How long have you been a UConn WBB fan? (poll) | Page 3 | The Boneyard

How long have you been a UConn WBB fan? (poll)

How long have you been a UConn women's basketball fan?

  • Since forever

    Votes: 68 20.8%

  • Since 1995

    Votes: 168 51.4%

  • Since UConn won its second championship in 2000

    Votes: 19 5.8%

  • More recently than 2000

    Votes: 37 11.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 35 10.7%
  • Total voters
    327
  • Poll closed .
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Howdy

A number things occurred in the late nineties and early aughts. Alaskan Jessica Moore (2000-2004) became a Husky, I took my tweenage daughter to the local University of Alaska Seawolves WBB games and probably most crucially we got cable TV service. ESPN introduced me to Connecticut, Notre Dame, Stanford, Tennessee. I was hooked.

The Boneyard has become an obsession, both for the quality of its contents (God bless you Nan) and for the comeraderie of my peer group, not just in demographics but culture (raised in Westchester, schooled at Boston U - yay Marisa)

I introduced my 90 year old aunt who lives in Bridgeport to the cult of Huskies and last spring my wife and adult children had the thrill of a lifetime in seeing the first two playoff games at Gampel and my aunt and Fairfield cousins joined us at Webster. Thank you Tony C. We're on for this year God willing
 
First UCONN women's game was the Championship game 1995. Everybody jockeying Pat Summitt. How great she was and the guy at the other school doesn't have a chance to win.... Really?????

lollipops...
 
Been a women's b-ball fan since the early 70s, but started following the Huskies when they went to their 1st Final 4.
 
I was a casual fan of the men's team in the early nineties (Tate George, Chris Smith, etc.). Found out CPTV was going to air a few games starting in '94. So I started watching, and I loved the purity of the way they played. Emphasis on the fundamentals, no showboating like you see in the men's game. Absolutely loved Jen Rizzotti's scrappy, fiery play - she's still my favorite player. I've been obsessed ever since.
 
Started taking an interest in women's basketball as a result of (my alma mater) Auburn University's great run of 3 consecutive FF's from '88-'90. They actually reached the championship game all 3 years, but, like Moses and the Buffalo Bills, could not cross over to the promised land, suffering heart-breaking losses to La Tech, Tennessee, and Stanford respectively. (I think my dislike of Coach Summitt and the Lady Vols began with those Auburn teams.) Became thoroughly enamored of the women's game with the Sheryl Swoopes-led Texas Tech championship game from '93 (won by 2 pts over Jim Foster's Ohio State squad). Living in New England at the time, UConn's memorable '95 championship over the disliked Lady Vols and Calhoun's thrilling men's championship over equally-disliked Duke in '99 cemented my interest and admiration for UConn basketball ever since.
 
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cswhb said:
I replied "since forever" which means since 1991.
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Exactly. The men had their Dream Season in 1990. They followed it with a nice run in 91 when they beat Shaq and won their next game before losing in the Sweet Sixteen. The built-up hoop excitement was still there when we realized the women's team was still playing. After watching them, it was easy to transfer that energy to the their team. Especially when they got absolutely jobbed in the Final 4.
 
Perhaps I'm being too literal, but did not know which category I fit under and voted "Other." I've been a UConn Men's BB fan since the early sixties. I am a UConn alum who actually tried out for the JV when they still had it (did not make it beyond the second round of cuts). UConn and basketball are both passions of mine. Yet in the eighties I became involved with other schools and my permanent residence in Norfolk, CT does not lend itself to catching games in person.

Hence, the first time I became aware of the women's team was when they were televised during their first Final Four run. Of course I watched with interest. Yet I would not exactly call myself a fan then because they were still mostly "out of sight, out of mind" for my situation. Once they became regularly televised (thank you CPTV) I became a regular fan. So I'm guess I'm somewhere between "forever" and "1995."
 
I grew up a Celtics fanatic during the great run in the sixties and basketball was my favorite sport though I never played more than pick-up games. Stayed a fan of the mens game through the Bird Magic period but began to lose interest toward the end and had stopped seeking out games - the college game never interested me much except for the brief period when Princeton (the family school) won the NIT. My dad had started following the Uconn women in 1990 (he was a prof at Uconn) and so I would watch with him when I was visiting and I started really following after the in season TN win in 1995 - but I was living mostly outside the country so it was impossible to get much viewing and the internet news was pretty sparse. Dad was excited with the signing of TASSK but he died the summer they arrived on campus, so watching games whenever I was within the CPTV broadcast area or when ESPN showed them became a sharing with his spirit kind of experience. I continued living abroad and or well outside of the NE but made frequent visits to Storrs through the early 2000s and was thrilled with the advent of CPTVs streaming which opened up the whole season to me. Staying up super late in London or getting up super early to catch games became a standard. I have since moved back to Storrs and enjoy unfettered access now.
 
I became a UConn fan as a junior in high school this was the 03-04 season. I was flipping through tv and saw a women's game on. It just so happened to be a UConn vs Tennessee game (mind you at the time I knew nothing of the rivalry) and I saw Diana Taurasi play for the first time. Right then and there I became a UConn WBB fan. Could you imagine if I had decided to be a Tennessee fan that day? Crazy.
 
Moved to CT to work at UConn 1993. Started following both men & women then. Only lived there 3 years before moving back to Midwest but Women's basketball has stayed the course. But one other factor really helped... I found that my wife would watch the Huskies with me. She never watched FB or men's bb but she has fallen in love with UConn WBB. Since we could see so many games on ESPN3 we began watching all the games and after I had watched WBB a while I basically discarded men's games (except Iowa, where I went to school - and how I long for a coach like Geno there and a mindset as Geno & CD instill into their players... oh, and I do watch a lot of March madness). Honestly I don't watch many WBB games except UConn but whether live or recorded we watch most all of their games.
 
mag 7 said:
Moved to CT to work at UConn 1993. Started following both men & women then. Only lived there 3 years before moving back to Midwest but Women's basketball has stayed the course. But one other factor really helped... I found that my wife would watch the Huskies with me. She never watched FB or men's bb but she has fallen in love with UConn WBB. Since we could see so many games on ESPN3 we began watching all the games and after I had watched WBB a while I basically discarded men's games (except Iowa, where I went to school - and how I long for a coach like Geno there and a mindset as Geno & CD instill into their players... oh, and I do watch a lot of March madness). Honestly I don't watch many WBB games except UConn but whether live or recorded we watch most all of their games.
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Mine as well. That and WNT soccer are the only sports I can get her to watch with me.
 
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1993 for me.

I remember seeing a large poster of Bascom in the Sugar Shack my freshman year and thinking that was cool. I went to see a few games and I was hooked.

My mother, father, and grandmother became fans shortly thereafter. My grandmother was particularly excited when she saw names like Auriemma, Rizzotti, etc. She thought she made it back to the motherland. ;) And of course, her favorite all time player is Taurasi. She's probably mine too...
 
In 1987 I flew home from Texas for Christmas & caught up with a few close friends and the bar we used to do our under age drinking. One of my friends casually asked if I heard that one of our former HS JV BB coach had gotten the head coaching job at UCONN. Mind you he said nothing about Women's basketball or exactly which former coach, we had about 4 or 5 coaches in two years of JV ball. By 1992 when I was home now out of the Army and was able to make the HS reunion. Same friend asked if I was keeping track of the job Geno was doing at UCONN. The name Geno honestly did not ring a bell so I came home and looked in the year book and sure enough one of our JV coach was Geno. Wow I though, I got to go see UCONN play. So I brought tickets to UCONN vs. Villaova just a short ride across the bridge. It was a good game but the guy coaching UCONN sure did look like the Geno I remember. Totally confused I went home thinking maybe they meant Connecticut College so I gave up. Sometime around the summer of 1993 I was at a christening and finally found out Geno was actually coaching the Women at UCONN. I have been hooked since 1993, but it could have been much sooner.
 
1991 first Final Four - Really didn't know UConn had a high caliber team until I noticed press coverage as they made their way through the tournament. Tough loss to VA but I was hooked.
 
I started following when they got to the final 4 for the first time. I bought one of the mini-packages they sold back then starting with the 94-95 team. Two mini-packages in 95-96. Then season tickets from 96 until 04. My daughter stopped going with me after the 01-02 season, then after the next two years going by myself, I got better seats watching CPTV starting in the 04-05 season. I gave to CPTV until SNY started doing the broadcasts.
 
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Have been a men's fan since 1964 when I decided to attend UConn. Rooted for all uconn sports ever since, including wbb, but didn't start attending women's games regularly till the 87-88 season with the team that featured Kris Lamb and Renee Najarian.
 
Since 1988. Caught the tail end of the field house games and every game at Gampel for many years. Love that I can still watch all the SNY and ESPN games -- even the CBSSN games -- down here in TN. The 90-91 team of over-achievers is still my favorite.
 
I remember catching a game or two on espn during Stewie's sophomore year. Got hooked with the hype of that year's WB national championship game. I remember wondering how is this skinny awkward white girl dominating women's college basketball. I have been tuning in for every UConn game since.

Last year's final four was my first ever live UConn game, drove 8hrs from WI to see them.
 
HuskyNan said:
We've had a request from a fan to find out how long folks here have been a UConn women's basketball team fan.
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I was a student at UConn, majoring in Sports Medicine/Athletic Training, and one of the requirements was that we had to take 6 different "Sports technique" courses. One that I took was Basketball, taught by the brand new Women's Basketball Coach. For part of our grade, we had to attend a game (in the old Field House), and write a paper on our observations. I could tell right away that this guy loved the game, and teaching it (and we didn't get hollered at or thrown out of the gym at all!). From then on, I was hooked.
 
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Always was a huge men's UCONN fan in the 70's as well as a huge NBA fan. In 94-95 I didn't follow them much. I started watching them gradually more because of Shea Ralph. I just loved her game but still I didn't watch a lot though it was more. I was heartbroken when she went down (the same time Rickey Moore went down on the men's side. Both injuries killed me.). I got the "itch" of "what could have been" if she was healthy. I couldn't believe UCONN got to the E8 in 97-98 and looking forward that Ralph was coming back. And then she'd play with Sveta. And then I would learn/read/knew during the summer of one high school star committing . . . then another . . . then another . . . then another . . . then another . . .

It's like a actor(s) or actress(es) you liked/loved their performance during a pretty good movie even though he or she (them) was (were) a star before. But now the star(s) just came out with a super movie in which he or she (them) was (were) unbelievably great. The movie and the star(s) were getting great acclaim. I had to see that movie. I knew Geno was great. I knew Ralph and Sveta were great. And when I saw the TASSK force for the 1st time at the McD game in Hartford, I knew this movie would be something special. Been a huge fan ever since. And the show keeps running. How lucky are we?
 
Put 1995 on the poll, but actually became of the Huskies a bit earlier than that. Probably the first time they went to the Final Four for the first time. I became a fan because they were a thorn in the side of Pat Summitt, whose sideline manner I just did not like. I had an interest in the women's game since high school when one of my classmates got a chance to play at Immaculata. This would have been 1978 to 1982. Unfortunately injuries kept her from having any kind of significant college career.
 
f1f1ferrari said:
... I loved the purity of the way they played. Emphasis on the fundamentals, no showboating like you see in the men's game...
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ferrari, you hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned. From time to time I'm asked how I can watch women playing anything, not just basketball. My answer always involves purity and fundamentals especially at UCONN. It's the passing, the movement without the ball, finding the open teammate, stifling defense, and turning steals and rebounds into fast breaks.

There's far too much chest pounding, it's "all about me" attitude in the men's game. When I make such comments to others, the polite ones will respond that it's a cultural thing and I wouldn't understand. In response I just say when I watch a women's game I see lots of folks who can claim the same cultural heritage but for some reason they don't seem to think it's necessary to demonstrate in the same way. There's nothing wrong with excitement over a great play, but after watching women's basketball as long as I have, strutting around like a fool apparently is not a requirement of success in a team game.
 
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