Your first Uconn game

[Mokum]

A little something on the lighterside, now that we are all happy and looking hopefully to a bright future. What was your first Uconn game? For me it was 1954, Hawley armoury, Uconn vs. Holy Cross. I was to little to know what was going on, but I remember being there with my dad. Was actually the first time I ever saw basketball. I do remember the place being tiny, my kids HS gym was bigger.

 

[Kemba'sYogurt]

Well I haven't been to a game yet unfortunately, but the first one I remember watching is the Cardiac Kemba game vs pitt in 2011. Good memories...

 

[Deepster]

I don't remember the exact game but remember it was 1980 in the Civic Center and thinking Mike McKay dunking was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone dunk live before.

 

[HuskyBoi]

my first game in person was 2014 duke and uconn at the izod center. boatright went off, but unfortunately the rest of the team couldn't gel together offensively. i think okafor was held to just 7 points if im not mistaken. 64-54 i think was the score. awesome UCONN atmosphere and totally out numbered the dukies. despite losing, the entire arena and parking lot were packed with uconn chants. we are out there!

 

[TopDogs]

Sometime in 1991 at the Civic Center. I don't remember which game it was (I was 8 or 9) and we were up in the nosebleed seats across from the bench. I distinctly remember the Civic Center being packed every time my dad took us to a game.

 

[KingOPancakes]

2000 ish? Too young to remember who it was against. Civic Center. Nosebleeds. So far back we had to watch the game on those little TVs hanging from the ceiling because the rafters were blocking our view. Dad bought me an Ajou Deng tee. Best day ever.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Mid 2000s. Can’t remeber. Since then been to 100+

 

[alexd]

My dad got me into the Huskies in the mid 1970's but I didn't see a game until my senior year of high school. It was a 2nd round 1981 NIT game vs. Minnesota at the HCC. A bad first game for me....Trent Tucker scored from everywhere. Have been to close to 300 games since.

 

[Mokum]

Well I haven't been to a game yet unfortunately, but the first one I remember watching is the Cardiac Kemba game vs pitt in 2011. Good memories...

That counts. I meant just the first game you watched. In the '50s games were not on tv, it was all so small time compared to now you young guys can't imagine. I never thought I would see Uconn achive what has transpired the last 20 years.

 

[Palatine]

A little something on the lighterside, now that we are all happy and looking hopefully to a bright future. What was your first Uconn game? For me it was 1954, Hawley armoury, Uconn vs. Holy Cross. I was to little to know what was going on, but I remember being there with my dad. Was actually the first time I ever saw basketball. I do remember the place being tiny, my kids HS gym was bigger.

54, that's pretty good, got me by 8 years. The Field House.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

I can't actually recall, though I do remember my Dad bringing me to campus to show me the still-being-built Gampel Stadium and talking about how it was going to be amazing. He was right.

My first game was probably Civic Center around that time, as tickets were very hard to come by at Gampel for quite some time, IIRC.

 

[CTGoonie]

mid 80's at the field house vs. Marist. I remember having to ask which team was the huskies (I was between 6-10 years old). My uncle was there (along with a group of 15-20 others) as he was and still is a big Marist fan ( no it's not @Fishy ).


EDIT: Looked it up - 12/5/88 93-71 win over the Red Foxes.

 

[Mokum]

2000 ish? Too young to remember who it was against. Civic Center. Nosebleeds. So far back we had to watch the game on those little TVs hanging from the ceiling because the rafters were blocking our view. Dad bought me an Ajou Deng tee. Best day ever.

I remember sitting up there and doing the same. I also remember taking my son to Hartford in a snowstorm, paying a scalper $200 for two seats to a Uconn / Georgetown game in the 80's, only to sit up in the rafters. I think around 10,000 capacity is optimum for a proper basketball arena.

 

[Matrim55]

NIT semis in 1988. I was 11.

 

[outlaw]

some random women's game when I was 3 or 4 years old - the day I fell in love with Storrs and an unhealthy obsession was born

 

[Stainmaster]

Gampel, Senior Night 2002 vs. Seton Hall. I had never seen another human like Johnnie Selvie before, and still haven't to this day.

Stainmaster Sr. has me beat though; his first in-person exposure to the Huskies was seeing Eddie Slomcenski drop 40 on Maine at the Fieldhouse in January of 1963.

 

[Milo65]

Had to look it up, UConn vs. Yale, December 1978 New Haven Coliseum. I was nine. UConn lost 92-78. Program has come a long way.

 

[Travelman6]

I am not sure if it was the first, but one of the first I remember was:

Uconn/Rider in round one of the tourney. My 4th grade teacher Mr. Fowler who was otherwise not the nicest guy let us watch the game. Probably the one cool thing, in my eyes, he did all year.

About one week later, Uconn/Florida. It was late at night because directly after the game I had to go to bed and I was so upset with the final OT result.

Earlier in the year I remember being happy to see the Virginia result in the newspaper. Maybe I saw it, I just do not remember. But when 77-36 always sticks in my mind just the same.

 

[JSB60]

My dad took me to 12/3/66 against Yale at Payne Whitney. I was a small kid but followed the game. The last decent Vancisin-coached Yale team beat a Wes Bialosuknia team that made it to the NCAAs.

 

[CL82]

December '78 in the fieldhouse against BU. Corny Thompson and Mike McKay were electric big time players even as freshman. Pretty sure the led the team in scoring. It felt like we had something special and were poised to work our way into the national scene. The team was very strong with a good mix of veterans, young talent and balance scoring with Randy LeVigne, Bobby Dulin, Jim Abromitis and Jeff Carr. If they were a Jim Calhoun coached team, they would have gone deep into the NCAAs.

 

[Balker]

It's a bit of a stereotype, but the first game I ever saw was Allen vs. Allen. My dad was/is a casual fan but the whole state watched this game. I was 9 and I decided this was my game, my team, and took ownership of being a fan of the team from that point on.

 

[TerryBoyz]

I don’t remember the date but it was Pitt @HCC during the 80s. We were up in God’s country against one of those monster teams. It was the 1st time I was introduced to the “don’t sit till they score” and was painful. It felt like 15 min of clapping. Almost as bad as the Cincinnati game at Gampel a month ago. I’m sure those days are behind us.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

3/20/1989 at the Hartford Civic Center. NIT second round game against California. With 3 minutes and change left on the clock, Cal was up 72-65. Huskies press their way into five straight Cal turnovers, scoring directly off of three of them, and cut the lead to 1, 72-71. Cal had the ball with a minute left, too much time to run out the clock, and they miss a forced shot. Tate George comes down and is fouled with just a couple seconds left...buries both free throws and UConn wins.

I was hooked. The energy in the crowd and the noise when the buzzer sounded was what did it.

 

[dennismenace]

Dec. 1969 vs. Manhattan at Field House.

 

[mauconnfan]

'66 Field House with dad and brother with the Poughkeepsie Popper - 7years old and had a blast. Didn't understand why I had to sit in the same place for the whole game and dad wasn't sure I wasn't going to the floor through the steps but we made it. It was UNH and a fairly easy win from what I remember. I was hooked.