i'm curious because half this board talks like they were born in a sweater at the joe and i KNOW some of you adopted this team from far away for weird reasons. so let's hear the origin stories.
mine: i am not from michigan. i'm from a place with no hockey at all. i became a wings fan in college because a boy i had a crush on was obsessed with datsyuk and i started watching to have something to talk to him about. the crush went nowhere. the obsession with the magic man and this entire dysfunctional beautiful franchise stuck for life. so technically i'm a wings fan because of a guy whose name i can barely remember now. the team outlasted the boy by a decade. tell me yours.
grew up in the thumb, dad had season tickets to the joe, didn't have a choice in the matter. honestly less an origin story and more a hostage situation that i grew to love. the first game he took me to we won in OT and he hugged a complete stranger and i decided that's what i wanted to feel forever.
EA NHL on the playstation. picked the wings because the jersey looked the coolest in the menu. won a fake cup with fedorov and never looked back. became a real fan watching real games to chase the feeling. greatest accidental decision of my childhood.
Mine isn't a choice, it's an inheritance. My grandfather listened to Bruce Martyn on the radio in a kitchen in Hamtramck and my father did the same and I did the same and now my granddaughter wears a Raymond sweater. Four generations of one family handing the same team down like a pocket watch. I didn't become a fan. I was simply issued one at birth like a name. That's how it works in some families and I wouldn't trade it.
im from europe originally and i became a wings fan because of all the russians. fedorov konstantinov kozlov larionov fetisov, the whole russian five. for a kid back home watching a detroit team win cups with our guys playing that beautiful passing game it was like watching home win. i moved here years later and the team was already mine. the russian five made wings fans out of half a continent and people here dont even realize it.
mine is so dumb. i was a casual who watched hockey night with my mom and i picked the wings because the winged wheel was the prettiest logo on tv and i was like eight and shallow. thirty years later still here, still think it's the prettiest logo on tv. sometimes the shallow reason is just correct.
Started playing beer league as an adult, fell in love with the actual game from the inside, and the wings were just the team my whole rink rooted for so it was the path of least resistance. Funny how you can come to a team backwards through playing the sport instead of watching it. Made me appreciate the unglamorous parts more than the highlight reel guys.
these are SO much better than i hoped. petrov's russian five answer and otto's pocket watch line have me actually emotional over here. the thing i'm taking from this whole thread is that almost nobody became a wings fan rationally. it's always a boy or a grandfather or a video game or a pretty logo. nobody does a cost benefit analysis and picks the team that's missed the playoffs ten years running. love is dumb and so are we. ❤️
late one but mine's a hospital story. i was born during a wings playoff game and my dad watched the third period on a waiting room tv while i was being born and apparently when i came out he was crying as much about the OT winner as about me. been a wings fan since literally the day i was born, no choice involved, the team was in the room. dad still claims i timed my birth around the intermission. probably did.