Where I Come From: How Did You Become An Eagles Fan?
by Brian Favat on Jul 5, 2010 1:23 PM EDT
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Everyone has a different story. While some people were Boston College fans before they came to the Heights, others became fans when they got to campus. Still others may have attended grad school at BC or were forced (read: born) into cheering for the maroon and gold. Today's post topic attempts to delve more deeply into why you became an Eagles fan. My own story is a bit of an unconventional one.
Funny thing about being an oldest child. When it comes to filling out college applications and picking places to go to school, you really don't have the first clue what you are doing.
I grew up in southern New Jersey and spent the first 18 years of my life there. Aside from the occasional mention of Penn State in the Philadelphia Inquirer, college football wasn't anywhere on my radar growing up. My father went to school at Ohio Northern University (Go Polar Bears!) and my mother went to school at Keene State in New Hampshire. Growing up, I was much more into following the New York pro sports teams (the Giants, Yankees and Rangers) than college sports teams. Aside from a passing interest in March Madness, college sports, and in particular, college football, just weren't on my radar.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that when it came time to choose a college, I really didn't factor whether the schools that I applied to had big time college athletics. In fact, of the six schools that I applied to, only one - Boston College - had a Division I college football program. Well, two if you count the State University of New Jersey, but at the time, it wasn't much of a program at all. So I guess you can say I only applied to one school with a football program ...
I have distinct memories of moving into Duchesne Hall my freshman year and listening to the BC-West Virginia football game on the car radio as I unpacked. In a game that would be symbolic of BC's four year run while I was in school, the Eagles lost that game in Morgantown 34-14.
While I grew to appreciate college football as a part of college life at BC, the football team never really gave me anything to convince me to go that extra mile and become a diehard fan. Sure, 8-9 win seasons and Motor City Bowl victories were nice, but I was later lead to believe that 8-9 wins were the best you could do at BC. The Eagles always seemed to be a good, not but great team that would win a few conference games but never challenge Virginia Tech or Miami for the top spot in the Big East.
In contrast, the Eagles men's ice hockey team won a National Championship in my freshman year, breaking a 52-year title drought. The BC basketball team surprised the entire conference by winning the Big East Tournament in 2001. I was instantly hooked on both hockey and basketball.
But with football, while I grew to love the Eagles football team, they never gave me that something extra. That is, until the 2007 season.
While I would continue to go back and attend college football games (meeting a cute BC grad student that randomly sat behind me at the 2004 BC-Penn State game who would later become my wife), it wasn't until the 2007 season that I became hooked on BC football.
Enter: Matt Ryan.
BC had two solid seasons in their first two years in the ACC, coming within a game of appearing in the ACC Championship Game. We were shown flashes of what Matt Ryan could do at quarterback once he was finally given the starting role over Quinton Porter. But as the 2007 season went on, you had the feeling that it was the start of something truly special. A strange scheduling quirk gave the Eagles three straight ACC games to start the season. I attended both the season opener against Wake Forest, a wild 38-28 game where BC went down by two scores in the games' opening minutes, and a 37-17 victory over former Coach O'Brien and the N.C. State Wolfpack.
Matt Ryan really arrived when he torched Jon Tenuta's Georgia Tech defense for 435 yards and a touchdown in a convincing 24-10 victory on Saturday night. The Eagles started ACC play with a 3-0 record. And the wins kept coming ... 4-0 ... 5-0 ... 6-0 ... 7-0. Before you knew it, the little school from Chestnut Hill was 7-0 and the #2 ranked team in the country.
On pretty much a whim, Jeff convinced me to drive the 8 hours from New York to Blacksburg for BC's Thursday night game against the #8 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies. We sat in the pouring rain for 3+ quarters, watching the Eagles get shutout and the Virginia Tech defense stifle Matt Ryan and the Eagles offense. That is, until 4:16 left in the fourth quarter, where we witnessed Matt Ryan engineer two of the most incredible drives I've ever seen. When Ryan found Andre Callendar wide open in the end zone with :11 to play, that was it. That was the moment BC football converted another lifer.
I would attend the next three games, and despite losses to Florida State and Maryland, Matt Ryan had a little more magic up his sleeve, finding a wide open Rich Gunnell for the Atlantic Division-clinching touchdown against Clemson. While I was a bit crushed when BC lost the rematch to Virginia Tech in the 2007 ACC Championship Game, I flew back down to Florida three weeks later to see Ryan play one last time in the Champs Sports Bowl. You just had the feeling that you never wanted that season to end.
The Eagles finished the season 11-3 and ranked 10th in the final AP poll. Not bad for a school where 8-9 wins was supposed to be the ceiling. And despite a soul-crushing loss in the ACC Championship Game, Jeff and I started this blog less than a week later. So nearly three years and over 1,000 posts later, you mostly have Matt Ryan to thank for this site.
What about you guys? When did you become an Eagles fan?
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How I Became an Eagle fan
I received early admission to BC in December 1963 while finishing up as a resident student at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ. I was surprised to see an account of BC students at a NYC college basketball tournament in the NYC tabloids. Some of the BC students attending the tournament had decided to “race” tv sets by dropping them out of hotel windows to see which brand would hit the street first. I wondered what I had gotten myself into.
In September 1964, after moving into my dorm room in Fenwick, along with all other Frosh, I was herded into Alumni stadium to take part in a “mandatory” card section, which was to spell out various cheers and symbols during the first game against Syracuse. The cards were soon forgotten and we students never again took directions from anyone; but the game ended a BC victory on a last play, last second TD pass by Jack Concannon.
I was hooked from that day forward. I sat through smashing losses to Penn State and wonderful victories over Texas and ND.
My frosh roomie introduced me to hockey and I’ve been a fan ever since.
I used to attend every Big East hoops tourney.
I flew to Canada to see Flutie play in the CFL.
I had a “dish farm” in my back yard to follow him and all other BC sports.
I alternate my vehicle colors between maroon and gold to go with my BC “vanity” plate.
You get the idea…. Go Eagles!
by Leonard E Sienko Jr on Jul 5, 2010 1:52 PM EDT reply actions
BC-Syracuse, opening day, 1964
Memory plays tricks on us all. Concannon had graduated. Larry Marzetti threw that wobbly pass to BC captain, the late Bill Cronin, with 12 seconds left. There was enough time after the touchdown to make us kick off to Syracuse. One of the Syracuse players tried to start a fight, but the game was over. I was there too.
Some years later, I played a touch football game on the Washington Mall against Marzetti and other BC guys, I forget who won, but the interesting part is that Marzetti was then a Washington lawyer, if I’m not mistaken. No apparel or recreation management majors on BC teams then or now.
Speaking of Concannon and memory tricks, many years ago I was working in NY with a guy from Penn State, who claimed he had seen Concannon play against the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley. Swore up and down. Saw it with his own eyes. Now, of course, I knew very well that we had not played Penn State in the Concannon years. Told him to look it up when he went home. But the day of that argument was either his or my last day at that job. We would never see one another again. But, a few years later, by freakish accident, I ran into him as he was getting off an elevator somewhere in NY, and I was getting on. As we passed each other he had time to say just one thing, “You were right.” Doesn’t happen very often.
I have another story about an encounter with Concannon near my freshman dorm. But I won’t tell it because it reflects badly on him and some of his teammates.
by Brooklyneagle on Jul 6, 2010 9:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Front page FanShot'd due to Matt Ryan praise:
http://www.thefalcoholic.com/2010/7/5/1553349/sb-nations-boston-college-blog-so
Longest Atlanta Falcons winning-seasons streak: 2008 - current
SB Nation Atlanta · The Falcoholic · Blog · Twitter
Hooked
Good post. Let me reminisce from a generation earlier.
One game that got me seriously hooked on BC football was when an unknown short kid from Natick, MA in about 1982 torched big bad Penn State for 600 or so yards. A memorable day to be in Alumni Stadium
That of corse was Doug Fluite’s sophomore year and I think his yards that day remain a record of most yards ever thrown against PSU!
But I think I was well hooked before that’ for example when bc beat Texas in the mid 1970s (before i went to BC)
How I became a fan
Growing up raised Catholic there were only two schools that were big time programs and believed in the same faith I did at the time. I chose BC over ND because ND fans I knew were pricks. I never went to BC mostly because I never had the grades to get in.
Anyway that’s the very short version of how I became a fan of the Eagles of Boston College
My Uncle had season tickets years ago
That is how I became hooked. It wasn’t something everyone did as BC football was barely a blip on the radar but the intimate feeling of the stadium and the ability to be able to attend any kind of football games at the time was mind-boggling and awesome.
So every since then I have been an absolute die-hard BC football fan. They may not be the best team in the country or they may not ever constantly challenge for a National title, they will always be my favorite football team.
I don't think I can pinpoint the moment
But it was sometime between showing up at BC in September 2004 and BC beating ND in South Bend in 2004 by one point. That was just the football side of it. The other sports followed later.
Soaring to Glory: Come for the BC sports, stay for the asinine rants.
This will surprise a lot of people but.....
Ed Reed made me bleed maroon and gold. Seems a little weird, but we were a play away from knocking off the number 1 team in the country, until tragedy struck. Heartbreak made me a BC Fan for life.
I remember the Matt Ryan game
Someone behind me threw a bottle at him and it hit his foot. He connected for a touchdown pass or a very long completion. (sigh).
by Winfield Featherston on Jul 6, 2010 12:08 PM EDT reply actions
November 10th 2001. BC is trailing the undefeated Miami Hurricanes 7-12, but BC is knocking on the door of a historic victory. It’s something like first and goal, where a bizarre play has a pass knocked down, bounces off a guys knee or foot, it pops up gets intercepted and run back 100 years whereby the extra point is missed. BC loses 18-7, my heart is crushed, but it’s stamped with the BC logo for life.
St. Pierre drops back and attempts a pass to Ryan Reid at the 2 yard line. The pass ricochets off the leg of Miami cornerback Mike Rumph and into the hands of Matt Walters. Walters begins to return the ball when Ed Reed rips the ball out of Walters hands and runs the 80 yards for the game-clinching touchdown. An absolutely surreal moment in my Superfan history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02fppIV9pik
That was the closest BC came to a monumental win when I was in school. Heart breaking.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
BC 41 ND 39
As a 1992 grad, BC football didn’t show me much before I graduated, with four losing seasons. Still, I was a fan. But the year after I graduated was a totally different (and better) story. After having lost to ND 54-7 the previous year (including the infamous fake punt at 37-0), using David Gordon’s foot to prevent the #1 Irish from possibly winning the national title made me a lifelong diehard.
We were hosting a dinner for my wife’s grad school friends whom we had met only recently (no BC people but me). I was the only one watching the game. At the end, they thought I was utterly insane. I had no time for them and spent the rest of the night doing shots on the phone with BC friends. We had come a long way from our 4-7, 3-8, 2-9, and 4-7 seasons.
Brainwashed by my....
grandfather who was class 0f 1950 since I was born. Just followed his footsteps this past spring (already wish I didn’t graduate) and will be an Eagle for life.
Entering True Fandom
I have to say that while I had always enjoyed going to games and cheering on the team, I wasn’t a truly a fan until the 2007 season. That’s right – Matty Ice & Co won me over. That season was so exciting – it was great to be a fan. At every game, home or away, I was always so proud to be in my BC gear. Even when we lost. Because you knew we had tried our hardest and had given it our best shot (and usually came pretty close). Every game mattered. The other ACC teams gave us more respect and saw us as a real competitor. I had never been so excited about BC football, and sometimes I worry that I never will be again! But a wise person once told me that a true fan sticks it out through the tough games and seasons. So, I’ll stick it out – but require a bit more beer to get through some of the horrendous games.
Honestly?
Honestly? Catholic school, preschool through high school. I was rejected from ND but accepted to BC. The rest was history.
Best thing to ever happen to you.
I was rejected from ND but accepted to BC.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
Hokie fan
Trust me, as a lifelong Hokie fan, I can’t tell you how painful that was watching Matt Ryan beat us at the end of the game. I was in utter and absolute shock. Any Hokie who tells you that they are over that moment isn’t a true Hokie fan. One of the most depressing moments of my life. That game STILL haunts me to this day. Many Hokies try to rationalize it and say “we rectified it by beating BC in the ACCCG later in the year,” but count me out of that group. That still doesn’t make up for that cold and rainy Blacksburg night (I say it like there are other ways nights can be in Blacksburg, haha) when Matt Ryan ran around for seemingly forever, hurling a ball up in the air and then finding a receiver behind the furthest back Virginia Tech defender. Ouch…Mad respect for Matt Ryan and the BC program though. You all seem to get the most out of very little as anyone (not a backhanded compliment even if it sounds like it), which is not every year, but honestly, last year’s BC squad was pretty cupboard bare, and you still eeked out a pretty good season at 8-5.
P.S. Karma finally rewarded the Hokies as we broke the Cornhuskers’ hearts in basically the exact same manner. Again, I’m not saying this at all makes me feel any better about the BC loss, but it sure puts a hole in my theory of “All of the powers in the universe are out to get the Hokies.”
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