Another thing I get asked a lot is how I became a fan of Australian football. I was born and raised in the USA (though about 10 different places in the USA!) but I didn't make my first trip to Australia until 1986, when I was 27 years young.
Way back in 1980, I was going to "uni" during the day and working during the evening to pay for it. Ditto with my roommate, George. He was a bit of an electronics wiz and had come upon an abandoned color TV. Which he promptly fixed up and we got it hooked up to this new thing called "cable TV". Not long after that we both came home one fine evening about 11 or so and turned on the TV. We figured we'd watch some sports while we drank a few brews.
We had this new 24 hour sports channel called ESPN. That particular night what did we find on the telly? Yep, this strange sport where the players ran up and down the field, kicked the ball, and sometimes passed underhanded. They didn't wear pads and they still tackled each other. And those guys in white coats and hats. Well, this seemed just perfect to watch while we got a bit toasted. And no, we had no idea what the rules were or what the heck it was.
I was hooked and soon so were all of our drinking buddies. I have no idea if George still watches footy, but I know that many of the rest of the crew from those days are still fans. Twenty three years on, I spend my time trying to help other fans and sell the sport to the masses.
So that's the story of how an aerospace engineer and mathematics major became a footy fan.
-Rob (who wishes it would just stop raining here in Ohio... geez, if I wanted to live in the tropics, I'd move there!)
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Interesting story.
I first noticed this "weird" sport on ESPN in the early '80s, in part because I recall a TV Guide article about this weird Aussie game ESPN had picked up. I don't recall all the details, but there was a remark about an exhibition game between an Aussie team and some NFL players who were simply run ragged, not being used to that much running and constant motion.
Unfortunately, I lost touch with the game after I went off to college (no cable in the dorm), and only relatively recently "rediscovered" the game, last fall just before the finals. Now I'm *completely* re-hooked!
Perhaps unlike other non-Aussie footy fans, I'm not a big sports fan generally -- in fact, footy is the *ONLY* major "league" type sport I watch. US football and soccer both bore me silly -- the first because of lack of motion, the second because of lack of *scoring*. Oooh, thrillsville -- a 0 to 1 game.
There's just something about footy that I find enthralling. The short soccer off the ground in a tumultuous goal square contest, or the long thumping kicks for goal from outside 50m -- just part of the *variety* that makes the game so much fun.
George
You're probably not the only one George. I believe there are lots of "lost" footy fans out there who would return to the sport if they only knew it was still on the air and where. That's been one of the great challenges AFANA has faced since it's inception... how do we find the lost sheep?
The great thing about footy is that we can expose people to it, it sells itself. It's not my only sport but it is **the** sport.
Posted by: Rob de Santos at September 4, 2003 09:50 PMI used to do my part in the US by switching all the TVs in the bar to fox sports 2 when the footy was on, and explaining the game to the bartenders. Get the bartender hooked, and then even if you never visit the bar again, the footy will always be on.
Posted by: Yobbo at September 11, 2003 08:16 PMGreat story Yobbo. Footy by stealth.
Posted by: Rob de Santos at September 12, 2003 01:28 AM