How did you become a huskie fan?

[Rixxx]

Wendy Davis played HS basketball in the same county where I live in southeastern PA. She was recruited in 1988. To build up arm strength for the three point shots, she worked for our local utility in the field. Don't know if she climbed poles. All this is according to articles in our local newspaper, The Reading Eagle. The rest they say is history and I have been a fan ever since.

 

[Cornell Lt]

As soon as they appeared on ESPN

 

[Puppy Love]

I was going through some difficult personal times during the 91-92 season. I was literally watching any basketball game with any teams as a distraction. I never really watched the sport before that but I somehow got hooked. At some point either that year or the next there were a couple of women’s games on TV. I saw them and after that I was completely addicted.

 

[Ron and Vida]

Your timing is extraordinary following Maya’s retirement.
Several years ago I had a friend whose son went to UConn.
After a parents weekend he came to work raving about how good this “girls “ basketball is.
So out of curiosity we traveled to Gampel to see a game.
I will never forget seeing for the first time live Maya flying down the court on a fast break like a gazelle
It was love at first sight
Have a great retirement Maya You are missed but not forgotten

 

[dabears17]

Became a Big East men’s Fan in 1979 or 1980, rooting for what I joke is the only professional sporting team between NYC and Buffalo. Still have nightmares about Keith Smart and the 1987 Final Four.

My High School had a pretty good girl’s team and I started following UConn spring 1995. First women’s college game I saw in person was the UConn Western Kentucky game fall 1996.

Pac 12 is my primary league I root for, but also support the Big East as my second league.

One of my favorite fan stories is holding my 8 month old daughter standing in front of the TV with a men’s game on. She had a confused look on her face. I chuckled when I realized she’d seen a lot of women’s games, but had never seen men play.

 

[Huskie837]

In terms of the women’s team it was a way to get inside Gampel. First game I attended was the senior night game (actually in the afternoon) the year before the first championship. Colleen Healy and another player were the honorees. You could see it was a great team even then…

 

[BBallF]

MLK Jr. Day in 1995. Then through the NCAA title in 1995 and then the 2002-2004 teams but mostly because of DT. Then Maya but the 4 titles in a row with Breanna solidified it and I was totally hooked. I brought in my daughter to the fold who played college basketball, my wife, her sister, her husband, my daughter's husband and so on. At the Seton Hall game in South Orange, I brought 3 friends, two of whom played men's D1, who had never been to a women's game before in person. Their favorite players? Nika and Aaliyah. We had pizza before the game and ice cream after. What's better than that?

 

[Yukon]

I was in 6th grade and my moms boss gave her his season tickets and the first game we went to was against UHart Maya’s Freshman year! The rest is history!

That was my first in person game too! My kids were with me and they were right around your age at the time. My son caught a tshirt and Mel Thomas (who was signing copies of her book) signed the shirt. Little did I know that years later my son would attend Uhart while Jen Rizzotti was still coaching there As I recall, Geno benched Maya for most of the game...

 

[ShmiCO]

Sue Bird's locker.

I was a speaker at tech conference adjacent to the arena where the Storm played, sometime back in the early 2000s. The organizers chose the Storm locker room as the green room. So I picked a locker at random to stash my stuff in, and another speaker walked up and said "Of course you chose Sue Bird. Fine, I'll take Lauren Jackson." I asked her, "who's Sue Bird?" and that's when my indoctrination into WBB started. I started following Sue and the Storm, and pulled that thread back to the beginning to UConn.

 

[CB360]

1994 I was flipping channels and saw a Women's basketball game. Stopped to check it out , then realized it was UCONN on CPTV. Enjoyed watch the rest of the game and still watch as much as possible!

 

[Blond D.]

I was 10 when I started playing on a real team in school. I saw Sue Bird and knew THAT'S who i wanted to be like. The Huskies were my team ever since and point guard is where I always played all thru school. So you see why i have a great fondness for Huskie point guards and Nika is fantastic.

 

[Forego]

You were a couple years ahead of me at UConn ('68-72 for me). Actually, in 1965, there were only 16 teams in the NCAA's. (Went to 32 teams in 1975.) The 1968-69 season was Burr Carlson's second (and last) season, How does 5-19 sound? No women's basketball team that I recall. I think the first teams might have played (or maybe practiced) in the old Hawley Armory.

UConn was barely $1000 a year my first three years - room, board, student activity fee and NO tuition. They started charging tuition my senior year. I lived off campus that year, so the bill was about the same. Imagine - four years at UConn for less than $5K total.

We were contemporaries at UConn. I can’t recall exactly what the tuition, room & board costs were back then but they were very close to the costs you quoted. The only cost I remember accurately was the price of beer at a bar in Norwich - two drafts for 25 cents. Watched my first women’s bb game around 1994 and became an instant fan.

 

[OldSchooler]

My earliest college basketball recollection was the 1957 NCAA championship game, when North Carolina (with Lenny Rosenbluth) upset Kansas (with Wilt Chamberlain) in triple OT. (For you trivia buffs, the second OT was scoreless.) In those days, you could only get those games on the radio. Then I became a big Jerry Lucas (Ohio State) fan, and then Bill Bradley at Princeton. Saw Bradley in a game at Cornell -- their last loss of the season until they lost to Michigan in the national semi-finals. He had 10 points in the first half, and they trailed by 17 at the break. In the second half, he scored 30, and Princeton took the lead, but lost on a shot with 2 seconds to go. When I was in the service in California, I got to see a lot of Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at UCLA. I was at the NCAA finals his junior year, and was at his final game at Pauley Pavilion in the western regional final his senior year.

My interest in women's BB started when I was flipping the channels and saw Bird/Taurasi. Fell in love with Geno's program and his coaching philosophy. Started watching a lot of the archived games. Hooked ever since. Try to get to see them in person at least once a year -- at Rutgers, Temple, MSG, USF, South Carolina, Seton Hall and Gampel. My wife is not a big sports fan, but we never miss a UConn game. And thanks to HuskyNan, we're able to watch all the games "live" even while snowbirding here in Florida.

 

[JeannoCT]

I'm from western MA, and I shared an office with a guy who lived in Storrs. He asked me if I followed the UConn men. I said no, and then I started to follow them. In the meantime, I was following a local kid from Southwick MA, Ms. Lobo, who was going to UConn and started following the women. I have been a loyal fan ever since, and also follow men's hockey, football, and baseball.
Yesterday, I was killing time, and was looking to see if there was a women's game on in the afternoon. Stopped at SNY, and they were rebroadcasting the special on the UConn women, 1995, Birth of a Dynasty. I've seen it countless times, but was of course glued to the program. I actually had tears in my eyes watching the national championship run. I guess I'm hooked!

 

[Aluminny69]

You were a couple years ahead of me at UConn ('68-72 for me). Actually, in 1965, there were only 16 teams in the NCAA's. (Went to 32 teams in 1975.) The 1968-69 season was Burr Carlson's second (and last) season, How does 5-19 sound? No women's basketball team that I recall. I think the first teams might have played (or maybe practiced) in the old Hawley Armory.

UConn was barely $1000 a year my first three years - room, board, student activity fee and NO tuition. They started charging tuition my senior year. I lived off campus that year, so the bill was about the same. Imagine - four years at UConn for less than $5K total.

Actually, we both misremembered. If you look it up, "The 1965 NCAA tournament had two fewer teams, 23, than the previous year's tournament, which featured 25 schools."

 

[Carnac]

I’m a Johnny-come-lately. I began following UConn in 2008, right after I retired. I did not have the time to watch TV or follow sports while I was working 10-12 hour days 6 days a week. Maya Moore was a sophomore I believe when I saw UConn on TV. I liked what I saw, and began following them.

I had to subscribe to CPTV to be be to watch them on-line. The picture quality was terrible, but it was that or nothing. Didn’t know about any fan chat rooms until 2014. I‘ve heard about the star players before 2008, but I don’t have an appreciation for them because I didn’t see them play.

 

[Purchase1]

That was my first in person game too! My kids were with me and they were right around your age at the time. My son caught a tshirt and Mel Thomas (who was signing copies of her book) signed the shirt. Little did I know that years later my son would attend Uhart while Jen Rizzotti was still coaching there As I recall, Geno benched Maya for most of the game...

Hahaha funnily enough I too attended Uhart!

 

[Fore!]

I went to the same High School as Tommy Penders. He was two years ahead of me. As a sophomore, he was starting point guard ( I don't think they called it that back then). The 64 -65 team went something like 25 and 2, made the NCAA tourney which only had 32 teams back then. Toby Kimball and Wes Bialosuknia were stars of the team. Then I went to UConn, as it was the only college I could afford. I think it was $1500 a semester back then. There were no Women's teams in any sports back then.

Similar story; my cousin was attending UConn and mentioned they had a pretty good men’s team. Tony and Wes were on the team. I’ve missed very few games over the years, watching on TV, listening on radio or in the stands. I started following the Women’s team in the early 90’s, first in the Courant, then on TV when they played in their first Final Four (I didn’t know what quality of play I’d be watching, but damn, those girls were terrifically talented; I was hooked).

 

[Carnac]

You were a couple years ahead of me at UConn ('68-72 for me). Actually, in 1965, there were only 16 teams in the NCAA's. (Went to 32 teams in 1975.) The 1968-69 season was Burr Carlson's second (and last) season, How does 5-19 sound? No women's basketball team that I recall. I think the first teams might have played (or maybe practiced) in the old Hawley Armory.

UConn was barely $1000 a year my first three years - room, board, student activity fee and NO tuition. They started charging tuition my senior year. I lived off campus that year, so the bill was about the same. Imagine - four years at UConn for less than $5K total.

I can go you one better. My first semester at Los Angeles City College, the total cost was $6.50 whether you took 1 class or 6. Books of course were extra. I only bought used books that were already highlighted. I had to buy a new book once for $18. I thought that was absurd.

 

[OviedoFLHusky]

I attended UConn during the mid- to late-70's, but never really followed the sports teams at the time. Maybe 15 years later, after I moved to FL, my dad, who played basketball for Trinity College, recommended that I start watching the UConn men on TV, as they were getting pretty good and were fun to watch. So I did, and became a fan. Then, in 1995, he and I were discussing basketball, and he said, you know, the girls are pretty good too -- in fact, they're playing for the national championship -- you should watch. So I did, and was hooked.

Aggravating at times, but my dad is always right!

 

[Fore!]

Toby and Wes. I hate autocorrect!

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Started following the guys on and off 91 on and Lobo was talked about in a televised game. Hey I gotta check this out. Turned out I liked the girls game more than the guys. Cementing the deal a daughter went to UConn in 1995. Been loving it ever since.

 

[Centerstream]

I arrived late to the party. I have no ties to UConn and can't remember exactly when I became a fan. I do know it was during the Stewie era and am pretty sure it was during the 2015-16 season that I really became a "gotta watch these games" fan. I think before 2015-16, I only watched the ESPN games and the Championship games as I didn't know that there was a way to watch every game. So sometime in the 2015 season, I discovered that SNY televised their games and SNY was in my DirecTV package. I started watching and really, really appreciated the way that they played. Then sometime during the season I somehow found The Boneyard and became a lurker, finally joining in March 2016. Then I discovered UCONNHUSKYGAMES and spent the offseasons watching replays of prior season games.

 

[huskeynut]

The 94 - 95 season for me. Channel surfing and found a UConn game on CPTV. When one of the announcers said Jen Rizzotti, I said I know that name. Again announcer said she played at New Fairfield High School. That sealed it.

I was teaching at New Fairfield Middle School/ High School when she played. I was good friends with her high school coach. Had a few of the girls from the team in my chorus.

Our second son graduated from UConn in the early 2000's.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Since CPTV began broadcasting the women's games back in 1994.