group: Members

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QUOTE(BetweenThePipes00 @ Aug 10 2006, 01:56 PM) *

 

would a Bradford radio station really even want to put the games on? I don't know, maybe they would ... and maybe it is something they can do better, but it is not as easy as it is for the Bills. ...

I am not saying the Sabres are great at all this stuff, just that it is not as easy to regionalize a hockey franchise.

 

 

For a number of years before last season, yes, the Sabres were on a local FM station as part of the Sabres Radio Network. I have no clue about the business side of all this, but if losing the affiliate stations was another cost-cutting move, it's another example, like the cutting of the scouting department, of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. And the games were on Empire down here. Funny, but I've seen the number of Sabre hats, t-shirts, bumper stickers and flags dwindle in the past couple of years, even with the events of last spring. If you can't watch without a dish or even listen on the radio, how can you be a fan?

 

Marketing can sometimes involve the smallest of things. You know why I'm a Sabre fan? A cardboard cutout of Gilbert Perreault that probably cost the Sabres 10 cents to produce. In the spring of 75, my dad was a manager at a Tops store here in Bradford. The store gave out, or sold, I forget, the cutouts, in a collectible series. My dad brought one home and a couple nights later I decided to watch the Sabres playoff game with Montreal -- on network TV, Channel 2, I might add. My first game, my first overtime, and I was as nervous as a lifelong fan. My heart slid into my stomach, then Danny Gare slid into the boards after scoring and I was hooked. For good. It doesn't take much really.

 

 

--------------------

Here come the Buffalo Physically Challenged Polecats!

[Sabre Dance]

Back in the mid-sixties (yes, I'm that old), the NHL broadcast some games on CBS, on Saturday afternoons, I think. They also had the Stanley Cup playoffs. When I saw this cool game where guys had sticks and had to skate to get around, I thought that I was seeing the coolest game ever! (I was right - and hooked.)

 

When I found out in 1969 (I was in junior high school) that Buffalo was getting an NHL team and I could go right downtown and see Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr and all those great players, I was flabbergasted. The only problem was - every dang home game was sold out! For years! The only way to get tickets was to go to the box office, stand in line (at like 3 AM) and hope that there were tix left. No tickets.com (no internet).

 

I finally got to a live Sabres game in 1973 or '74 when my dad's co-worker offered his tickets for a game he couldn't attend (he had season tix). Wow! When the Sabres made it to the finals in 1975, I was a Sabres fan for life.

 

I went to just one game live this past season, but I sprung for 200 club level seats. Sitting in a nice, comfy seat, having a waitress bring nachos and a cold one and watching my favorite team....is this heaven? (No, it's HSBC Arena....)

 

 

 

-Ed :)

[blugold43]

cause on a winter night in 1971 my dad called out to me from the living room, "HEY BOY- COME LOOK AT THIS!" it was a sabres game. he spent a couple minutes explaining the basics to me (i was 6) and the rest is history.

[frisky]

My point is that it's hard to see Sabres action unless you buy Center Ice so impressive to see so many posters from nationwide (part of the high taxes & cold weather diaspora from WNY). Would be fun to see how others became fans...

 

I don't try to claim I'm smarter than I really am so I'll admit I didn't know what this word meant so I had to look it up. Anyone else whose needs help this is the definition...

 

Diaspora - a : the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland <the black diaspora to northern cities> b : people settled far from their ancestral homelands

 

Oh, don't forget also the lack of employment opportunities in some fields of work.

 

Edit: Oh yeah...why...I went to a game with my friend and his dad in '79 and sat down in the golds and had the best time. It was fun and exciting. Hooked ever since.

[sabregoats]

It feels like I have been a fan forever, but I am just a mere infantile fan compared to you older guys. I think I attended my first game in 1990 when I was about 5 yrs old. We sat in the oranges and I couldn't get over how steep the aisles were. I fell in love with the game (and the sabres) and made my dad take me back a few more times that year. I am just thankfull that I am old enough to remember the aud and its funky smell.

[Barnabov]

Hey Frisky - not trying to use big words on purpose but when the definition fits...

 

Good point on the lack of employment opportunities, although I'll say that the Internet has made that less of an issue in the past decade. Still, I know of few if any of the people I graduated from high school with in '89 who still live in Schuyler County (Watkins Glen area) - true, some have gone to the big city (that's Rochester where I'm from) to make a living but most have moved out of state.

 

Luckily we get to spend more and more time on Seneca Lake every Summer - that's the worst time of the year to be in Texas.

[LabattBlue]

Being able to say that I have been a fan from the beginning of a franchise is special. From the spin of the wheel that allowed that Sabres to draft Perreault, to going to the Aud as a young teen, Eddie Shack, Jim Schoenfeld, Punch Imlach, Roger Crozier, Tim Horton, standing room only, 16433, Ted Darling,etc...

 

They won me over for a lifetime. :)

[fushetti]

I was 9 years old. 87-88 Season. My father and his friend were watching the Sabres play the Penguins and I found myself riveted by the game. My father noticed this and got us tickets for an Islanders game and a Winnipeg game. From that moment on, I was hooked.

 

Then, during that year's playoffs I watched every game and wondered why Boston had a guy named Ray Pork (Bourque). hahah. ;)

[chileanseabass]

i remember my first game, a 4-2 loss against hartford. i was in 2nd grade (1986-1987 season) and we sat in the upper blues. my dad had gone to a game with a guy who's company had tickets, and he had such a good time he thought maybe i'd like it. i remember he brought home an old "goal" program with denis savard on the cover (they played the hawks) and i was so excited to go. after that we were hooked. we got some lower gold seats from his boss for a few games and then after that we settled into our seats in the oranges and got the 20 game pack (plus the playoffs of course) in the same seats until we moved to binghamton when i was 12. going to the games was always something special for us. we had a routine and everything, parking by the naval park thingy and going in that back entrance, then buying 2 cokes, popcorn and peanuts before settling into our seats and watching warmups. orange, second row, seats 1 & 2, straight behind the net (section 135 maybe? i can't remember). ah, the good ol' days.

[SCSabresFan!]

JImmy Kockler - the kid watched every Sabres game. Growing up I'd sleep over at his house and watch the games. I got hooked. Then X Benedict got the same virus and it spread.

[mrjsbu96]

#11 - was the sole reason I became a fan. I remember how amazed i was on his end-to-end rushes! Ironically, I wore #11 all the way in to college even though I became a defenseman! I also used to love attending games at the Aud or listening to Ted Darling when the games were on WGRZ, especially the old-time hockey brawls with the Nordiques!

[BetweenThePipes00]

This is a great question. The only true answer I can come up with is I can't remember NOT being a Sabres fan. They played their first game the month before I was born and they were just always there. Family legend has it when I was really little I called them the Buppeo Savers ... my earliest memory of actually watching them, I THINK, is being over at my grandmother's house and watching my Uncle (who was a teenager) play street hockey and then watching them play the Flyers on a Sunday afternoon ... could have been the Finals maybe? I seem to remember a loose puck bouncing up in the air and Schony batting it into the Philly net with his hand and them not counting it. But I TOTALLY could have imagined that, I admit. I was really little.

I also remember being SO excited going to the Brand Names in Cheektowaga, probably in like '76, to get the rod-hockey game with the Sabres guys in it.

Like I said they were just always there. They had a Buppeo, er, Buffalo on their chest, and that was good enough for me. It was in my blood.

[cheese]

Being able to say that I have been a fan from the beginning of a franchise is special. From the spin of the wheel that allowed that Sabres to draft Perreault, to going to the Aud as a young teen, Eddie Shack, Jim Schoenfeld, Punch Imlach, Roger Crozier, Tim Horton, standing room only, 16433, Ted Darling,etc...

 

They won me over for a lifetime. :)

 

 

16,433 is a number burned into my memory forever. You didn't even have to look at the box score to know that last night's number was the same as the game before that, and the hundreds of games before that: 16,433.

[mphs mike]

Being able to say that I have been a fan from the beginning of a franchise is special. From the spin of the wheel that allowed that Sabres to draft Perreault, to going to the Aud as a young teen, Eddie Shack, Jim Schoenfeld, Punch Imlach, Roger Crozier, Tim Horton, standing room only, 16433, Ted Darling,etc...

 

They won me over for a lifetime. :)

 

 

I remember it all fairly well. My first professional game was at the Aud in 68/69 when my Dad took me to see the Bisons play - don't remember the opponent. I do remember that I was told a year or so later that the Buffalo hockey team wouldn't be the Bisons, it would be the Sabres. I was VERY disappointed to learn that the league wouldn't let Buffalo's best players - Guy Trottier and Gilles Villenueve play for the Sabres.

 

PS: We were also getting an NBA team at the same time. Fun and you could attend alot more games because tix were available.

[BetweenThePipes00]

PS: We were also getting an NBA team at the same time. Fun and you could attend alot more games because tix were available.

 

This reminds me of something that people forget ... I was like 4 and 5 years old, so I don't actually REMEMBER it really, but you can't dismiss this fact: In the mid-70s, The NFL MVP (O.J. Simpson), NBA MVP (Bob McAdoo) and perhaps the most exciting NHL player (Bert) all wearing Buffalo uniforms at the same time. I understand they never actually won anything, but when you are a little kid it's not really about that, it's about heroes and moments you remember that get you hooked on sports. And with all that going on it was almost impossible NOT to become a big sports fan.

[Sabresince70]

Because in the 70's, when Hershey was Buffalo's AHL affiliate, a goalie named Donny Edwards would actually spend time with the kids after practices. When he made it to the Sabres (and was for a few years an All Star, Vezina winner) he was OURS......Oh and living as close to Philly as I do and having to hear Gene Hart night after night, I just had to root for someone else. I still have Gene Hart nightmares "The Sabres score, but did you see how Tim Kerr (or Clarke,Barber,incert any Flyer name here) was sitting on the bench watching? What a player!!!!!"

[William2k2DJ]

I was almost 8 years old. It was the 1999 playoffs, and Dominik Hasek and Michael Peca were my favorite players. I had always liked hockey before, but not the sabres. I was a small child then, wasn't really aware. I remember the Sabres winning the Toronto series and me being all excited and seeing the confetti and stuff fall down from the rafters. It made me believe. Sadly, I stayed up and saw them lose the Stanley Cup Finals(No Goal), but I rebounded. I was off and on until the start of last season. I thought since I have always been a fan of the sport, why not try to see some games(I saw one on Presidents day). So we went the opening home game against the Islanders(I believe) and we were hooked. I was depressed about the lockout as I finally was excited, but I finally saw the new NHL. It was great.

 

I don't know about this year and the chnages of the team, but I can proudly say I am a fan for life.

[Icepux]

When I was a kid growing up in the late-70s & early-80s, my father split season tickets with some coworkers. He would take one of his five kids to the games with him.

 

And as my older siblings got older and went off to college, it meant more games for me. So I had a chance to see quite few games when I was 10ish, and at that age when everything about sports is so cool and players were gods.

 

I remember my brothers and sisters all chipping in around my 11th birthday to get me a Sabres jersey.

 

We had a lot of good times. We used to sit near one of the cameras in the oranges, and it was when Danny Neavreth Jr. (not the big radio guy, his son) used to do the cameras for broadcast. He was really cool and we thought he was so funny to talk to between periods.

 

Good times.

[BuffalOhio]

1971-72 season. I was 7 when the season started. I didn't even know about the Sabres until I was reading the comics one day, and there was a poster of Gilbert Perreault. GILL-BERT PEAR-E-ALT as I first called him. I can't believe, as much as I have loved hockey in my life, that I didn't know we had a team until I was 7 years old.

 

Neither of my folks had any hockey experience in their lives. My older brother, who was 9 at the time, didn't know much about it either.

 

We started watching after I saw that poster, and I've been a huge fan ever since.

 

I remember watching when they were on WGR (before it was WGRZ). I remember really enjoying the sound of Ted Darling?s voice when calling the games. I just liked the way he said, ?He Scooooooooores!?

 

I remember being on the escalator at the Aud for a Canadiens @ Sabres game on a Saturday afternoon, and saying to my dad, "Hey, that's Ted Lindsay and Tim Ryan from NBC." Well those two guys heard me, and when we all got off the escalator, they shook my hand, opened their briefcase, and gave me a bunch of Peter Puck stickers.

 

I think the Sabres won that game, and as a family we then went to the Ponderosa Steak House (when it was actually a good restaurant) on Ridge Road in West Seneca after the game. I remember having my road sweater (and it was really a sweater-type material) on, and eating a fine steak with my family.

 

My dad then built us some nets, got us some street hockey gear, and that's all we did most of the time - play street hockey.

 

When I was 11, I signed myself up for the West Seneca House League, and on the eve of tryouts, told my mom that I didn't want to bowl anymore and that I wanted to be a hockey player and that tryouts were tomorrow. Mom took me to Twin Fair on Transit Road, where she got me the rest of the gear I needed. Helmet and full cage, basically. I ended up working at that Twin Fair for a couple years before it closed.

 

I made the team, played on the B line, and ended up the team MVP and we won the championship.

 

After that, my life was changed. I was a hockey player. I have been ever since. I'm now entering my 10th straight season as a USA Hockey Referee, and I still play twice a week. I can?t tell you how many friends I?ve made due to my love of the greatest game around.

 

It's amazing how just looking at the comics can change your life!

[PTS]

Like some have echoed already, I can't remember not being a Sabres fan. My family grew up in sports and my dad was always a big sports fan.

 

I remember going to the Aud with him in the mid- to late-80s and just always loving the Sabres. It wasn't until LaFontaine & Mogilny that it went to the hardcore level it's at now.

[hopeleslyobvious]

I don't really have a defining moment either. Just grew up with the team.

[mphs mike]

Because in the 70's, when Hershey was Buffalo's AHL affiliate, a goalie named Donny Edwards would actually spend time with the kids after practices. When he made it to the Sabres (and was for a few years an All Star, Vezina winner) he was OURS......Oh and living as close to Philly as I do and having to hear Gene Hart night after night, I just had to root for someone else. I still have Gene Hart nightmares "The Sabres score, but did you see how Tim Kerr (or Clarke,Barber,incert any Flyer name here) was sitting on the bench watching? What a player!!!!!"

 

I had forgotten that for a couple (maybe 3) years the Bears were our top affiliate in between the Cincinnati Swords and Amerks. I always loved the Swords could grow up to be Sabres nickname play.

[sskot13]

The Image of the Aud and all its glory back somewhere around 1982 when I was 8 or 9 making my first trip to the Aud, with my Father, after hearing all of the great stories of the Buffalo Sabres and its past players. That?s when I was hooked. Before that, even know my father had me on the ice for the first time at the age of 2, starting playing at age 3 at Sabreland (Hockey Outlet now), watching games with him on TV, seeing the 1980 USA hockey team, and skating around rink my father made for us every winter in the back yard with my brother and our homemade Stanley Cup, I really did not have a clue until I was there and watching them in person?

[DR HOLLIDAY]

1976, 6 years old, Sabres on Radio and TV more then the Leafs, My father hated the leafs and I started to watch the magic of Gilbert Perreault and his cohorts in crime, Rick Martin and Rene Robert. I liked Rick Martin a lot because his last name is the same as my first name and when your 6 thats pretty kool. Rick Martin was first Jersey I had and then Perreault, Edwards, LaFontaine, Peca and a new self named Jersey. Ric broadcasting Gilbert Perrrreauuuult with a tiny radio under my pillow when I was supposed to be sleeping. My second best sports memory is Perreaults 500th goal, right after the catch.

 

Even after the heartbreaks this team has given me, Peca, Nolan, and the big losses I still love this team and I will be a Sabres fan until the day I die............. B-)

[mphs mike]

1976, 6 years old, Sabres on Radio and TV more then the Leafs, My father hated the leafs and I started to watch the magic of Gilbert Perreault and his cohorts in crime, Rick Martin and Rene Robert. I liked Rick Martin a lot because his last name is the same as my first name and when your 6 thats pretty kool. Rick Martin was first Jersey I had and then Perreault, Edwards, LaFontaine, Peca and a new self named Jersey. Ric broadcasting Gilbert Perrrreauuuult with a tiny radio under my pillow when I was supposed to be sleeping. My second best sports memory is Perreaults 500th goal, right after the catch.

 

Even after the heartbreaks this team has given me, Peca, Nolan, and the big losses I still love this team and I will be a Sabres fan until the day I die............. B-)

 

 

AH - the transistor radio hanging on the bedpost with an earplug! I remember it well. Despite many efforts I don't recall ever making it to the second period of a west coast game before Ted had serenaded me to sleep.