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Your story on how you became a can fan

Brother went to UM and graduated and had classes with Jim Kelly. He said Jim was never in class. LOL

He was a ZBT and I would constantly hang out on campus with him because my parents were always working. With my grades (I went to school at NM Sr High and sat next to Earl Little) I could barely get into Miami Dade. We've been season ticket holders since 1980. Had only missed one home game(Honeymoon) 2001 UM/FSU Shockey TD since 1980 until 2017 ND game. I haven't forgiven my wife fo missing that UM vs FSU game. Had to watch it in a shack in Jamaica LOL. Unfortunately I've also been a season ticket holder for the Phins since 1980 and had some fun years with Marino but really don't have the passion for the NFL anymore.
 
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Learned it from my father, who went to UM in the forties, I think. He had season tickets in the early '50's. I think my first game was us beating Bama in the OB in '55. Future NFL legend Bart Starr was Alabama back-up QB as a senior. That's how screwed up Alabama coaching was at the time.

My favorite player of the era was Don Bosseler.
 
Mcanes305 said:
1st generation American, HATED american football but friends kept trying to push it on to me. A buddy of mine, Michigan fan, came over one saturday to teach me the game and convert me to a Michigan fan (brought me a Michigan tee and hat). I was bored ****less until halftime when i saw a Miami highlight - Edgerrin james - and i lost my mind. I couldnt understand why you would watch booty *** Michigan when there were teams like Miami. I asked him to put that game on but it wasnt televised; i then bombarded him with questions about what i just saw (the colors, the hair, gold teeth and what i can only describe as "organized chaos"). His answer cemented my fandom. He pretty much said - those guys are wild and are out of control. they are cool to watch but they always lose because they have no discipline. Its a team of all criminals and showboats. they are fun but you dont want to watch them because they dont play the game right.


During this time America wasnt as integrated and if you were black you were beaten in assimilating or ostracized and labeled as bad (at least from my experience). A big part of the draw to James and Miami was watching black players be free to be themselves and not fit a mold. I loved this about James.

Spent the next few weeks reading and trying to find info on Miami (no internet back then) and became a massive fan of James...then the team.

I caught a nice wave because this happened in 1995/96 - i had no concept of Miami history was just told by everyone im supposed to hate them and got clowned when i said i like them. I hate football anyways so i didnt care, figured ill be a fan of the underdog....and literally we fielded the best team ever a few years later. felt like fate to ride with them since then.
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That makes me love going to Ann Arbor in '88 even more. We were down something like 16 points with 5-1/2 minutes left in game and we came back and won.

There were like 104,000 people in the stadium and the **** band was playing that **** Michigan fight song the whole game. I think it's called Victor's Valiant or something like that.

A friend of mine, a leader in the Hurricane Club, got to fly on the team plane for that game.

He said the Miami players were making fun of that Michigan fight song, singing it on the plane on the way home. I wish there was a video--would be priceless.

Should've seen the Michigan fans that day--absolutely stunned silence, in the stadium and the crowd walking away outside....many, many sad, long faces.
 
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DTP said:
I grew up in south Florida in the 80's. My pop and uncles were fans so that's who I watched on TV when I was a kid. Went to my first game at the Orange Bowl in 1987.

A lot of the younger guys or people who didn't live down here don't know what Miami was like 35-40 years ago. There was a ****load of tension, today's Miami is peaceful AF compared to then. The Orange Bowl was the one place where the only colors that mattered were Orange and Green and as long as you were a 'Canes fan, you were brothers, at least for that day.
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And Miami before that was nice...smaller, less crowded, for people my parents'age there was great entertainment in the '40's and '50's. Weather was great, if you were tired of snow, ice and cold up north. It got bad I guess years after we moved away in '63. That's when violence, drugs and crime came in. Glad it's getting better....but my impression is that it's still pretty crowded and traffic can be bad.
 
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Parents had family plan tix in the eighties, so my Saturdays were in the OB. I fell in love with the take no **** attitude and wound up going to UM too where I took plenty ***** on the can.

Semper Canes!!!
 
troyskiles said:
I'm not a can fan, I am a CANES fan.
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You really should give them a try. They've improved the lining so if I poured one beer from a glass bottle and one from a can, you couldn't tell the difference.

Still prefer draft though.
 
I grew up in Broward in the 80's and Miami was always South Florida's team. My dad did some work with The U, getting the company he worked for some advertising on the scoreboard at the OB. They gave him tickets, autographed football cards (which I still have of the entire '91 championship team) and a bunch of other ****. He became a fan because of that and he never went to a football school. He then raised me to be a Cane and he's a diehard fan like me. My sister went to UM for grad school, so that also helps.

This 15 year rut has been heartbreaking. Any Cane fan 35 and older knows what I'm talking about.
 
Grew up in SC

For some reason my sisters boyfriend (now my brother in law) was a huge Canes fan. His best friend a huge FSU fan.

That got me interested but I still pulled for Clemson. But still paid attention to Miami and liked them.

Then after undergrad at wofford college, I started applying to law schools and had choice of South Carolina or Miami.

I chose Miami and started law school in 2000.

We lost two games during my three years at Miami. Been all Canes since my first game in OB (v VT 2000)

I’ve since sired two male Canes fans 5 & 7 who, among other things, enjoy wearing Canes gear to school here in Tallahassee
 
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I grew up in Dallas, so you know I was steeped in Miami lore. My mother and all of her siblings, all went to Carter High in the eighties, so she was a fan because of Jessie Armstead, because they were classmates. So, I grew up in a home that was all Miami, even when things went sideways in the mid nineties. When it became time to pick a college, Miami was at the top of the list, and once I saw the merit aid the school was giving out, I was all in. Loved the school so much I stayed for my masters and JD.
 
I saw a bunch of players wearing baggy clothes. Wearing jewellery. Getting arrested. Talking schit before and after the play. I realized these guys are just dudes from the hood like me and rooted for them ever since. Thank god I didn't wait a few years to become a football fan or I would have been a UF fan.
 
1983 national championship game. All **** day long, all I heard on tv was how Nebraska was the best team ever and how they would crush this small school in Miami. I decided to watch anyway and it was the best game I had ever seen. I was hooked from that night and haven’t wavered since.
 
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Born on campus. Years later watching the Stork terrorize backfields made me understand how lucky that was. I’m Catholic so ND was natural draw. Dad was Bama alum so that was a true fight. But neither could ever tough my heart enough to come close to The Canes. I became alum and the concrete was poured around my feet. Then that glorious OB game against NE for the first NC happened and I bought my orange and green coffin.
 
Family (cousins) were Gators and Noles. I followed all three teams casually, in my teens. Became a full-time Cane fan when Jim Kelly led Miami to a 17-14 upset over #1 Penn State at the Orange Bowl. 1981 I believe.
 
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