My father was an athlete at App in the 60's. He started taking me to games in the 80's. I fell in love. My choices were App, NC State, ECU, and South Carolina. It was an easy choice for me.

One day I was walking into high school (late) and ran into 2 friends walking back to their cars. They were on the way up to visit App so I tagged along. Fell in love with the school and Boone that day... the rest is history.

From Mobile I grew up going to South basketball/baseball games. One of my best memories as a kid was the 1991 basketball season in the Civic Center. Back then UAB, Old Dominion, VCU were all in the Sun Belt. USA won the SBC tournament in Mobile. Everyone waited for the "one day" USA would add football.

Now I have two degrees from South and raising a future Jag.

I grew up about an hour away from Troy. Growing up, I was an Alabama fan. But in high school I was in the band and everyone knows Troy has a great band. Many of our band functions were at the university. Even some of our high school football games were against the local high school in Troy so I had already been marching in Veteran's Memorial Stadium long before I arrived as a college student. When it came time to choose, I felt so comfortable with Troy from all the years of going there for things that it just felt like home and I knew it was where I wanted to go. From that point on, I was a diehard Troy fan.

(10-04-2016 10:45 PM)KSDTROJAN99 Wrote:  Grew up cheering some for Burn and some for Bamer. First year of college at Burn but hated every moment. I transfered to TROY in Winter quarter 95. I started attending football games because I had friends playing. Then on a cold November night in 97 me and a bunch of friends decided to paint up for the Battle for the Ol' School Bell and TROY (State) dismantled Jax State 49 to 0 and I was forever a TROJAN through and through. And now I am not just a football fan but a proud alumnist and support everything that advances TROY!

Go TROJANS!!!
Cry HAVOC!!!

H*ll YES!!! Cry HAVOC!!

Grew up in Mobile, grandfather worked for the university, I went to basketball and baseball games with him. Basketball at the auditorium, though the remodel, in the gym and finally at the Mitch. All through the 80's and 90's, I've watched preseason basketball games with Lee Shirvanian. Going to baseball games, sitting in the old green wooden grandstand. And the small press box. I have watched games with Coach Stanky, as well as Coach Kittrell's parents, but I was to young to realize who they were.

I also attended in the mid 90's for two years before changing majors and schools. South didn't offer what I needed.


Also like to add my dad and sister both attended, among other family members.

GO JAGS!!!

Grew up in ABQ, parents went to UNM. They wanted me to enjoy college, they encouraged me to look at places other than UNM. Visited NMSU, liked the campus and programs they offered. Had some aunts and uncles who went to NMSU. Became a fan of NMSU athletics while I was there. The constant arrogance of UNM fans, not just the ones on the message boards, drove me to be solely an NMSU fan. Have been a fan of NMSU's for 11 years.

I always kept up with Appalachian since it was only 90 miles from hometown. I really became a fan when I was dating my wife (she went there) and went up for Homecoming in '82. Later on, my daughter attended ('10 grad) so you can say I married into and then fathered into the Appalachian family. BTW, I went to UNCG.

(10-05-2016 07:09 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  Grew up in ABQ, parents went to UNM. They wanted me to enjoy college, they encouraged me to look at places other than UNM. Visited NMSU, liked the campus and programs they offered. Had some aunts and uncles who went to NMSU. Became a fan of NMSU athletics while I was there. The constant arrogance of UNM fans, not just the ones on the message boards, drove me to be solely an NMSU fan. Have been a fan of NMSU's for 11 years.

Got it! Gonna miss u guys.

(10-05-2016 06:34 PM)Usajags Wrote:  Grew up in Mobile, grandfather worked for the university, I went to basketball and baseball games with him. Basketball at the auditorium, though the remodel, in the gym and finally at the Mitch. All through the 80's and 90's, I've watched preseason basketball games with Lee Shirvanian. Going to baseball games, sitting in the old green wooden grandstand. And the small press box. I have watched games with Coach Stanky, as well as Coach Kittrell's parents, but I was to young to realize who they were.

I also attended in the mid 90's for two years before changing majors and schools. South didn't offer what I needed.


Also like to add my dad and sister both attended, among other family members.

GO JAGS!!!

The Belt of the 80's was a lot of fun. USA would challenge for rankings, the Belt would usually get multiple bids to the dance. Big games, huge crowds at Municipal Auditorium, lots of fun.

Born and raised in the triad, I grew up with split allegiance to App and Florida(long story). My mother and father both graduated from App. My dad's brother and multiple cousins also are App alum so it's been in our family for years. Hell most years at our family reunion we pause just to count and recognize the current Appalachian students in the family and there are always quite a bit even though we live two hours away. I grew up going to KBS on Saturdays and Sunday morning win or lose I would go out on the field with dad pretending I was the next big app football star which obviously never happened but man I always loved KBS and always loved the city of Boone.

Both of my parents and one aunt are App grads, and another aunt attended App for a while. I grew up going to games in Boone so it was a second home for me. When it came time to pick a college App was the only school I applied to, and 4.5 years later I became the 4th alum in the family.

I was a University of Miami fan growing up in Panama. The Miami Hetald was the main US newspaper you coukd get down there and i would gtab the sports page every Saturday. Wheb we moved to Atlanta in '83 i hated the UGA fans ad so rooted for GT everytime they played each other.Attended GSU on '87 out of high school when it was an actual commuter school and had like 10 buildings in 6 or 7 blocks downtown. The Sports Arena was where you went to shoot baskets or lift weights. Nobody attended basketball games. I remember when we made the tournament I '90. It didn't even register on campus. It wasn't a campus where people talked sports. If you were a football fan you likely rooted for GT. Left school in '93 and was working and living Downtown and later Midtown. Watched the city grow exponentially and watched GSU gobble up Downtown but didn't give much thought to GSU Athletics until we made the tournament again in 2001. By then some staaatted posting online and the football rumblings began. In 2004 or 05 I was on campus taking a couple of classes and got wind of a town hall with athletics. It is funny for a couple of reasons. They held it at night in a really hidden nondescript room in the Student Center. Only like 6 people were there and that includes the two low ranking members of Athletics. Was the first time I sort of met Ben Moore (we all figured out later that week in the forums through deductive reasoning). And the football question came up. There was hemming and having and fidgeting. Pretty hilarious. After that meeting I became more involved and paid more attention. When we finally announced the feasibility study a couple years later I was all in by that time. I now own way too many clothing items in Royal Blue.

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I lived in Kalamazoo for 12 years before I considered applying to graduate school at Western Michigan University. I paid little attention to WMU before that time. I'm now a proud alum and I've live in Kalamazoo for 18 now.

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I grew up in south Georgia and always enjoyed college football (and basketball), but never had a team to absolutely root for. My parents were military transplants, and my dad had some affinity for Wisconsin and Florida because of where he grew up, but I was never indoctrinated. The closest I came was being an FSU fan for a bit through relatives from Tallahassee. Thankfully, I was never pulled into the UGA cult.

Did my undergrad at Mercer when there was no football. I covered sports for the Mercer newspaper but honestly didn't pay a ton of attention to college football during that time. Met my wife in 2006; she's a huge Auburn fan, and so I finally "had a team" and started really following the game again. Had just gotten my master's at GSU when we played our first football game; I'm happy to have been there from the beginning. (Although technically, I was in line at will call when the first game started, since the logistics weren't quite nailed down for that first game.)

Are you familiar with the Stockholm Syndrome? Similar to that.

Fan from 1978, graduated 1985.

(10-06-2016 09:29 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  I grew up in south Georgia and always enjoyed college football (and basketball), but never had a team to absolutely root for. My parents were military transplants, and my dad had some affinity for Wisconsin and Florida because of where he grew up, but I was never indoctrinated. The closest I came was being an FSU fan for a bit through relatives from Tallahassee. Thankfully, I was never pulled into the UGA cult.

Did my undergrad at Mercer when there was no football. I covered sports for the Mercer newspaper but honestly didn't pay a ton of attention to college football during that time. Met my wife in 2006; she's a huge Auburn fan, and so I finally "had a team" and started really following the game again. Had just gotten my master's at GSU when we played our first football game; I'm happy to have been there from the beginning. (Although technically, I was in line at will call when the first game started, since the logistics weren't quite nailed down for that first game.)

Logistics not nailed down was an understatement. We will never know how many beyond the 31k showed up that day.

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App State alum. Visited during a soccer camp when I was a freshman in HS, fell in love with the school and the town, and decided that no matter what I was going to App.

Simple. I just really, really hate myself. Made the choice easy.