What made us 'Collingwood people'? from '01 - Add your story

[HAL]

Such an original name!

[Big_Glenn_Sandford]

I still don't know what it is about Collingwood.

I suppose it is the definition of unconditional love. My wife could cheat on me, my son could become a serial killer, but no matter what happens i'll always love collingwood unconditionally.

My alarm will be going off at 4:05am in roughly 10 hours for me to listen to the game on the radio via the internet on the other side of the world.
Most people would think i'm stupid getting up at 4am to listen to a game, but form it's just what you gotta do.

Go PIES!

[Black_White]

My story has been deleted.
I would have posted back in the original thread in 2001.
Ah well, such is life!

[David]

I'm surprised that I've never posted in this thread. Well, here goes.

My story is not one of a Damascus Road conversion. In fact, even though I was born and raised in the foreign city of Canberra (where one is expected to have an NRL team first and supplement it with a vague interest in the Sydney Swans), all I can remember is unquestioning devotion to the Collingwood cause. While some of my siblings have grown up with little to no interest in football, following another club would never have been tolerated here. It was Collingwood or nothing.

Collingwood is a family institution, for as long as I can remember. My parents' religious beliefs meant that we could never watch the game live if it was on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon. Thus, week in, week out, my family would spend Saturday evenings camped in front of our tiny living room TV watching the videotape of the game (everybody making a sincere attempt not to find out the scores beforehand, although my mum always knew - she listens to ABC radio on Saturday mornings). My mum has never been a huge football fan, and even had a vague interest in Carlton before she met my dad. He, on the other hand, is and has been a fanatical Collingwood supporter for his entire life, just like his own dad was.

Even given all this, I still have a defining time period of when I really became a Collingwood supporter. What triggered it I'm not exactly sure (was it talking to my older brother, whom I shared a room with at the time, and who was also a huge Collingwood fan in his preteen years?), but by the beginning of the 1997 season, at the age of 8, I was already borderline obsessed. The first game I clearly remember watching on TV was the R.2 match against Melbourne, which we must have won by close to 100 points. My favourite player at that stage was Richard Osborne. I would get my dad to print out the ladder for me every Monday morning before he went to work, which I would study intently, along with my growing AFL book collection which I would get on my birthday or buy with the birthday money I had left over. My dad also bought me Inside Football Magazine a few times, and I remember how excited I was when the local library started selling off some of their older back issues for about a dollar each. Afternoons at home were spent kicking the plastic K-Mart football around the backyard commentating and re-enacting matches, although by the time I was 10 I stopped doing Collingwood matches because it was boring - I always made them win.

My love of Collingwood has grown steadily since. I have tried to see every match that I can when it's on TV, and going to the games has always been a rare and exciting experience. I have had great individual memories, such as our upset win over the Tangeroos in 2000 in my first game at Docklands, Ben Johnson's tackle on Burgoyne in the 2002 Qualifying Final, Dane Swan's elation at the final siren (a feeling I shared wholly in) at Subiaco in 2007, and watching the new guard of Maxwell, Thomas, Pendlebury, Heath Shaw, Swan, Harry O, Toovey, JA, Dick and Beams lead us on to future triumphs. These days I don't really watch the game at home with the family any more on a Saturday night (a tradition that has continued unabated in my absence) unless I happen to be around, but I can only imagine that my passion will grow ever more as I realise my dream and move to Melbourne in six days time and watch the team play every week. I'm even thinking of becoming a member next year, and perhaps I shall be at the MCG one September day when we win our fifteenth premiership.

[sandy]

What a great post and how interesting it has been to read all the posts. I was born in 1958 a glorious year for Collingwood. Both my mother and father were Collingwood supporters, dad was a life member of the club. I didn't really have a choice Collingwood was the team to follow.. many fond memories of going to Victoria Park with my Dad and brothers. I married a Collingwood supporter, gosh Dad wouldn't have wanted it any other way! When my daughter was born we won the 1990 premiership. Friends and acquaintances over the years dont quite understand the true love and admiration I have for the CFC. The tears and joy I have shared over the years as I have watched Collingwood's failures and triumphs. Both our children also follow Collingwood and go to the football nearly every week.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

Born in '70 and my parents were new Australians so I didn't really know anything about Aussie Rules 'til the age of 5 or 6. As I was becoming more aware of the game as a 6 year old I actually had a liking for Nth. Melb but with no real passion or much idea about the game. It wasn't until midway through the '77 season when I became more interested (that's all the kids talked about and played at school) that I latched onto Collingwood as they were winning almost every week and were sitting pretty on top of the ladder. They also had the most popular and sort after footy cards. The two GF's that year were the first to be televised live I think, or was it the first in colour, I can't recall but that replay which we lost saw my 1st tears shed for the black & white. That was pretty much the point in time where I realised they meant something very special to me. The following year or two, my uncle who'd already caught the bug began taking me to the footy and the rest is history..

[John Wren]

here you go 3.159456789254547, this will give you an idea.

[3.14159]

[HAL]

If not you, who? Are you comfortable there? Sometimes it is hard to tell. OK. I'm not sure if it could.

[David]

[John Wren]

still a good read, anymore stories to add?

[Jezza]

My story of being a Collingwood supporter was seen as not being the traditonal family story.

At the moment I'm 16, I've been barracking for Collingwood since about this thread begun. My dad has never been a big follower of football, my mum loves footy and is a Melbourne fan. When I was young she tried to bring me up as a Melbourne fan, to which I went against. During one night in 2002 when I was 8, Collingwood was playing Richmond on a Friday night, and Collingwood ended up kicking Richmond's backside by about 7 goals. This moment made me want to become a Collingwood supporter, to which my family said you're making a big mistake. I said I will stick with them for life. The first two years of following them I wasn't very keen and passionate but it was around 2004 onwards where I haven't missed a match in my life. Barracking for Collingwood was the greatest choice I ever made.

I also barracked for them because of Peter Daicos. Daicos was from Macedonia (Near Greece) of which my family is from and my parents knew Daics well through dance party events for Maceodonians throughout the late 80s.

GO PIES!!!

[Member 7167]

A thread worth revisiting every now and then and hopefully a few more stories will be added.

[Greening gold]

My grandfather played for StKilda and Carlton (before WW1) for a total of three seasons but couldn't afford to keep coming down from Benalla on the train for the games. So my mum and her two brothers (one of whom became a half-back flanker for the Victorian Amateurs state side) barracked for StKilda until she went out with a bloke for two years after WW2. He took her to see the Pies each week and that did it for her - she crossed over from the dark side and never went back.

I was born in 1953 and my father died in 1958 - both premiership years although I was too young at the time to know about footy. I grew up near Gardiner station, which was in Richmond's zone, and I remember Paddy Guinane and Fred Swift coming to my primary school (now demolished by Kennett) to conduct footy clinics in March each year. They brought with them a junior Richmond membership card for each class in the school, which could be used by any kid who wanted to go to the footy on Saturday. I remember going home after one of these events and musing to my mum that maybe I should barrack for Richmond since we lived in their zone. She told me to stop talking silly nonsense - there was only one team and that was ours.

My father had never been interested in sport but my mum loved any sport. She used to say that if you follow sport in Melbourne, you've always got a conversation starter and something in common with many other people. A widow with three young kids was big ask in standing room at Vic Park so we used to go to the MCG every week (I mean EVERY week, rain hail or shine) to sit and watch whoever was playing.

The routine was always the same - lamb and vegetable soup (home-made of course) with toast for lunch, drive to Alexandra Ave to park, walk to the G (Olympic Stand, about half forward flank at Punt Rd end), cup of hot chocolate from the Thermos and a slice of raisin loaf (home made) at half-time, home after the game for a shower, footy replay in front of the gas fire in pyjamas and dressing gowns and Irish stew (home made, of course) for tea.

To save money, and get finals tickets, Mum signed the four of us up for both Richmond and Melbourne memberships, which meant we got a game every Saturday afternoon due to their ground-sharing arrangement.
Finals time, I used to queue overnight at the G for tickets as a Melbourne member Richmond tickets were a bit harder to come by after 1967 but Melbourne died after 1964.

So we used to see two Collingwood games every year, plus finals. Later in my teens, I used to go with a Bomber mate to see either the Pies or the Dons, depending on venue and likelihood of a better game. While I can still watch and enjoy any game, nothing measures up to watching the Pies run out on the G - I look around me and think to myself "This is my tribe - they're a pretty varied bunch but it's the love of the Pies that brings us together".

Collingwood premierships have an allergy to me - in 1964 I was in the old Repat after an accident at home, vomiting blood and sharing a headset with mum listening to Gabbo's run and Crompton's goal, in 1966 my uncle was in Tas on business and came home with two standing room tickets for the Southern stand so I saw that one, in 1970 I used my Melbourne membership for tickets in the Southern Stand and shared a deep sense of foreboding with my mate at half-time, I saw both GFs in 1977, was overseas in 78-79, and my mum got tickets for herself and me for the 1980 debacle. I decided then it was my karma never to witness a Pie flag live at the G. In 1990 I was working in Mauritius and listened on Radio Australia. In 2002-03 I was in Canberra and in 2010 I was in Canberra for the draw and boarded a London-bound plane at Sydney airport at three-quarter time in the second one.

So that's my story why I barrack for the Pies - my mum told me there was no alternative. My brother was got at by my uncle and turned to the Saints. My sister flirted briefly with Melbourne when she was 10 but soon returned to the fold and, like me, is a true believer, as are my kids and hers.

[RickyWatt23]

I was born in 1951 and my dad and all his family were Geelong supporters but when my mum was pregnant with my younger brother I was 3 and she was confined to bed late in the pregnancy. The parish priest used to come to say mass for her on a regular basis - he was a one eyed Pie supporter and taught me the song. At about the same time I started going to kindergarten and my best friend George, the son of Lithuanian immigrants was a Pie supporter. Around this time my dad discovered golf and played on Saturdays so never bothered going to the footy all that often. The first game I can remember him taking me to was a Collingwood - Melbourne game where a first year player named Ricky Watt - No.23, was best on ground against one of the Dees best - Brian Dixon.
Hence my user name. As the years went by, I managed to get by now my 2 younger brothers to also barrack for the Pies. My dad took it all in good grace - he always said that the best footballer he had ever seen was Bobby Rose!
So I guess that you could say regardless of your religious leanings that it was through the grace of God that I ended up a Pie supporter and social club member for over 30 years.
A few years ago I read a biography of Jock McHale and learnt that his birthday was 12th December - the same day as mine! So I guess I was born to be a Pie! lol