How did you become a Cyclone fan?

[sredman1985]

I was born in Ames while my dad was a student. My first home was Pammell Court so I guess I have it in my blood. I always liked the Cyclones, but I didn't live and breathe Cardinal and Gold until 1976. What turned me forever was listening to Pete Taylor call the Iowa State win over Nebraska in football on the radio that year. I was 13 years old and my dad was listening and hanging on every play; that really made an impression on me. I got caught up in the emotion Pete and my dad exhibited (and my dad's a very quiet guy) when they won. Since that moment there's been no turning back. I'm really glad Pete Taylor was part of that memory for me also.

 

[khess83]

Dad went to Iowa State, so it was always in the back of my mind. Freshman year in high school got the chance to go to ISU-Mizzou game in mid-November with just him. We froze and ISU won, that is where the love started!

 

[twa5786]

Great memories of Mom and Dad letting us stay up later on game nights and playing basketball on a hoop in our basement that was designed to go up to 4 feet, but through some creative engineering (however creative you get in 4th grade) we were able to get it up to about 6.5 feet.
We cut our sleeves off our red shirts and used masking tape to put numbers on them and also lines on the floor.

No way! My brother and I did the exact same thing, only with Dedric Willoughby instead of Victor Alexander.

Moved here as a young kid with my parents from Chicago. First thing they bought us was a hawkeye sweatsuit, but the first game we ever attended was a Clones-Chicago State game at Hilton in '94 when I was 7. I still remember almost everything about that game, and the rest is history...

 

[Palmer]

At 9years old (1979) went to the local sporting goods store with my mom to get a hoodie. I begged for an iron-on decal to go with it. They had something like 1.3 million Hawkeye choices and 1 simple Iowa State Basketball decal. That was the winner. The next day at school, i caught all kinds of grief from everyone. This was back when Lute was building in IC and pre-Orr in Ames. All the crap made me dig in my heels deep.

BTW, never in a million years did I think I would wake up this am and see not one, but two Richard Kottman references on CF

Yes!

Richard Kottman cult lives!

 

[clone3139]

My family and I were die hard hawk fans, but converted after realizing the arrogance of the EIU faithful/faithless

 

[nhclone]

I was about 5 or so. I was walking down the hall during kindergarten and I fell and hit my head. I didn't really notice anything was wrong until I put my hand on the back of my head and felt blood. To my surprise, it was colored Cardinal and Gold. I've never questioned my choice in schools since.:biggrin:

 

[cyrevkah]

My boyfriend kept talking about it, how fun football and basketball were and would get me to watch the games with him on tv.

Then he married me and convinced me to get season tickets and we've enjoyed the "date nights" ever since

 

[flipacoin]

Was a big fan of Jerry Moses, East Waterloo, back in the 60's. Iowa State had just hired Johnny Majors as head football coach and his first recruit was Jerry Moses. Been a Cyclone fan ever since.

 

[Clone_12]

I was born into it...I started going to Hilton and Jack Trice when I was about 3 years old with my parents, and I've let the Clones have an impact on my quality of life since!

 

[Leidang]

I was actually a Hawkeye hater 7-8 years before I was a ISU fan. My family moved to Ankeny when I was in 6th grade and our next door neighbors were Hawkeye fans. Never saw them without the stupid Hayden Fry shirts and they had the requisite pickup truck covered with Hawkeye logos.

The worst was that they had 2 flagpoles in their front yard and flew the Hawkeye flag on the tall one and the US flag on the short one.

Our families had a big time feud for the 3 years we lived there. My father being a retired Marine that didn't appreciate the disrespect to the US Flag. Dad even tried to extend our backyard fence out to the sidewalk so we wouldn't have to look at them but the city shot down his plans.

I ended up at ISU because I wanted to stay relatively local and I wouldn't even consider being a Hawkeye. Once I was enrolled I quickly became an ISU fan.

 

[Clones21]

I became a clone once 2 of my friends became huge hawk fans!

 

[ajk4st8]

My mom was an ISU athlete. My dad always took me to games, but when he took me to the Colorado 'snow bowl' when I was about 10 I really began to love ISU athletics. Seeing people show up to a game in that crappy weather said an awful lot about our fans. I've been hooked ever since.

 

[wxman1]

I am a third generation Cyclone, I was born a cyclone so ya.

 

[Bubbahotep]

My first Iowa State football game, it was against San Diego State in 1978, the Clones ended up winning 14-13, after the game my dad took me down to the field. Since then, Alex Espinosa, Marv Seiler, TD, Sage, Seneca, Ace, and my all time favorite, Bob 'the walking concussion' Utter.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

Was born with more common sense then a thumb tack so it was an easy decision. Then to solidify it, we lived on a farm so listening to WHO radio was automatic since it was good ag news radio. Bad part of that was we had to listen to Jim Zipperhead Drunk POS king Trailertrash voice of the Sky Carp Zablet and his spewing of hawk crap all the time carved into my head that I will always root for ISU and will always root for EIU to get their ***** handed to them in every event anywhere they play no matter who they play.

And thank goodness at that impressionable time there was no internet message boards, because reading the whiny little ***** threads calling for coaches heads and trashing players probably would have tempered it quite a bit. As it ended up though, it is entrenched about as deep as it can get. Go Cyclones 100% and I'm with them through thick and thin.

FWIW.....I still never root for EIU but getting older I care less and less about them. I avoid the rapists, thieves, thugs, free housing scandals so apathy about them is starting to come easy.

 

[cyco2000]

I think it was because my uncle was an ISU grad. Others in my family didn't root for or against ISU/UI. We cheered for both.

As I became more interested in sports, it was too easy to be a Hawk fan, and most others were doing it. I didn't get to too many games before 1995, but I always listened to Pete. I still miss Pete.

In 1995, I became diehard everything Cyclone. Bought a red van, welded goalposts on with a buddy, and I still tailgate in that van today (when it starts).

Those MBB teams were sweet from 1995-2000. Those years are what I think ISU can and should be right now--that's where my opinions were formed (same with the WBB team). I also had the roller-coaster emotions with the Danny Mac era, because he became a true Iowa Stater the same year I did.

 

[WalkingCY]

Dad and uncles went to ISU. But mainly watching Jeff Grayer when I was a little guy. I have some great early memories of watching Cyclone Basketball with my parents. I would also draw pictures of Cy in school, and write game time stories that had Mr. Grayer making the final shot....winning it for the Cyclones.

 

[du4duks]

been going to football games for 33 years(I am 37). My parents are both alums. I just recognized at an early age how terribly arrogant and condescending the EIU fans were, and have been rooting for the good guys all my life. I would be an alum as well, but I got a full academic ride to a smaller school. Go cyclones!!!

 

[A-town Cy]

Uncle played football in late 80's where my brothers turned into Cyclones, then they turned me into Cyclones. Now my uncle lives and works in Iowa City and his kids are Hawkeye fans. :no:

And my parents and all my siblings went to isu.

 

[armount]

my cousin was an all-american wrestler here and we would drive up to watch him when i was a kid... not to mention my older brother was a fan of isu and i wanted to be exactly like him when i was younger... still do too if your reading this bro