Football: The Greatest Sport On Earth

How old were you when you first fell in love with football? Do you remember? What was the first game you can recall? Who was playing? Who were you with?

The sport of football will grab a hold of your soul and not let go. It is a love affair like no other. Football will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride. It will break your heart when you least expect it. Recently, I posed the question “How old were you when you fell in love with football?” to the writers here at Last Word on College Football. Here are some of the memories they shared.

Michael Kovacs, CEO, Last Word on Sports, Inc.

Argo quarterback Holloway finds himself in a spot of trouble during the first quarter of last night’s exhibition game against archrival Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a Ticat defensive lineman grabs his foot. (Photo by Jeff Goode/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

I went to my first game as a season ticket holder to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL) when I was six years old. That was 1984. My first game was eventful to say the least. I remember the crowd, the hard hitting, and the man who spilled beer on me when I went into the washroom at halftime. I also remember my mom getting upset at my dad, because apparently the gentleman in front of me wasn’t smoking tobacco cigarettes, opting for the greener kind. Regardless of my brush with contraband, I was hooked and have had season seats for 33 consecutive seasons.

Tony Siracusa, Managing Editor, LWOCFB

UCLA and National Coverage

I was at the 1966 Rose Bowl when UCLA upset #1 Michigan State, but I was only 2 1/2 months old, so clearly I do not remember it. First game I remember was the first regular season game…1972. UCLA played #1 Nebraska. UCLA used to share LA Coliseum with USC, so we usually got crappy time slots, but we had an afternoon game. First year my grandfather bought season seats for the two of us. Mark Harmon was the UCLA quarterback. It was stunning being in a packed stadium. An awesome experience.

Donald King, CMO, Last Word on Sports, Inc.

Stanford

I was six when I first fell in love with football. First game I remember attending was at the Air Force Academy with my dad at six years old. I don’t remember who played or what happened in that game, though. The first game I remember watching and understanding was the Rose Bowl, with Stanford beating Ohio State.

Allison Wdowiak, Writer

Navy

When I was a freshman in high school, and it was my first high school football game. I was standing front row of our student section (called the BBC: Bronco Bleacher Creachers) with some friends I had in Student Senate. We had the best student section because we had a student DJ (a friend of mine) who played Smells Like Teen Spirit and a few other songs during warm-ups. I loved the intense atmosphere and when kickoff came around, I was glued.

I also went to the “Most Spirited High School” in the nation (we won the award three out of my four years there), so I had white and gold face paint on half my face and was in blue and gold from head to toe. By the third quarter, I would lose my voice from cheering and screaming. Most of my guy friends were starting football players by the time I was a junior, so I was even more attached to the game. Even though my love for football didn’t truly come out until the start of high school, I kind of always enjoyed watching it.

Billy Goley, Writer

Oklahoma

Red River Shootout versus the Texas Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

I’ve been an Oklahoma Sooner fan since before I could hold a football. The first game I remember watching was the Red River Shootout (OU vs. Texas) when I was around eight or so. I come from a family of Sooner fans, so bleeding Crimson and Cream just came naturally. BOOMER!

A side note and proof that God has a sense of humor: I married a Texas girl whose entire family consists of hardcore Longhorn fans, so OU vs. Texas is always an experience at our house each year.

Brandon Eisenman, Writer

LSU and Troy

I was seven or eight years old, and I went to Tuscaloosa and watched Tyrone Prothro and Alabama play against Southern Miss. That was the first game I can remember watching. I was immediately addicted to the game of football.

Brendan Dzwierzynski, Writer

Kansas

3 JAN 2003: The University of Miami starts to celebrate what they thought was a win over Ohio State University prior to a late penalty call against them during the National Championship Fiesta Bowl held at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ. Ohio State defeated Miami 31-24 in double overtime to win the national championship. Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos

I’ve loved football in general essentially since I was born, both the college game and the NFL. The first college football game that I remember watching was the infamous 2003 Fiesta Bowl, the national title game between Ohio State and Miami. I watched with my dad, and I was pulling for Miami because, as a graduate of another Big Ten school, he was against OSU. The first individual team I fell in love with though was the 2007 Illinois Fighting Illini. I’ll never forget watching that team, with Juice Williams, Rashard Mendenhall, Arrelious Benn, and company earn a Rose Bowl berth that season.

Hebreu Maxis, Writer

Miami

I think I was either 10 or 11, but it was Miami vs FSU in ’04. I just remember being glued watching Sean Taylor. He had two interceptions, returned one for a touchdown and dropped like four other interceptions. He had a yellow visor on his helmet and whenever he hit someone I remember the crowd saying “ooohh”. The announcers kept talking about how athletic he was, and I was like “that’s going to be my favorite player.” I remember my mom calling me during his post-game interview and I locked the door so I could hear what he was saying. It’s been all about The U ever since.

Hector Rodriquez, Writer

Florida

I was nine years old. It was when Tim Tebow won the Heisman. I didn’t know much about football, but I like the person he was and I wanted to root for him. The first game of the Florida Gators I remember was the 2008 SEC Championship when the Gators beat Bama and won the National Championship in Miami.

Jason Rhea, Writer

Oklahoma

NORMAN, OK – CIRCA 1986: Brian Bosworth #44 of the Oklahoma Sooners circa 1986 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Malcolm W. Emmons/Sporting News via Getty Images)

I was about five years old when I first knew what football was about and have loved it ever since. Although, my first experience wasn’t great, my family always told me since that day if a football game was being played, I would be in front of the TV watching.

When I was five, my dad took me to Norman for my first Oklahoma football game against the Missouri Tigers. Oklahoma dominated the game by a score of 77-0; the game was in 1986. The most memorable thing about the game is Oklahoma has a group of students called The Rough Necks, and they shoot off cannons after every touchdown Oklahoma scored. As the story goes, I would scream and cry after the cannons went off, but then once the game started back again I was glued to the action. My dad tells this story all the time.

John Bava III, Author

Indiana

I’ve been a football fan for as long as I can remember. The most memorable college game I watched as a kid was the famous Notre Dame-Miami clash back in the late 80s which the Irish won en route to their last national title. My first Super Bowl memory was watching Doug Williams lead the Washington Redskins to a 35 point second quarter en route to a 42-10 win over the Denver Broncos. From then until now, watching and discussing football with family and friends is a huge part of my life.

Jonathan Bailey, Writer

Florida State

I was seven years old watching Alabama beat Mississippi State at my grandmother’s house in 1999. She still had a TV that was a piece of furniture, where the screen was surrounded by wood and had cabinet drawers, and we watched Andrew Zow and Shaun Alexander lead the Tide to a 19-7 win.

Josh Nelson, Writer

Wisconsin

Eight years old, Wisconsin vs. Michigan. John Stocco game-winning QB draw in final seconds! Was with family and relatives!

Justin Gordon, Writer

Miami and Maryland

TEMPE, ARIZONA – JANUARY 3: Defensive back Glenn Sharpe #31 of the Miami Hurricanes is called for pass-interference on Chris Gamble #7 of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Ohio State won the game 31-24 in double-overtime, winning the NCAA National Championship. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

I got into college football late, when I was about 12. I didn’t even know much about the sport and would rather play basketball and play in dirt than sit in the house and watch a game I didn’t understand. However, I’d always been a Hurricane fan because I remembered when I was a kid, my uncle had a Miami Starter jacket with Sebastian on the back and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. But the first game I remember the most is the game Hurricanes fans would rather forget. Hated Ohio State since. Never letting up. But Chris Gamble redeemed himself playing for the Panthers so he’s good.

Kevin McGuffey, Writer

Kentucky

My earliest football memory would have been watching Kentucky win the 1976 Peach Bowl over North Carolina 21-0. The first game I ever went to was Kentucky and Vanderbilt when I was 8. The Wildcats won. I went with my parents. My dad and I had season tickets for several years until I went to college. Favorite team is of course Kentucky but NFL wise it is Bengals and Packers.

Laura Leigh Majornik, Writer

Texas

1981. I was eight years old and my parents bought season tickets for our local high school cause “Friday Night Lights” is real, not just a book, movie and TV series! Our school won State that year and I’ve been hooked ever since. The first major game I remember was Cowboys vs. Giants at Texas Stadium with my dad.

Miles Jamieson, Writer

Washington State

I fell in love with football when I was a little kid, probably eight or nine years old. I’d watch the Seahawks with my dad every week. The first game that sticks out is the 2003 wildcard game in Green Bay that went to OT. Matt Hasselbeck famously said “we want the ball and we’re gonna score” before throwing a pick 6 and ending the season. I started hysterically crying.

Reginald Lamar Austin II, Writer

Missouri

When I was around maybe six or seven, my dad took me to my first college football game, my first football game experience. The game was Mizzou versus Kansas State if I’m not mistaken. Ever since that day I have been in love with watching college football. The best part of the game was when my cousin, Brandon Massey blocked a punt in the game and scored a touchdown. It was exhilarating.

Lauren Beasley, Senior Editor

South Carolina and Charleston Southern

Even though I grew up in the South, where football is practically a religion, no one in my family was ever faithful to the pigskin. There were no season ticket holders in my family, I was never destined to go to the same school my dad and his dad had graduated from. In fact, I am the biggest football fan in my family.

The first time I can remember attending a football game was when I was a cheerleader for the youth recreational league; I must have been seven or eight. I loved the excitement of the gameday atmosphere and cheering for the players, even though I didn’t understand the game at the time.

I do, however, remember exactly when I fell in love with football. I was in middle school, eighth grade, and I was in the school band. It was a night game, I was in my little band uniform, and my eyes were glued to the field instead of the sheet music in front of me. I recall the look the band director kept giving me as I continuously let my clarinet fall from my mouth as I whispered the words “go..go..go”, while watching one of the home team running backs sprint down the field. A few weeks later, I skipped out on attending the game as a band geek and sat on the visitors side so I wouldn’t be caught to watch a game in its entirety. Life as I knew it without football was over from that point.

Kate Pearson-Halyburton, Writer

Vanderbilt

There is a picture of me I am about three or four years old, I am dressed in football pads and a helmet holding a ball. The back of the picture says “Kate with some of Gregg’s football equipment. She LOVES his helmet.” I was born in Wisconsin and raised in Texas. So, for as long as I remember, football was something we watched. Green Bay Packers, of course. Then we moved to Texas where God’s gift to the state was football. Everything was The Dallas Cowboys and Tom Landry. I just absorbed it all. I remember joining pep squad in junior high just so I could be at the games. In high school, I was on yearbook staff and begged my photography teacher to let me shoot the games.

Funny thing is – I do not remember the first game I saw in person. I was always in love with football. Spring of my junior year of college, I changed my major from Journalism to Kinesiology because I wanted to coach football. One of the college coaches advised me to volunteer at a local high school; I did and that is where the passion for the game became the forest fire it is today. I coached boys varsity, linebackers and it was AWESOME. The defensive coordinator taught me how to signal in the plays. The experience of being part of a team was/is exhilarating. It still gives me chills when someone calls me ‘Coach Kate’. On August 16, 1993, our head coach gave me my coaching whistle, and I have carried it with me everyday since.

For The Love Of The Game

Everyone fell in love with football in different ways, but they have all been hooked immediately. Football gives families a reason to bond and is a common ground when communication is not always easy. It is a sport that saves players lives by giving them a chance to get out of bad situations or even giving them a second chance at life. Football has forged the unlikeliest of friendships. It is, in my humble opinion, the greatest game on earth.

So, how old were you when YOU fell in love with football?

Main Photo:

Kate Pearson Halyburton,(Editor)

Kate was born in Wisconsin and raised in Texas where she fell in love with all things football. She coached high school football for 12 years. (boys varsity high school, linebackers) She is a 24-year member of The American Football Coaches Association. She is single and lives in the DFW area with her dachshunds Ollie, Cooper, and Dobby. She has been writing for eight years and an editor for five years, and she loves to talk football!

Sports. Honestly. Since 2011