How long have you been a Cardinal fan?

[Shane]

1988 my mother bought me season tickets in the inaugural year in AZ... Had grown up liking the cowboys since that’s all we saw on TV... But after that I was hooked.... Lots of memories in SDS... Miss those halftime meets... those were real meets and lots of fun(RIP KOC).... Still a season ticket holder for the last 12 years so had a break in between year one lol.... but I was 15 I couldn’t afford them haha

 

[Captain Matt]

1982....as a teen/pre-teen My brother and I would stay with grandma in Mattoon, Illinois and watch training camp at Eastern Illinois University (Charleston) when Lomax was the QB (circa 1984/1985). I remember Freddie Joe Nunn and Wolfley as rookies pretty well.

Didn't make a single game in Arizona from 1987-1998 but caught the team in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, Indianapolis, St Louis, etc until I eventually made it to Sun Devil for the 1998 game v/s New Orleans (the photo with Pat T in my avatar was after that game). I had been to training camp in Flag, but due to Navy and college stuff it was hard to get out west for the season.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Ever since this happened:

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199901020dal.htm

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Went to the 1987 preseason game between the Packers and Broncos (at SDS) and met Bart Starr who was trying hard to bring an expansion team here, but I have been a Cards fan from the moment they first considered coming here from St. Louis.

Was in high school and would ride my bike down to SDS and get in on tickets from scalpers, friends, or the box office before getting season tickets in 1993 for my wife and I.

Loved the old halftime meets we'd have there. Met so many people from the board back in the SDS days. RIP to several of them.

Have been to every home game except two preseason games (due to deaths in the family). Got our tickets to Skkorp and AzCards21 for those two games. We schedule everything around the NFL weekends/day games and everyone knows not to plan anything they want us to be at on a game day - because we won't be at their event. LOL

Have been to two road games: Super Bowl in Tampa and the Titans game in Nashville the following season. Both games we had the lead with 2:37 on the clock. Both games we lost in heartbreaking fashion. No road games since.

 

[PlanoCard]

My family moved to St Louis in 1973 which was Don Coryell's first year as the Cards HC. My dad said we should be Cards fans because we lived in St Louis and because Don Coryell was going to be a great HC and the Cards would be good and fun to watch, Dad was so right.

The days of the Cardiac Cards were some of my favorite memories too!

 

[Dougmo]

My Dad was a friend and college roommate with Jim Hart so I liked them growing up but never really followed that closely.

I went to ASU my freshman year (88) and lived in Manzanita hall. My Dad got season tickets and I'd meet him for the games. It was awesome and gave us a great opportunity to hang out at an age when I normally wouldn't hang out with my Dad that much. Super grateful for those experiences. That's when I really started following them.

For many of those years, following the Cardinals really meant following the draft for me because our seasons were over as soon as they started. I was usually more interested in seeing how high our draft pick would be. Then we started winning some and I realized, "hey, the season itself is pretty cool too!".

 

[wembley88]

Probably about 85 or 86, just before move to Arizona. Picked up an nfl book when it first became accessible in UK and read about Cardinals being underdogs in their division. That was me hooked.

 

[phillycard]

Hi Plano. Welcome! Been a fan since 1977. First football game I ever watched on TV was Cards/Redskins. Fell in love with the helmets and been blood in blood out since then. Love my Philly teams to death except of course the eagles (always lowercase) but love the Cardinals more than any of them. This team is part of my very existence and will be 'til the casket dips.

 

[phillycard]

Since 1947. (72 years)?

Back then, college FB was bigger than the pros and, during the WW2 years, the military academies were big so I started out an Army (Blanchard, Davis and Arnold Gallifa) fan.

The first afternoon college football radiocasts came on right after a kids' show called "Let's Pretend" (directed/produced by Sybil Trent and Nila Mack.) First game I listened to was the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. the Iowa St. Hawkeyes.

I was a StL (baseball) fan before I rooted for the Chicago (football) Cardinals - Standard question each evening when my father returned from work: "Did the Cardinals win today?" Favorite StL Cardinal player was CF Terry Moore.

Caught up with the football Cards during their 1947, '48 championship seasons. TV had just been invented and I got to watch the Cards lose the "snow game" vs. the Eagles on our b & w TV. (Cards featured their "dream backfield" of Trippi, Angsmann, Harder and Christman. Eagle stars were Steve Van Buren, Pete Retzlaff and (I think) Pete Pihos).

Note - Single Wing football was mainly a college deal - only pro team running it was the Steelers, featuring Joe Geri. Since my uncle Edgar and older brother Jim were Yale attendees, I rooted for the Bulldogs from New Haven (QB'd by Levi Jackson) for most of the 1950's.

Pro football was kind of like college football's poor little brother, but the
NYC metro area was blessed with The NY Football Giants, the NY Yankees (Buddy Young, Spec Sanders and Arnie Weinmeinster) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (Sonny Grandelius and Bob Chappius.

Biggest upset I remember was when John Swiacki's late-game finger-tip catch of a deep pass from Lou Kusserow allowed the Columbia University Lions to beat the favored Army..

That's all I got.

Bowing down Jeff. LOL

 

[PlanoCard]

Hi Plano. Welcome! Been a fan since 1977. First football game I ever watched on TV was Cards/Redskins. Fell in love with the helmets and been blood in blood out since then. Love my Philly teams to death except of course the eagles (always lowercase) but love the Cardinals more than any of them. This team is part of my very existence and will be 'til the casket dips.

Great stuff philly! You're in eagle territory and I'm in cowboy territory. I followed your lead with the lower cases : )

 

[Heucrazy]

Since 1998 my freshman year at ASU.

 

[wit3card]

1996 whem I started to play football and watched my first SB

 

[Harry]

1960 when they arrived in STL.

 

[StreetTruckinTitan]

1988. I was a cowboy fan before the Cards got here cause they were about the only team usually on TV in this market. That changed once we had our own team and I went to many a game at SDS. Ironically, I had a fight against a cowboy fan in the stands. Good times!

 

[carrrnuttt]

I am from Sacramento and grew up with a father who was, and still is, a die hard 49ers fan.

When I joined the USAF straight out of HS, I ended up following the Cowboys for a bit, mostly because after Basic, my best friend in training afterwards was a Cowboys fan from Dallas, and I was also looking to piss of dad.

When I got stationed here in AZ in '93, I simply started rooting for the local teams and made my "piss off dad" move permanent.

 

[scandalous_b]

I started following the Cardinals in 2003, when I was 10 years old.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, but I was the only one in my family born & raised exclusively in Pittsburgh, so we were never exactly die hard Steelers fans.

Anyways - I loved Anquan Boldin at Florida State, and just found myself following all of his games once he moved on to the NFL. This is back when I'd be lucky to see one game a year on TV. I remember religiously following every gamecast (or whatever it was called) on NFL.com each Sunday. It was always such a treat to get a nationally televised Cardinals game. Those were definitely much simpler times lol.

One of favorite early Cardinals memories (that still gets brought up to this day) was bragging to my 4th grade teacher about the Cardinals 2004 draft class. I always loved the NFL draft, since my brother (8 years older than me) and I loved college football. I'll never forget bragging to my teacher (who previously played college football at Pitt, and followed the NFL) about the Cardinals drafting Larry Fitz, Karlos Dansby, and Darnell Dockett in the first three rounds. I guess I was a pretty good talent evaluator at 11 years old lol.

My most bittersweet Cardinals memory was obviously the Super Bowl. I was a freshman and high school and took so much abuse every day at school those two weeks leading up to the game. My high school was big and probably 99% Steelers fans. While that game was absolutely devastating, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I never thought I'd see the Cardinals make it that far. Plus - I was a big Ohio State fan (and wound up attending & graduating from tOSU), so I could live with Santonio Holmes beating me.

Long story short - there's some (a lot of) days I wish I'd never got sucked into being a Cardinals fan, but it's too late to turn back now lol.

 

[Mainstreet]

I've been a Cardinals fan since they moved to Arizona in 1988.

Like some other fans have said, I was a Cowboys fan earlier because it was the only team on local television.

 

[PACardsFan]

1963.Huge fan of Charley Johnson,Sonny Randle and Larry Wilson.Used to watch Cards play on TV.Listened on the radio when I could.

1963 for me too!!

 

[Cardsfaninlouky]

1963.Huge fan of Charley Johnson,Sonny Randle and Larry Wilson.Used to watch Cards play on TV.Listened on the radio when I could.

Since 1976, so 43 yrs.