Why you do?

[*rfaulk34*]

Ok. I need to take a break from the bashing and do something a little different. Some of you may start thinking that i don't actually like the team. I'm sure we've done this before, but i'd like to know why and when you became a Bengals fan.

I've told this story before but it's been a while and i'm sure we have new people over the last couple years. So here's littly Ricky's story...

Back in 1978 i was 12 years old and me and my friends were just getting into sports seriously. Playing around the neighborhood and watching pro and college sports on TV. At the time, my Uncle worked at Barleycorn's downtown and it just so happened that Bengals players would hang out there on Friday nights before home games. My dad had told me this and on this particular Friday, i asked him to bring me some autographs to show off to my friends. So, the next morning i wake up, eat some cereal and sit down to watch Saturday morning cartoons. That's what we did back in the day. Anyway, i'm sitting there and i think, "hmm, that was a pretty cool dream last night...wait, was it a dream?". So i get up and go back in my room and there on top of the dresser was an NFL football and a signed pic of Gary Burley. Not only that, my dad said i had 2 tickets to the upcoming home game against the Falcons. 

Now, any of you that know the history of the Bengals, know they weren't very good in the late 70s. At that particular time, the Bengals were 1-12 with their only win coming against Houston earlier in the season. The football that was sitting on top of my dresser just happened to be a game ball that Gary Burley had received for getting 4 sacks in Houston the week before, in a loss (they got game balls even in losses back then), and he just kept it in his trunk. 

So, i go to the game with my Uncle, the one that worked at Barleycorn's and low and behold, the Bengals win their 2nd game of the year 37-7 and go on an OG DCB. The Falcons had been fighting for a playoff spot at the time at 8-5. After the game, me and another kid got to ride in Burley's cadillac on the way to get something to eat with my Uncle and a couple other players (who i don't recall right now). 

I've been hooked ever since. NFL football is my #1 sport to watch, bar none. I love college basketball too but not nearly as much as NFL football and as fate would have it...i bleed orange and black, despite my distaste for who owns and runs the organization. 

For those interested, here is that game, with little Ricky sitting in some end zone seats, taking in all the action. 






I was able to call into the Lance McCallister show some time back when he had Burley as a guest and related this story to him. 

What's your story?

[Luvnit2]

I grew up watching the Browns each week. The Bengals did not exist until I was 11 years old. By that time, I was a die hard Browns fan. Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore. I had no team for 3 years. Upon their return, I stayed a fan. Over the years I hosted the Bengals Super Bowl game that we lost to Montana. All of my family and friends were Bengals fans. I was a die hard Browns fan, was devasated by the Elway drive and a fumble by Earnest Biner at the goalline. I asked my wife to bury me in a Brown's uniform.

My nephew became a season ticket holder in the 90's. He was constantly trying to get me to switch teams and join him and other family members as a season ticket holder. He took me to the KC and Bengals game, Chiefs were 0-8 and Kitna beat them. On the way back, my nephew threw me a Bengals black and orange sweatshirt. He said it's time. I agreed and never looked back.

I became a season ticket the next year with CP as the starting QB. I stayed a season ticket holder until I purchased a house in Florida in 2021. My nephew is the reason I became a fan back in 2004.

My best experience was the 2021 season. I kept telling other to enjoy the journey, never know if or when we ever get back. My wife looked at me after we beat KC and said, let's go to LA and see the game. We did and sat 6 rows up behind the endzone, same endzone we saw Logan Wilson get a horrible holding call.

I am hopeful in my lifetime to see a Bengal's SB winner. If not, I will still try and enjoy the journey. I love fottball and love our team.

[SunsetBengal]

That is a great fan story, surprised that I hadn't already heard it from you previously. Mine is a bit boring in contrast. In 1977 I was 8 years old and most of the boys in the neighborhood were choosing their favorite teams. I lived in NW Ohio at the time and most were Browns fans, except for one mean fat kid who was a Steelers fan. I chose the Bengals to be different than the rest in the neighborhood, and I liked the Orange and Black colors.

[PCB Bengal Fan]

(Yesterday, 04:57 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Ok. I need to take a break from the bashing and do something a little different. Some of you may start thinking that i don't actually like the team. I'm sure we've done this before, but i'd like to know why and when you became a Bengals fan.

I've told this story before but it's been a while and i'm sure we have new people over the last couple years. So here's littly Ricky's story...

Back in 1978 i was 12 years old and me and my friends were just getting into sports seriously. Playing around the neighborhood and watching pro and college sports on TV. At the time, my Uncle worked at Barleycorn's downtown and it just so happened that Bengals players would hang out there on Friday nights before home games. My dad had told me this and on this particular Friday, i asked him to bring me some autographs to show off to my friends. So, the next morning i wake up, eat some cereal and sit down to watch Saturday morning cartoons. That's what we did back in the day. Anyway, i'm sitting there and i think, "hmm, that was a pretty cool dream last night...wait, was it a dream?". So i get up and go back in my room and there on top of the dresser was an NFL football and a signed pic of Gary Burley. Not only that, my dad said i had 2 tickets to the upcoming home game against the Falcons. 

Now, any of you that know the history of the Bengals, know they weren't very good in the late 70s. At that particular time, the Bengals were 1-12 with their only win coming against Houston earlier in the season. The football that was sitting on top of my dresser just happened to be a game ball that Gary Burley had received for getting 4 sacks in Houston the week before, in a loss (they got game balls even in losses back then), and he just kept it in his trunk. 

So, i go to the game with my Uncle, the one that worked at Barleycorn's and low and behold, the Bengals win their 2nd game of the year 37-7 and go on an OG DCB. The Falcons had been fighting for a playoff spot at the time at 8-5. After the game, me and another kid got to ride in Burley's cadillac on the way to get something to eat with my Uncle and a couple other players (who i don't recall right now). 

I've been hooked ever since. NFL football is my #1 sport to watch, bar none. I love college basketball too but not nearly as much as NFL football and as fate would have it...i bleed orange and black, despite my distaste for who owns and runs the organization. 

For those interested, here is that game, with little Ricky sitting in some end zone seats, taking in all the action. 






I was able to call into the Lance McCallister show some time back when he had Burley as a guest and related this story to him. 

What's your story?

I remember seeing a full page color ad in the Springfield News Sun with the new helmet & my oldest brother saying they were the best helmets in the league, I became a fan of football that day. I was 6 years old and was hooked, all because of the bad ass helmets. I fell asleep watching the Super Bowl that year.

[sandwedge]

(Yesterday, 05:52 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That is a great fan story, surprised that I hadn't already heard it from you previously. Mine is a bit boring in contrast. In 1977 I was 8 years old and most of the boys in the neighborhood were choosing their favorite teams. I lived in NW Ohio at the time and most were Browns fans, except for one mean fat kid who was a Steelers fan. I chose the Bengals to be different than the rest in the neighborhood, and I liked the Orange and Black colors.

Where in NW Ohio?

My story starts out about 1971 or 72, I was a big Vikings fan. Tark and Foreman, Sammy White were the dudes! The rest of the entire family were Brownie fans.. I was into baseball more and loved the Big Red Machine! About 1975 after winning the World Series, I remember asking my dad if Cincinnati had a football team. I switch allegiance to the Bengals, Ken Anderson was my new favorite player and I have never looked back. You old timers will remember we only had 3 channels at best, so I grew up listening to football on the radio. Saturdays were spent with my dad listening to the Buckeye's games. Archie will forever be my favorite Buckeye!

[Sled21]

When my family would get together my father and uncles would watch football. I was just a youngster, and couldn't really pick a team to root for, so I was basically a Packers fan because of Bart Starr. When the Bengals opened in Cincinnati, I had my forever team. That's all there was to it.

[HarleyDog]

No story. Just a fan. FU!

[Millhouse]

I'm an 80's and Cincy suburb kid so grew up more with the Reds & Bengals as my teams. My best and only memories I really have from the 80's was the 88 Super Bowl highlighted with Jennings return td. Just a kid that would have rather shot hoops with friends or outside stuff or video games instead of watching Bengals games during the fall.

By time I was going into high school, Mike Brown took over the team. And at that point in time sports and girlfriends was my life during high school, and the Bengals took a backseat as they were terrible.

Then when there was a ray of light under Mike Brown with Blake and Pickens rainbow bombs, I was going into college. So Bengals took a massive backseat those years to say the least lol. I mean, it's college, who had time for those Bengals teams back then when living on a campus lol.

So really by time Marvin took over, I was pretty much rock bottom with the Bengals, I could just have cared less. But Marvin and Carson got me excited to come back as a fan, and that is when I started to follow them in earnest. But never a die-hard either like season passes and all that, though I was out of area too.

Anyways that's my fandom journey in a nutshell, unfortunately a lot of it centers around Mike Brown owning the team which is where my cynicism with them comes from. I have a couple of memories seeing Paul Brown as little kid going up to Wilmington training camps with my grandpa, but thats about it from that era. This was Kenny and me sometime in the early 80s after a training camp practice.

[Stewy]

As others, no real story.

Grew up watching and enjoying the Steelers in the 70's. They were fun to watch. We lived in SE Ohio, kind of away from everything so people had mixed affiliations. We were die hard Reds fans though. My Grandparents had season tickets from the late 60's to the late 90's.

Some time in the mid-late 80's, my family and another family from Cincinnati whom we were friendly with split 6 season tickets to Bengals games. So I've been a Bengals fan ever since. Attending the games hooked me.

FYI - My parents were at the Freezer Bowl with our friends. For the playoffs, the kids were left at home and the adults all went instead.

[Goalpost]

Wearing childhood Bengal PJ's is my earliest remembrance to be introduced to the Bengals. Helmet was with 70's logo.

[*PhilHos*]

My Dad was born and raised in Cincinnati and I believe even went to UC. He's a Reds, Bengals and Bearcats fan and if Cincy had an NBA team and NHL team back when he was younger, he'd probably be fans of those teams, too. When I was born, we lived in Newport, KY. Due to my parents' job, we moved away when I was 1 and have moved around a lot. I started getting into sports a little bit when I was in High School and I lived in New York. Nearly became a Giants fan because of Jeff Hostetler, but because Dad was a Bengals fan, I was born in the Cincinnati area and the Bengals had the coolest helmets ever (still do), I decided to become a Bengals fan like my father before me. Now, if I had known that I was becoming a fan of a team that would not have a winning record for the next 12-15ish years, maybe things would've changed, but well, as Paul Harvey used to say, "now you know ... the rest ... of the story."

[No-huddle Joe]

My story is pretty boring, but basically I became a fan because of my dad. He lived in Portsmouth, Ohio so naturally they would show the Bengals on TV in that area. He was a Vikings fan until the Bengals became an expansion team so he started following them. A funny story though, when I was probably 8 or 9 years old, I remember we were watching a Bengals game on TV and they did something dumb (this would have been in the 70s) and he got so mad that he slammed his foot down on the recliner foot rest and broke it in two pieces! Man was my mom pi$$ed off! She made him fix it right then and there. Good times. But they made you mad back then too Lol

[Bengalbug]

I didn’t realize we had so much wisdom on this board.

Born in 86, Grew up a bengals fan in the 90s. Remember akili smith, kijana carter. I remember going to forest fair mall card shop and buying a Kijana rookie card, I still have it.

Really didn’t become a fan until around -2003, when I went down to a game, maybe the Seahawks, but I didn’t look it up. We were running late, but listening on 700 WLW, and all you could hear was “Rudi, Rudi, Rudi”.

Basically been a die hard since 2004, and was was a 20 YO season ticket holder by 06. I have been on and off with season tickets, over the last 20 years as life changes,but have them now again, for about the last 5 years.

[BengalYankee]

Growing up as a youngster in New York in the 70's my sport teams were settled. Dr. J and the New York Nets of the ABA, the NY Islanders of the NHL,( both these teams played on Long Island NY. Obviously the Yankees, but I liked the Metsies as well(I loved how Bud Harrelson and the Mets beat up Pete Rose and the Reds in the '73 playoffs.

But football was different, their was no cable tv so all we got stuck with was the lousy Jet and Giants with the rare occasion of seeing out of market teams playing each other on Sunday afternoons.

Enter the Bengals, the rare times I saw the Bengals they were playing at home at Riverfront stadium in their black uniforms with the background of the green astroturf was beautiful to my eyes. I also loved the Oakland Raiders Black uniforms. I don't recall the Steelers black uniforms, maybe I was revolted by the yellow

One day{1974] I was sick and tired of the Jet and Giants games and watched the Oakland Raiders @ The Bengals and I said which ever team won that game I was going to root for. Unfortunately, the Bengals won and I became a Bengals fan for life. The Raiders had the Bengals number the rest of the 70's including beating them in the 1975 playoffs and beating them on a Monday night where the Raiders already clinched the playoffs and losing to the Bengals would put the Bengals in the playoffs and eliminating the Steelers. The Raiders won and the Steelers entered the playoffs instead of the Bengals. All I heard form the sport annalists were if the game was not a Monday night game and buried on a Sunday afternoon the Raiders would have played different sort of like how the Chiefs got blasted by their rival the Broncos 38-0.

Anyway, had I picked the Raiders I would enjoyed 3 NFL Championships. I did enjoy rooting for the Raiders every time they played the Steelers.

[Nepa]

I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania and had never been in Cincinnati. I became a Bengals fan via the Cincinnati Reds.

I became a Reds fan in 1964, when they were making a last-minute run to catch up to the Philadelphia Phillies, who had built up a seemingly insurmountable lead in the pennant race but totally fell apart in the last two weeks (10 straight losses at one point, Bunning pitching on 2-days rest). The Reds didn't catch them (the Cardinals did), but they ran off 9 straight wins at one point and it came down to the last game of the season, and I was hooked. And what a team to get hooked on. Pete Rose and eventually Johnny Bench and Perez and Joe Morgan and the Big Red Machine. And, amazing, when nightfall came, I was able to pick up a radio station from Cincinnati on my tiny transistor radio, and spend many nights (including school nights, hiding under my blanket) listening to the games. Still remember staying up late to listen to Art Shamsky hit three homeruns in one night. Still brings joy to my heart thinking about those teams.

Through the Reds, I became a Cincinnati Royals fan (the Big O), and then the Bengals when their franchise got started.

I still live in Northeastern PA (well, moved back there, to my original property, to raise my family) and don't see many Bengals fans out here (area is Steelers, Eagles, Jets, and Giants), but every once in a while see one with the Bengals hat on.

[TecmoBengals]

I've enjoyed reading the posts in this thread.

I grew up north of Cincinnati in the suburbs and around age 10 started becoming interested in baseball and football. I collected cards, played homerun derby and kill the man with neighborhood friends, played pick up games, and started closely following professional sports. This coincided with the second Bengals Super Bowl team. I thought Boomer and the gang were going to become a dynasty like Montana and the 49'ers. That's when my Bengals fandom started and has continued since.

The 1990s were brutal though since many games were blacked out on TV and the team couldn't be watched. That's when I did learn to enjoy other NFL players like John Elway, Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson (He's a GOD in the Tecmo Bowl video game), and other stars. Tim Krumrie and David Fulcher also kicked ass in the game.

As much as I enjoyed Boomer as our QB and that Super Bowl team, the Burrow-era Bengals are probably the most fun I've had as a Bengals fan.

[MTBengalsFan]

In the summer of '70 (I was 8) my parents took me to a "Meet the Bengals" event. Chip Myers was there, and I can still recall his lesson "you try to catch the ball from Virgil Carter with your chest you're likely to end up with a hole the size of a football. You need to catch the ball with your hands, like this."

Al Beauchamp was another I recall being there, and at the time, he seemed huge. Then I got to on the field to watch the Bengals play the Colts, in 1972. Some guy named Unitas was their old QB. (At the time my 2nd cousin was given responsibility for Benzoo, the Bengal tiger so he snuck me in the back of the truck transporting the tiger from the zoo.)

I was hooked as a fan!

[HarleyDog]

(10 hours ago)Stewy Wrote: As others, no real story.

Grew up watching and enjoying the Steelers in the 70's.  

Your fandom is tainted.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

I grew up in south central Kentucky, and my grandmother was a huge Reds and Bengals fan.

During WW2, she went to Cincinnati to work in a factory that was producing for the war effort and became a Reds fan while she was up there. She was big sports fan in general. So when the Bengals came along, she adopted them too. If you went by their house in the summer, the Reds were on WLW in the carport. If you stopped by on fall Sundays, the Bengals were on TV. I became a fan by default.

I was twelve during the 88 season, and my first ever NFL game was the OT thriller against Washington that clinched home field advantage for the playoffs. If I wasn't a big enough fan already, that sealed the deal for me. Then came the 90s.....lol.

[Nicomo Cosca]

Chad and the 05 team is what really got me into obsessively following them. Before that it was more of just casually rooting for my hometown team. So I always credit him.