How did you become a Tulane fan?

Discuss anything else athletic or non-athletic related that doesn't belong on the main Tulane athletics forum.
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tpstulane
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Looks like we only have 14 fans with stories. I’d like to read more on this topic. It’s interesting to see similarities in those that posted. Where are the rest of you all?


Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
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RobertM320
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tpstulane wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:53 pm Where are the rest of you all?
Working. I'll try and get mine in before the weekend.
"That mantra is the only consistent thing that never needs to ever change for the rest of this program’s existence because that is all that matters & as long as that keeps occurring, everything will handle itself" -- Nick Anderson
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tpstulane
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RobertM320 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:14 pm
tpstulane wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:53 pm Where are the rest of you all?
Working. I'll try and get mine in before the weekend.
Ok
:computer: :computer: :computer: :computer: :computer:
Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
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Dupergreenie
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My great grandfather was a Tulane fan and would bring my uncle to the football games back in the original Tulane stadium. My Uncle would bring his step son to the games but the step son grew tired of going so my uncle offered me a ticket to a game. My first game Tulane took on the absolute powerhouse team of William and Mary Tribesmen (Tribe who actually weren't that bad of a team) beating them 10-0. The following week I went to the Mississippi State game and the Greenwave lost 36-10. After that season (1993) my uncle moved away from the area and moved back in 1997(ish). He brought me to the Tulane vs. Southern Miss game where Tulane won 21-7. And after that game I officially became a 'lifer'.
DfromCT
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My best friend was a year ahead of me and went to Tulane in 1980-81. I was living in Jamestown, NC for my Senior year of HS, and frankly was more interested in Tulane because of academics and everything New Orleans has to offer. I wasn't aware of Green Wave athletics at the time I applied, and probably got into Tulane because they didn't have many applicants from NC. My parents wouldn't pay if I went west of the Mississippi, so being the rebel I was, I got as close as possible without going west of the Mississippi!

My first week on campus I read an article in the Hullabaloo about this great Frosh basketball player who's mother worked 3 jobs just so he could have the right basketball shoes. I went from Sharpe to Monroe and in the Monroe breezeway was this very tall black man washing a new Cutlass with a vanity front plate that read "Hot Rod". That told me we were trying to compete!

Sat in the same seats (Section 614 in the dome, and opposite the visitors bench in Fogleman) for all four years. Coach Dana Kirk from Memphis State once called a timeout and walked across the court and put his finger in my chest telling my I was a punk for ridiculing him! I was just following up on an example from two older alums we dubbed "Cheech and Chong" that were under the home basket!

A guy named Rodney Holman dunked over me in an IFC basketball game! I've been a die hard Tulane fan ever since the fall of 1981. Great games I attended included the 48-7 Thanksgiving blessing and 31-28 in Red Stick the year the TIgers were on their way to the Orange bowl. My buddy and I ran up and down the aisles in the final minutes of the Tulane NIT victory in Baton Rouge leading the Tulane fans in a "Dale Brown Sucks" chant! (Brown had dropped Tulane from the schedule that year saying LSU had nothing to gain by playing Tulane.)

I'll always remember coming back to New Orleans from spring break only to see Hot Rod on national TV saying "I've got too much at stock" (yes those were his words!) as he was lead off campus in handcuffs my senior year.

I will always be a Wave fan. Sometimes it's difficult to justify the time and emotional involvement, but it's part of who I am.

ROLL WAVE!
" If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day.." Jimmy V
HoustonWave
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Unlike many of you, when I came to Tulane in the fall of 1971, I had never stepped foot in Louisiana, much less N.O. or Tulane. My first Tulane game was when we hosted and beat Texas Tech—who had three players from my high school. I was rather ho-hum about Tulane that first year. Enthusiasm grew throughout the 1972 season when were ranked in the Top 25 and were undefeated until Michigan brought us back to reality at The Big House. My Tulane fanaticism really crystallized during the 1973 season which was of course a phenomenal year, and my Tulane obsession was made permanent on December 1st 1-9-7-3.
Tulane is the University of Louisiana
waveclem
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I became a Tulane fan because my Papaw was a Ticket Taker at old Tulane Stadium. As the story goes about midway point through the 1st quarter my Papaw would wave my Dad and Uncle in to see the games. Back when Tulane was playing an SEC schedule. My Dad and Uncle eventually passed their fanhood to me in the early eighties in the Superdome (this time they paid). I begrudgingly went to games throughout my childhood and then in 97' when Bowden came to town I suddenly became alot more interested in the games I was forced to attend. Eventually my brother started coming along and then all my nephews one by one as they all become of age (5 years old). Now it's become just a family gathering and a great time for us all to bond over a common team. And now with Noah joining the fold in 2020 our family outings at Tulane games will be alot more heavily attended by extended family. Tulane is just in our blood.
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tpstulane
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Great stuff guys!
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NOLABigSteve
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Keep them coming y'all. These are great.
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My father was from Seattle Washington and attended the University of Washington.
He moved to New Orleans married my mom in 1950 and adopted Tulane as his team . He brought me along to the games starting in the early 60s .
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My uncle was a great three sport athlete and a Tulane fan because they were New Orleans team. I say he was a great athlete because several local athletes that went on to become All-Americans and make Hall Of Fames told me he was better than them even though he was 4-5 years younger than them. He got paralyzed in a diving accident at 15. There was no ADA laws back then. People looked at us like freaks when we went anywhere. We measured the steps to the Tulane gym so we could curt a board to cover the steps to get him up the steps into the gym. Alfred was the maintenance man for the gym and when the ticket takers saw my grandmother, my aunt who was only 8 years older than me and raised together as sister and brother by my grandmother, and me coming they would call for Alfred and he would help us push my uncle, who was 6"1,220 # up the ramp and into the gym. We would go for the Freshman games so he could get his spot caddycorner to Tulane's bench on the end off the first row. The only time any player reached out to us was when Fowler was the coach and he held a open scrimmage. At the end of it Hot Rod led the whole team over to us and introduced every player and thanked us for our support.

For football the stadium really didn't offer him a good view. When they moved to the Dome he had a great view from the top of the loge level. We watched every game there together till his death. After he died I moved down to the first row of the Loge with my aunt and her husband. Steve and his family were in the third row above us. She brought candy to every game for them.

As for baseball we went to the games when they were free and Retif was the coach. We were extremely poor as the family went bankrupt trying to help him over come his injury. One year we showed up and they were charging 25 cents to get in. We had to turn around to leave but they called out and let us in. He eventually became the official scorekeeper for the team under Brockhoff for a season.

He passed away 27 years ago. My aunt passed away a year ago. I'll be here as a die-hard fan till I die too.
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tpstulane
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Wow what a story Win! Your uncle and family was one of a kind with that dedication! Thanks for sharing!
That brought back memories I had of a guy name Philip. He always went to the Tulane baseball games during the Retif era. He also was paralyzed and went to the games in wheelchair. You may remember him.
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1962 or 1963 outside of Tulane Stadium, my Grandmother asked me to choose between the LSU purple or Tulane green team pennant . on a stick. I chose green that day and the rest is history. Game started out 3-0 for the Greenies. Final: Not da Greenies! History can be looong when you start from 1893.
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As the story goes on my moms side, my grandpa and his friend grew up going to any games they could, They cheered for Tulane and Lsu. Whatever year lsu went for 2 up by like 50 points or so, my grandpa because a diehard Tulane fan. My moms cousin played baseball and football for Tulane in the 70s. My mom has always been a diehard Tulane fan! My father swam and dove for USL and has a deep hatred for Lsu. He was a casual Tulane fan but when he met my mom, he was hooked by her fandom! They brought me, my older brother and sister to all the games they could afford in the 80s and 90s. My father passed away in August of 98. That season was so special to my family as well as all of us Tulane fans. It was my 1st day of my freshman year at Rummel when he died. That season was more than football to me and really got me hooked more than I thought I was to Tulane sports.
My mom was a big fan of baseball, basketball and football. I’ve had season tickets since 2003 for baseball and haven’t missed more than a couple of home football games since 2002. Been a season ticket holder with my mom for football since Yulman opened.
*My wife’s family is diehard obnoxious LSU fans lol. All it took to convert her was 1 baseball game at the box in 2005 in coons corner. I now have 2 young boys with baby #3 on the way. They WILL be diehard Tulane fans!
Side note, I also have to say that Graff also had a big hand in hooking me to Tulane. I will greatly miss his broadcasts. Some people dislike his passion, over the top when things are good and depressing when things are bad. That’s what I LOVE. It’s not fake. He love the school like we all do and it shows. We feel every pitch, every TD pass, every sack, every pick 6 and he has that ability to make you feel it over the radio. I hope the next PBP can fill the HUGE shoes he is leaving.
Thank you Graff for the great memories that I will cherish!!!!
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My dad went to Ole Miss so I grew up in late
50s early 60s as a Rebel diehard. So my deep hatred of LSU was ingrained in me. Did go to many "Cub Scout" Tulane games, so always pulled for them to upset LSU. Got lucky enough to get NROTC scholarship out of HS in 1970 and wanted to stay home so picked Tulane. The rest is History. My senior year was the 1973 season and I pull up and watch the youtube video of the fans rushing onto the field at the end of the game where many of my friends and I are seen running around like crazy. I left to go in the Navy and visited my dearly departed parents (Mom just died this past Feb) every year since but never again lived in NO. Everywhere I went had the TP mailed to me so I could followed the Wave and Saints until the internet saved me that money.
All these years over here in Florida my family and friends can't understand why I stay such an avid fan of such a bad athletic program. I tell them they shoulda been there on Dec 1, 1973.
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My dad grew up in NOLA, but college really wasn't on his radar until after WWII, when he attended Tulane on the G.I. Bill. I remember him listening to the games in the mid 1960s when I was a kid, and I started listening with him. We didn't live in NOLA, be took me to our first game, the 10-10 tie against top 10 Miami. I was hooked.
Really Tulane football is the reason I wanted to go to Tulane. I wanted to go to a academic challenging school, but it was being a fan of Tulane football that distinguished Tulane for me.
He'd always tell me "I root for LSU whenever they don't play Tulane." I'd nod my head, smile and say "Sure you do, dad"...I saw through that facade when I was 10 years old.
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There is a pattern here : parents, grandparents , uncles, aunts taking youngsters to games .

Tulane needs to reinforce the development of YOUNG fans .

Reinstitute Cub Scout admissions .

Reduced ticket prices, significantly reduced , for all youngsters grades 8 and younger . We are not exactly short of unoccupied seats .


On a different note , losing our voice is going to hurt short term at least . The right hire will be critical . I do not have the slightest idea HOW to evaluate candidates. This will be a major challenge with very little time remaining before the FIU game .
President Fitts , B of A , it's put up or forever hold your peace time . Make Tulane ATHLETICS relevant and top 30 again .
chigoyboy
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The younger generation like myself need to bring our little ones to the game and get them hooked early! My boys are 3 1/2 and 1 1/2. I have taken them to a few baseball games this past season, but football is a little harder since walking around and watching the game is a little more difficult. I brought my 3 year old to the ECU game this past season and it was an awesome experience for me as well as him i think. I am hoping to get him to a few game this season and have constantly invited my friends that aren't big sports fans outside of the Saints.
My older boy loved Graff when he would get excited on the radio. I would stream most of the games on my TV with Graff playing and he would run around screaming every time we hit a homerun!
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nawlinspete wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 9:22 am There is a pattern here : parents, grandparents , uncles, aunts taking youngsters to games .

Tulane needs to reinforce the development of YOUNG fans .

Reinstitute Cub Scout admissions .

Reduced ticket prices, significantly reduced , for all youngsters grades 8 and younger . We are not exactly short of unoccupied seats .


On a different note , losing our voice is going to hurt short term at least . The right hire will be critical . I do not have the slightest idea HOW to evaluate candidates. This will be a major challenge with very little time remaining before the FIU game .
So what’s your story? How did you become a Tulane troll oh I mean fan?
Funny how you’ve not told your story. But you come here telling Tulane what to do.
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NOLABigSteve
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Keep them coming. I've enjoyed reading every one.
Roll Wave!
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tpstulane
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NOLABigSteve wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 4:08 pm Keep them coming. I've enjoyed reading every one.
Great topic! In fact I’d suggest that any new member should have to post to this topic first as part of the signup. And it would get rid of bots.
Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
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wave97
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Grew up not believing that Joe Paterno was a demi-god. Unpopular position in 1970's Pennsylvania.
Saw the 1979 team play PSU on national tv. Impressed by Tulane's team speed and execution..
Was recruited by Penn State in 1979. Was invited to attend a game at Beaver Stadium during an open weekend of my senior season. After receiving two tickets and a field pass in the mail I can remember asking my team mate "Who is this team with a U on their helmets"? I had no idea that Miami had a University, much less a football team.
I witnessed Jim Kelley (who Jo-pa would only extend an offer as a linebacker), dissect a lumbering PSU.
Tulane's style of play reminded me of what I saw from Miami on that day in early November of 1979..
Running a highly reactive pro style offense in 1979 was rare. Most teams were running ground & pound I formation, wishbone or veer.
Last edited by wave97 on Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:56 am, edited 2 times in total.
DfromCT
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wave97 wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:22 pm Grew up not believing that Joe Paterno was a demi-god. Unpopular position in 1970's Pennsylvania.
Saw the 1979 team play PSU on national tv. Impressed by Tulane's team speed and execution..
Was recruited by Penn State in 1979. Was invited to attend a game at Beaver Stadium during an open weekend of my senior season. After receiving two tickets and a field pass in the mail I can remember asking my team mate "Who is this team with a U on their helmets"? I had no idea that Miami had a University, much less a football team.
I witnessed Jim Kelley (who Jo-pa would only extend an offer as a linebacker), dissect a lumbering PSU.
Tulane's style of play reminded me of what I saw from Miami on that day in early November of 1979.
Did you play for Tulane? If so, we overlapped (though at 150 lbs, I was nowhere near playing D1 football!!!) I would have watched you play, though. One of my favorites from the 1981 team was Sly McGrew. Great LB. Sorry for my ignorance!
" If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day.." Jimmy V
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I grew up on my grandparent's struggling dairy farm in the poverty belt of northwest Louisiana. My mother died when I was born and was laid to rest on her 20th birthday. I don't actually remember why or when I began to follow Tulane but I do remember announcing to my grandfather when I was ten that I intended to graduate from there. With no family members ever having attended college, I'm sure he was both puzzled and amused by this and probably told me to stop daydreaming and milk the cows.

Facing bankruptcy and the possibility of losing the farm, my grandfather moved the family to Ft. Worth where he took a menial minimum wage job at a defense plant. There I graduated from high school and enrolled in TCU where I completed two years before severe illness forced me to discontinue school. Subsequently, marriage, kids and career brought about a number of moves and life changes. As a vice president of New Orleans based Wiener Enterprises (Shoe Town, The Ranch, Shoe Lodge, Danny's) I moved back to Louisiana. A decade later I was recruited by Wemco, a New Orleans based apparel manufacter, as president of their new retail division.

By this time, I had sent my children to college and seen them graduate from Ole Miss and Southeastern. I always felt a bit embarassed about having failed to complete my own college work. My wife encouraged me to investigate the possibility of attending Tulane. As a lark, and remembering my childhood fantasy I enrolled and was able to get all my TCU credits (except for religion) transferred.

My life has brought a number of exciting days: my wedding, and the birth of my children. Other than those, I have experienced no greater thrill than graduation day at the Super Dome in 2000 when this grinning 53-year old wore cap and gown and received a diploma along with hundreds of kids younger than my own. No one loves Tulane more than me.
DfromCT
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GreenLantern wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 10:15 pm I grew up on my grandparent's struggling dairy farm in the poverty belt of northwest Louisiana. My mother died when I was born and was laid to rest on her 20th birthday. I don't actually remember why or when I began to follow Tulane but I do remember announcing to my grandfather when I was ten that I intended to graduate from there. With no family members ever having attended college, I'm sure he was both puzzled and amused by this and probably told me to stop daydreaming and milk the cows.

Facing bankruptcy and the possibility of losing the farm, my grandfather moved the family to Ft. Worth where he took a menial minimum wage job at a defense plant. There I graduated from high school and enrolled in TCU where I completed two years before severe illness forced me to discontinue school. Subsequently, marriage, kids and career brought about a number of moves and life changes. As a vice president of New Orleans based Wiener Enterprises (Shoe Town, The Ranch, Shoe Lodge, Danny's) I moved back to Louisiana. A decade later I was recruited by Wemco, a New Orleans based apparel manufacter, as president of their new retail division.

By this time, I had sent my children to college and seen them graduate from Ole Miss and Southeastern. I always felt a bit embarassed about having failed to complete my own college work. My wife encouraged me to investigate the possibility of attending Tulane. As a lark, and remembering my childhood fantasy I enrolled and was able to get all my TCU credits (except for religion) transferred.

My life has brought a number of exciting days: my wedding, and the birth of my children. Other than those, I have experienced no greater thrill than graduation day at the Super Dome in 2000 when this grinning 53-year old wore cap and gown and received a diploma along with hundreds of kids younger than my own. No one loves Tulane more than me.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your great story.
" If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day.." Jimmy V
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