What Made You A Notre Dame Fan??

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GreenNGold

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Just as the title says, what exactly made you a fan?

Liked the logo? Born into the fandom? Location, maybe?

I'm a new member to this forum, and my first post, and I'm interested in seeing how you, personally, became a fan of the 'GreenNGold'. LOL

For me, it began around the age of 5. My brother was wearing his Notre Dame sweater, and I fell in love with the logo. The beautiful color, and the contrast to the navy blue provided an instant connection.

Also, seeing how much of a fan he was, made me wanna be on as well.

For me, making it through the latter part of the Bob Davie era, as well as most of the Ty Willingham era, has made me a true fan, because I can appreciate Charlie Weis as the coach he is. A breath of fresh air to this team, and still is now.

So, let's hear your stories on how you became a fan, and maybe became MORE of a fan over the years.

Let's hear it!
 

johnnd05

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I didn't grow up in much of a sports family, so I didn't really become a fan until I was a student at ND (starting in '03), actually. But I started following the Irish a bit the year before that (Willingham's one good year ...).
 

GoshenGipper

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I was born into it. My dad is a big Notre Dame fan as well as the rest of my family. The only member of my family that wasn't a ND fan was my brother-inlaw and we've since converted him from a Michigan fan into a ND fan.

I'm also from Rick Mirer's home town and so when you grow up watching him in high school you naturally pull for him in college as well. That, and our moms are friends and used to work together before his mom retired, my sister knew him in high school, and his best friend was my JV fotball coach.
 

Junkhead

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Born, raised, and still living in South Bend, and I have family members who are ND alumni. I am also Catholic, attended 12 years of Catholic school, and I go to church (sometimes, not too often.)
 
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bostonirish1908

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Catholic, tradition, grandson of adam walsh if anyone knows his name
 
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bostonirish1908

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And I when I lived in Arligton Heights I saw a pretty good player named Zibby
 
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GreenNGold

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Born, raised, and still living in South Bend, and I have family members who are ND alumni. I am also Catholic, attended 12 years of Catholic school, and I go to church (sometimes, not too often.)

I can only imagine how much Notre Dame info you get in a single day...lucky you.

I live in south Buffalo, a highly Irish area, so there is plenty of Notre Dame fans around, but living in South Bend...wow.
 

Jason Pham

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Born and raised Irish. The year I was born, my uncle was ordained a priest of the Holy Cross Congregation at Notre Dame and it's been tradition ever since to attend the University of Our Lady.
 

jboxer562

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my mom went to school at Notre Dame. I have been watching all their games every Saturday since I was in the third grade. So this will be my 9th season as an Irish Fan.
 

IrishAlum1997

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I've told the story on this site before...but it bears repeating. I was born and raised in Michigan, and was a scUM fan up until 2nd semester of senior year of high school. Went to a college fair and listened to an ND rep, visited the campus, and was hooked. All of the stories you hear about being on campus and the feeling you get when you see the Dome, ND Stadium, the Rockne Memorial...Here's someone who remembers openly cheering against ND when they played Michigan, and remember chuckling in '92 when I turned on my tv to see the final score of the ND-Stanford game, after having turned off the tv at halftime to a 16-0 ND lead.

Freshman year and first game at ND was '93. Petey Bercich returned a pick 6 on the first play from scrimmage and the place went nuts.

Drinkin' the Kool Aid ever since.
 

onenybrother

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Growing up in New York City there was no bigtime college football teams. Michigan, USCUM, Penn State and UCLA was the only teams thats was constantly on every week.

With them choices, whats else a brother gonna do. Even though my liitle brother grew up to love the USCUM. I hung on him today matter of fact. It's gonna be a long year for me, until the USCUM fall out of the National championship picture.

Let's Go Dame !!!
 

Newc

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Born into it. I come from an Irish Catholic family and Notre Dame is as sacred as they come.
 

AlbuquerqueIrishFan

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It was the NBC contract and they were on tv every weekend. It doesn't take long to fall in love with the Irish. I was hooked for life after one season.
 

BDIrish4ever

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Catholic,Born and raised in Northern Indiana(Fort Wayne),Family loves Notre Dame for at least the last five generations.
 

goldandblue

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Born into it. I can remember my grandmother running around the house jumping up an down when the Irish were playing. I've been gold and blue through and through since 1982. My seven month old son is about to go to N.D. for his first time against GA Tech. leaving in three more days!!
 

johnnd05

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My seven month old son is about to go to N.D. for his first time against GA Tech. leaving in three more days!!

Awesome stuff - good for you. My son's first game will be the Stanford game this year.
 

FrankMA

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Born into it. I am from a Catholic family and my earliest sports memories are of my father sitting and listening to ND football games on the radio ( I am 59).
 

mysontim

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Started with my grandfather

Started with my grandfather

My Grandfather grew up in El Paso Texas when the Notre Dame Express would have a stop there before going to beat the Trojans. He attended Cathredal High School which were the Fighting Irish (don't really know how many Irish lived in El Paso). From there it trickled down to all of us. Since then our family has had some graduates from ND.
 

tgolden

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born into it. mom, two uncles and both god-parents are domers. some of my very earliest memories are of watching ND games on TV. apparently I used to run around the house yelling "Go, Rocket" during games... I thought about that a while back... Rocket played from 88-90. I was born in 88. I have pretty much been a fanatic all my life.
 

andfan1

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Wasn't made a ND fan, was born into it. My father started going to games in the 50's after listening to ND on the radio growing up in the 30's & 40's. You can say it's in my blood!
 
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