How/When Did You Become a Longhorn Fan?

For me, I had no choice. I was a Longhorn fan from birth in 1966. My parents were attending The University during the Royal years and, like me, were (still are) obsessed with the Longhorns. In fact, they were so obsessed with the Longhorns that, when it came time to choose a name for me, they began trying name combinations that they thought would sound good being announced over the PA system, radio, or television as I was running down the field for a score. I won't tell you what they almost named me (thankfully cooler heads prevailed and they named me after my father).

During games, I call my father/mother after every Longhorn score or big turnover that the Defense creates. When we went down by 12 to USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl, I spent the last 6+ minutes talking with my father, both of us willing the Horns to come back for the win (just as we had personally witnessed against Michigan in Pasadena the year before). When Vince scored, we both wept like little babies, overcome with joy.

How/When did you become a Longhorn fan?

 

When I was conceived probably somewhere in Galveston.

Or the day I got accepted into Texas.

 

In the 5th grade our school district's "Fair Day" was the Thursday before the TX/OU game. While wandering through the midway and waiting in line for rides, everyone was hollering "OU Sucks" and "Texas Fight." We joined in on the yelling, and I was hooked.

 

I'm just a few days past my 18th anniversary of becoming a Texas fan. It wasn't by choice, but it's turned out alright. I was a freshman in highschool and had no desire to move to another state, start another school, and figure everything out in another location. I can still remember sitting on my parents' bed when my dad talked to me about it. He said he wanted to win a National Championship, and thought that Texas was a good place to try and accomplish that. I am sad for him that he never accomplished that goal, but I am happy to have been around for a small slice of Texas football history.

 

Born that way

 

I was a college football fan in general years before I went to UT I grew into being a Longhorn fan my freshmen year. 4-7 under Mackovic was better than most years at my high school. Of course Mack came along the next year.

I am the only Longhorn in my family.

My mother is a Tech/North Texas grad, aunt a Rice grad, uncle UH, cousins OU, A&M and LSU. As for why A&M and OU over Texas was simple for my cousins - full-ride scholarships were offered.

 

After attending my first game as a student I was 'hooked'. It was the 40-10 beatdown of missouri in '96.

 

Was born and raised. My parents met at UT back in the 50's and my dad was in the band. Been going to games since the day I was born.

 

Since I am probably somewhat older than the average poster here, my attachment to UT probably began before most. I started keeping up with the Horns in 1957 and my allegiance was cemented in 1958 during the Texas OU game.

I was in the Air Force when the 1958 season began and my best friend from high school (Lubbock High) enrolled at UT. I had dropped out of high school (family issues) and since no one in my family had ever attended college I had no particular allegiance.

There were a couple of factors that made me chose UT to root for:

1-My best friend going there
2-In the AF pretty much anyone who wasn't from Texas would pull for any team playing a Texas school (that pissed me off).
3-It seemed to me that if I was going to pull for a Texas school it should be THE University of Texas not some school with a qualifier in its name.
4-I liked what Darrell Royal was doing at Texas.

I did eventually graduate from UT, so I am no longer a t-shirt fan, if that is an issue to anyone. It isn't to me.

Because of my fanaticism I have created a large fanbase of Longhorn supporters. Since I was the first person in my family to graduate from college I caused three of my nephews, their offspring, my two sons and a grandson to become dyed-in-the-wool fans.

 

pjohnson

I actually went to a small Division III school in Tennessee where athletic scholarships are not allowed, but I do not consider myself a T-shirt fan, nor would I have considered you one before you got your degree, so I'm with you on the whole t-shirt fan issue (we all love the Horns for different reasons and come at it from different angles -- nobody can convince me that they are bigger fans than I). Just like my good friend, Seth Hinkley, who also went to Sewanee with me and posts on this board, I'm obsessed with the Horns and have been for a very long time.

 

As a toddler in the 50's. We lived in Austin as my dad finished his degree at Texas.

 

My dad's semen is burnt orange.

 

One day I bought a UT tee-shirt at the Goodwill Store.

 

9/27/51 - approximate date of conception

 

I was 5 when my family moved to Texas in 67. They following year I started watching football, and by the end of 68 my new adopted state's flagship football program was looking very good. By the end of the 69 season I thought for sure I had moved to where the gods of college football were born and the University of Texas ruled.

This illusion and sense of wonderment and invincibility lasted until I was stunned on January 1, 1974 when my beloved longhorns were not in the Cotton Bowl. I thought they went every year by default.

Nonetheless I was hooked for life, and there was only one place for me to go when it became time to pick a university.

Good thing is I'm starting to get that feeling back again after all these years.

 

I moved to small town Texas from California in the summer of 1978 when I was 10. It took about a month to meet a couple of kids my age. One of their Dad's, we'll call him Mr. A, was an alum and a huge 'Horns fan. He was a fantastic guy. He was the guy that coached our baseball teams, led the local Boy Scouts, that kind of stuff. Always had a smile on his face and was always rooting for you. Since all the games didn't come on TV back then, he'd have big BBQs when they were. He had me convinced that all aggies were evil. I've been a fan every since.

Through my own immaturity, I never attended UT. I'm a true fan, but not an alum. I have created a good sized following of 'horns fans here in San Diego through my fanaticism.

I hadn't seen Mr A. in about 10 years and had heard that he'd slowed down alot due to health reasons when we went to the Rose Bowl in '06. I bought him a souvineer at the game and tracked him down to give it to him the next time I was back in Texas, as a way of thanking him for introducing me to Texas football. I wish I had a picture of the huge smile on his face when i gave it to him. He looked like he was fighting back tears. I think that me thinking of him meant more than the stupid souvineer. I'll probably get him another one this year.

 

Born into it. My dad was a Silver Spur in the early 50s. I'm having his Silver Spurs; spurs, hat, etc. framed in a shadow box for the media room.

 

There have been 22 people in my family that have gone to UT (some only for a semester, though!) and I graduated in '96. My mom and dad scheduled their wedding AROUND the '69 Game of the Century. Basically, their reception was spent in front of the TV with friends and family!

I guess I truly became a fan when I went to my first game with my mom and dad some time in the mid-80s...it was cold and rainy and we got our hides tanned by A&M, but I was consumed. We weren't exactly a rolling ball of butcher knives when I was on campus, but there was always electricity in the air when we would walk from Jester down the hill to the stadium on game days.

 

We moved to Texas when I was about 6. My dad basically said we're Texans now so we root for Texas teams. For years I didn't know there was another college football team in Texas besides UT. I remember about 3 or 4 years later all of us watching and rooting for Texas against ND in the Cotton Bowl for the national championship.

JohnnyM - I can't tell you how admirable I think it is that you can still count yourself a UT fan despite the hard feelings and hard words directed toward your family over the years from a lot of UT fans. Glad you apparently recognize not all hold a grudge. Despite whatever may have happened your dad will always be a Longhorn to me.

 

At my first game. My stepdad dragged me to the UT-UCLA game in 1970. I was 10. The last minute victory had me Hooked

 

at birth. I was born in Austin and went to every home football game and bowl game through h.s. and every basketball game (home and away from about age 1 until h.s.).

edit: and I was born in 1982 so I watched some bad Texas teams.

 

Thanksgiving Day, 1963. We were at my grandparent's home in East Texas and everyone sat in front of the TV to watch the UT-aggy game. My entire family was cheering for the Longhorns who were ranked #1 in the nation. My grandfather, an aunt, and l-o-t-s of cousins had attended UT. I was a young boy and the >only< person in the room cheering for aggy. Why? 'Cause I wanted to be different than everybody else in my family.

Aggy blew a 13-0 lead and the 'Horns rallied to win late in the game 15-13. Aggy had plenty of chances to win that game but blew it. After the game, I remember sitting on the back porch steps of my grandparent's home and crying because my team had choked. At that point, I made a decision to become a UT fan because they always seemed to find a way to win and not an aggy fan because they always seemed to find a way to lose. It was the best decision I've made in my life along with marrying my wife.

I'm a UT grad, have a daughter who's a UT grad married to a UT grad, another daughter who will graduate from UT in May 2010, and a son (who attended school out of state to play for a top 20 men's soccer program) who is as passionate about the University of Texas as I am.

 

In middle school, i forget which year ... maybe 7th?, our history teacher was an aggie and our math teacher was a longhorn fan, and they used to have a fun little rivalry. I liked our math teacher better, so I sided with the Longhorns.

4-5 years later, I was on the 40 acres!

 

My grandmother moved down to TX when I was around 8 (Im from KS ) and my brother and I went to visit her every summer. One summer a few years later we went to visit the state capitol and when we left she took us around the campus and I saw the stadium. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen and knew right then I liked whoever played there! Been followin the Horns ever since!

Wish I could have went to school at UT but there is absolutely no way I could have afforded tuition. Regardless, I proudly wear my burnt orange everywhere I go and look forward to the day I move down to the great state to live among the greatest fans in the world!

 

Sophomore year (my first year at UT, I started off at UH because of a full ride but couldn't deny the pull to UT). I've always worn burnt orange on game days and haven't missed one yet.

 

Born with burnt orange blood in 1964 when the Horns were reigning National Champions!

 

2001 when I started paying tuition.

 

Converted in 1976 when the family moved to TX.
Re-born into full Longhorn Glory in 1984 as I stepped on to the 40.

 

'89 Tx/Ou game. We lived in Michigan at the time but my parents were moving to Texas as soon as I graduated high school. They really, really wanted me to move with them so they flew me down to go to the game with all of the Horn and Sooner fans that worked with my father.
I was sitting in the stadium minding my own business when all of a sudden everyone around me stood up, hoisted thier Hook 'Em Horns and started to sing. That was it, I knew I wanted to be a part of that.

 

I grew up in a small town between Austin and College Station. The majority of my friends and neighbors were aggie fans, probably due mostly to the agricultural nature of the community (lots of cattle and farming). I don't really know why I initially pledged my allegiances to the Longhorns (probably about the 4th grade), but from that point on it always felt very comfortable to me, even though I was in the minority.

When I got to my junior year of high school, I was strongly encouraged by my Dad as well as counselors and teachers to apply to aTm. I wound up applying to both UT and aTm and was accepted by both. The difficult part came when the local aTm club offered me a nice little scholarship and then aTm also offered me a few dollars that would have really gone a long way for a poor country boy like me. I paid my own way through school, so scholarship money wasn’t easy to ignore.

I ultimately decided that I would go to UT, even if I had to pay my own way. Some may find it bazaar that I had never even been on campus before freshmen orientation, even though I had rooted for the football team for many years. From the day I walked on campus, it has always felt like the right decision.

I never told my parents about the scholarship offers that I had received from aTm, because at the time they would have definitely had a strong opinion on the matter. However, since that time, my Dad has become a huge Longhorn fan and has attended both Rose Bowls with me as well as just about every home game and Bowl game since 1996. He despises everything aggie, and would now probably understand why I made the decision I did…….