I was an Air Force brat who just started to get into the NFL in 1976. My dad was stationed in Ohio at the time and I thought that the Browns and Bengals had terrible colors and uniforms. When I saw the blue and green of the Seahawks and that awesome logo, I became an instant fan for life. I always liked Largent - I sent him a football card when I was a kid care of the Seahawks and he not only sent it back to me signed, he added a short friendly letter as well. I've lived all over the country, but am currently in the LA area. I married a gal from Portland, so we'll end up moving to the PNW before too long. I've seen the Seahawks play on the road several times, but am looking forward to seeing my first home game.
Hey there SJ thanks for this. I recall that distance post and was surprised by South Africa. Original season Seahawks fan. Trail Blazers were winning their NBA championship and listened to Schoonz (old school radio/tv play by play like all those old baseball greats). Just getting into sports. Semi fan of Chargers, Fouts and Air Coryell but then we got our own NW team and it had all sorts of characters. A lefty QB. Sherman Smith (always reminded me of the Tank), Efren was awesome. And are man, greatest receiver ever, Largent. Mom cross stitched Seahawks helmet on sweatshirt and 80 on one shoulder and 79 (“MY MAN JACOB!!) on other.
We moved from Oklahoma to Seattle in 1986. I was just starting 1rst grade and had a weird southern accent. I instantly became a fan of all Seattle sports teams just to try to fit in and make friends. I remember really liking Brian Blades because he had the coolest name and was the young new guy. I remember celebrating drafting both Mirer and the Boz. I never really watched the games though. The were pretty bad in the late 80s and early 90s and I just wanted to know who I was supposed to care about to be cool.
It was actually a non-Seahawks game that got me hooked on NFL football. No one else in my family really cared about football, so it wasn't often on TV in my house. But, I was bored or sick or something and it was the playoffs, so on January 3, 1993, I was watching the worst game ever turn into the best game ever, as the Bills came back from 32 points down to beat Warren Moon's Oilers. It was the first time I ever had a real emotional reaction to a live sporting event and it changed my Seahawks fandom. I guess I had to fall in love with the game of football before I could really create an emotional attachment to the Seahawks, but I was emotionally invested after that and started watching all the games I could. Brian Blades and Cortez Kennedy were my favorites until the Holmgren era began. It was pretty cool getting Warren Moon for a couple of seasons, too.
1983 when they made the playoffs. I grew up in rural Nova Scotia so only saw nfl games at playoff time. Always had a soft spot for the underdog, so they became my team.
We moved to Seattle from Austin in 1990. Loved everything about Seattle. Anyway, to make a long story short, in 1997 a Seahawks season ticket holder friend offered me tix to a game he couldn’t make. I took my then 12-year old son and we had a great time. It hit me that adolescence meant that he would pull away from me, so I became a season ticket holder in 1998 for the two of us. To this day, we are loyal Hawks fans even though we’ve both moved away from Seattle.
Summer, 1976, I am 9 years old and living in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. All my friends were Raiders or Niners fans, since they were the closest teams, and I hated both. The local grocery store had the football helmet gumball machine, so I decide to buy a helmet and whatever team I get will be my team for life.
Flash forward to 1992 and I get a chance to move to Seattle with my job. I jump at the chance so I can live in the city that my favorite football team plays in. Still in Seattle and still love the Hawks. Ever since I got that helmet in 1976.
I had a stuffed animal that was a ferret. I named him Zorn. I kept him in a cigar box and kept that Seahawks helmet on his head since it fit. Carried it in my backpack all through 1st grade.
Right from the beginning. I was attending the University of Washington and living with my brother when he told me he was on the list for original season tickets. So Zorn was my favorite from that first team.
I grew up on Queen Anne Hill, and was a big Huskies fan before we had a pro team. Became a fisherman and am mostly retired living on Kitsap Peninsula.
Currently live in the Las Vegas suburbs. Born in South Jersey, the heart of Eagles country. At the time (mid to late 70s), pretty much every major sports league was going through expansion. MLB had the Blue Jays and Mariners, NHL had the Capitals and Scouts, followed by absorbing the remaining WHA teams (Jets, Nordiques, Whalers, Oilers), the NBA merged with the ABA and took on the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers, and Spurs followed by the Mavericks in 1980. And finally, the NFL added the Seahawks and Buccaneers. I was fascinated by the process where these new expansion teams (not the merger teams) got started from scratch. I was impressed with the approach the Blue Jays took and was also interested in the Seahawks. What sealed the deal was the Seahawks' Monday Night Football debut, which was the first time I got to watch them on TV, on 10/29/1979. They played a sloppy, but entertaining game. They had a punt blocked, fumbled 4 times and lost all 4 of them. But they had a fake FG, where Zorn threw over the middle to the kicker Efran Herrera for 20 yards and a first down. The defense played pretty decent including 2 interceptions by Dave Brown and they won 31-28. I was hooked. I followed Steve Largent and he quickly became my favorite player, to this day. I have two of his replica jerseys (home and away) as well as a baseball cap with the old style Hawks logo that I had him and Jim Zorn sign at a team event held at Lumen 2 days before the home opener in 2016 against Miami (which they pulled out late) as a birthday present from my wife.
I live in upstate New York and wasn't interested in sports, at all, until I hit high school in 1980. I rather cynically decided that I needed to become interested in rock-n-roll and sports to become more popular, and over time they became my favorite activities!
I had no allegiances to local teams (Yankees? Giants? Jets? Yuck!), so I decided to name my own favorites. I mostly picked teams that were decent but not championship caliber at the time (KC Royals, Philadelphia 76ers, NY Rangers). With football it was different. I sat next to a much younger kid on the school bus who had a lunchbox that showed all the helmets of the AFC teams when held at one angle, and all the NFC teams when you angled it differently. I decided to pick my favorite team based on the best helmets.
I guess I like birds, because it came down to the Falcons and Seahawks. Thank god I chose correctly! Imagine the horror and shame had I become a Falcons fan.
Despite the 'Hawks rather dismal pedigree at the time, I became a ravenous fan. As a 14-year-old with no knowledge of football (no one in my family cared), I was drawn to the obvious: Largent, Zorn, and Efren Herrera's occasional goofy trick plays. On November 27th, 1980, I somehow managed to convince myself (from pregames, etc.) that the Seahawks had a chance playing in Dallas . I got to watch it on TV since it was a Thanksgiving game. The final score was DAL 51, SEA 7 and I hid myself away and cried in the bathtub in fan humiliation.
I played football for one year as a senior in high school and was tolerated as comic relief as a 125-pound guard and middle linebacker (I was too much of a spaz to touch the ball, and on defense in the middle no one could get around me without help). In the program they beefed me up to 135 pounds. I loved every minute on that team.
Things got better (and worse) for the Seahawks. All the teams I picked when I was 14 are still my favorites and I generally suffer with all of them. I'm also back in upstate New York, which I cannot seem to shake.
Apologies for oversharing! I only decided to comment since I was born in 2236 and felt entitled.
Okay, I didn't become a fan in 1980 because I distinctly remember the 1979 Seahawks-Rams game where the Hawks lost 24-0 and gained **negative seven** yards on offense total for the game. That, obviously, was another bad one for me. How does a team do that?
I was born in LA in 68 and ended up in Boise via Oklahoma. When Seattle was awarded the Seahawks mm franchise, we lived in Boise. At that time, at least as far as I can remember, everyone in Boise was a Broncos fan. I could never get into them so I loosely followed Seattle. We ended up moving to Bremerton somewhere around 78-79ish and I started following them a little bit more but still really couldn't connect with them. We ended up moving to Alameda in the Bay Area in 1980 and I immediately became a fan of the Raiders because a few of them went to the church we went to (I so wish I could remember who they were). The team that really captured me as a fan, however, was Steve DeBergs 49ers (sorry) and eventually Joe and Bill took them to new heights, which made them even easier to root for. In 83 we moved back to Bremerton and this is when I became a full fledged Hawks fan. Like most, I assume, Zorn and Largent were my favorite players of that era, along with Dr. Dan Doornink. I just thought it was too cool that that dude was playing in the NFL and going to medical school. (Ironically, we now live in Yakima where both him and his dad practiced.)
I was born and raised in New York City, lived there for 31 years, was a NY Giants fan for those years. I moved to Palo Alto CA and I was there for 28 years. It’s impossible to go from a Giants fan to a 49ers fan. They are mostly hated by Giants fans especially when they were good for that long stretch with Montana and Young. I moved to Seattle right after they lost the Super Bowl to Brady. I met a friend from Ballard who was a die hard Seahawks fan. My affinity for the Giants had waned greatly over all those years in Palo Alto.but not my dislike for the 49ers, so liking the Seahawks was easy. I loved the defense and Beastmode.
I was born in Bellingham Washington in 1970 and grew up in Ballard. Been a fan ever since I can remember but started going to games in 2012(first game was hawks thrashing Niners 42-13)...just when they started crushing it!!
I also have many memories of Dave Krieg who could win or lose any given Sunday depending on how many tds or fumbles he had😊
I have to admit to being pretty fickle as a fan. I grew up in Milwaukee in the 1960's and every Fall Sunday was a Packer Sunday. Lombardi coached and I can still name all the starters on the teams that played in the first 2 Superbowls. Football was branded on my brain from early on.
But then I went to Cal Berkeley for college, lived in San Francisco and watched Joe Montana and Steve Young and my favorite player to this day, Ronnie Lott. I fell hard for the Niners. Bill Walsh was cool and the city hadn't had a winner for a long time. Watching "the Catch" by Dwight Clark was an unforgettable moment.
After 25 years there I moved north to Seattle. My son was just getting old enough so we went to the Kingdome and watched a few games pre-Holmgren, felt the excitement of his arrival, and watched early one Sunday morning as the dome was imploded. BTW, everybody misjudged the spread of the concrete dust and we went home looking like chimney sweeps. It was really fun to watch the Hawks become contenders and I slowly but surely became a Seahawk fan. I already was a practiced football philanderer and the Hawks were attractive, so I fell in love again.
But here's my current problem. I've lived in Savannah for 15 years now and I just can't quit my Hawks. I helped to build a Packer bar here and have a bunch of great friends who are staunch Green and Golders. I have been trying to go back to the Pack for about the last 3 years and I feel my allegiance moving a little that way, but for whatever reason, I have faithfully watched every Hawk game possible since moving here. I've even visited Packer bars in Manhattan. Somehow it seems Seattle has stuck with me and that's going on 25 years now. Go Hawks y'all.
Born into Seahawks fandom in 92. Was a passive little kid fan until I moved to Texas in 04. I hate Texas, and hate the cowboys, so I got me a Shaun Alexander jersey, wore it to school almost every day, got tons of crap for it, and it galvanized my fandom. I now live in south central Montana. Go Hawks!
I’ve lived in Washington most of my life, but lived near LA in the mid 60s and Pittsburgh in early 70s. I was a casual Rams fan, but my first real NFL crush was the “Mean Joe Greene” Steelers. I was rooting for them against my mom’s favorites the Raiders when “the Immaculate Reception” happened.
We returned to the Seattle area before the Seahawks formed and I was a fan from day 1. I loved Zorn and Largent, of course, but I always had a soft spot for Sherman Smith’s “sprint draw” play. And who didn’t love the wacky special teams plays featuring Efren Herrera?
Wow. Great response (& I’m a little late to it - busy with work).
As some of you already know, I’m from Victoria, Australia and have been following SSJ from the beginning (or thereabouts).
I’ve always had an interest in the NFL, even as a kid (I’m 54yo now), but here in Australia, we only rarely had games televised - one game a week at best. I would watch that game when I could, but they were always different teams, so it was hard to get a feel for who to follow specifically. I generally just followed the game more than a team.
Then the internet grew and things became more accessible. So, I eventually decided to make the decision to become a follower of one team. This was around 2010, I think. My decision to follow the Seahawks was a combination of liking their colours as well as the team having players with names that were the same as the players in the Australian football team I followed (eg. Lynch & Wilson).
I truely love SSJ and the community and look forward to the posts each day. I’m seriously a novice to the intricacies of the game and learn a lot from everyone here.
I appreciate you, Dale! Not only do you share the same name as my father, but he lived in Australia for over 20 years. I've probably told you this before.
Well SJ since your a draft junky, watch it Day 2. Just read, Sherman announcing second rounder (50 likely) and Shaun Alexander is in Titletown as well.
Currently Portland, OR area. Fan since inaugural season. Nordstroms the owners (local mall had the store and here was their owning a team we knew). Grade schooler just getting into sports. Blazers and Sonics rivalry and here comes the Seahawks to own NW (WA, OR, ID, MT, BC). Adams, backup QB comes to me grade school. Because season ticket holder when Paul bought the team. Even now drive up from Portland, park watch game, go home (12-14 hour day). Used to be couldn’t talk on Monday from the yelling. Beast Quake, loudest abrupt noise level in world. Golden caught it! And still remember that championship win over Steve Smith for our first ever trip to a SB. Tens of thousands not leaving Seahawks stadium for a really long time then. Just soaking it up.
I was 8 in 1976, living in Bellevue when they appeared, seemingly out of thin air. I have no memory of anything "expansion". I remember loving Jim Zorn and Steve Largent, and saw my first live football game in the Kingdome. My dad would come up from Vancouver, WA, pick up me and my sister and take us to UW and Seahawks games on weekends when they were both at home, then drop us back with our Mom on Sunday night. Magical memories. Moved to Yakima when I was 10, and joined the Navy after graduating HS. Stationed in San Diego and DC mostly, both places where it stood out to be a Seahawks fan. Left the Navy in 2013 after 23 years, back in WA in Kitsap County. Still a fan, though don't stand out near as much as when in San Diego or DC!
I’m from Newfoundland, Canada. Attended university in a jock house in the 80s; had never followed the NFL. A house mate was a huge Raiders fan, who I loved to razz whenever they lost. He eventually pointed out that I didn’t have a team of my own. I decided to pick one without being a bandwagoner: average team; average QB (Krieg); and a RB who I loved (Warner had the best cutbacks!) I didn’t know enough to think about too many other positions… bonus was that that they were in the same division as the Raiders! This was 1986.
Been living in south central BC since 2012, after ~20 years in northern Canada. Go Hawks!!
Born and raised in the PNW Greater Seattle area. My earliest memories of the Hawks are of Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck, and I remember watching the Beast Quake when I was 10. After that I just got more and more invested. I'm very lucky that the Pete era started right when I was old enough to really get into sports and start to love a team like it was a part of my extended family.
I became a fan of the Seahawks when I was 14 in 1976. I live in Victoria BC Canada, but was already an NFL fan. To be honest I watched and played all sports. God blessed me with real speed. The sports I focused on I got very good at the basics. Those two things combined gave me a leg up. At 17 I ran a 48.3 in the 400 meters. Problem is I hated the race so I just did enough to win. It was clearly my best event. I stayed with premier rugby until I was 33. It by far is the biggest league in competitive sport in BC you would think hockey, but it your not on your way to the pros at 16 it's over. The first time the Hawks got good was under Ground Chuck Knox. This meant Seattle was selling out home games so we didn't get blacked out. As the crow flies we are 70 miles. However you add an hour and 40 minutes on the ferry kind of going in the wrong direction. After that it's a w hour drive. A long day indeed.
The Seahawks first draft pick I was excited about, DK Metcalf. We had been very good or up and down since 2000. I thought we stole him and I think we did well. We got a higher 2nd round pick after 6 years. DK is an A plus athlete with B hands. That still made him better than most. No hard feelings towards DK. I think paying him $33 million for 100 targets would never have worked for DK or Seattle. He got his money will Mason Rudolph be the QB ?
I will follow the draft on my phone. I hope this added something
Again, my apologies to all for not changing the setting to open comments up for everybody. I felt very silly when I found that out. I have a lot of comments to read here and I plan to read every word!
FARTHEST FAN CONTEST: Who thinks they're live the farthest away from Seattle, Washington?
Still supporting from Christchurch, New Zealand
Maybe most "Caribbeany" Seahawk as I am from San Juan Puerto Rico.
I was born in Munich Germany. I don't know the mileage but it's a fer piece away!
ChatGPT tells me Mount Martha is 8,200 miles from Seattle.
Or did you round up?🤔
You pipped me, I’m 8,159 miles according to Grok - Warranwood, Victoria, Australia.
Makes sense, I'm just a little further south and west away from Lumen field :)
I just asked ChatGPT how far my hometown Großeicholzheim (Germany) is away from Seattle and it said 5133 miles with the source being "seasidejoe.com".
Made my day
circular reference error?
https://www.seasidejoe.com/p/seahawks-fan-contest-farthest-distance-seattle?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
It took the answers of the last article :)
Love it!
When did you become a Seahawks fan and who do you remember being your first favorite player?
I was an Air Force brat who just started to get into the NFL in 1976. My dad was stationed in Ohio at the time and I thought that the Browns and Bengals had terrible colors and uniforms. When I saw the blue and green of the Seahawks and that awesome logo, I became an instant fan for life. I always liked Largent - I sent him a football card when I was a kid care of the Seahawks and he not only sent it back to me signed, he added a short friendly letter as well. I've lived all over the country, but am currently in the LA area. I married a gal from Portland, so we'll end up moving to the PNW before too long. I've seen the Seahawks play on the road several times, but am looking forward to seeing my first home game.
Hey there SJ thanks for this. I recall that distance post and was surprised by South Africa. Original season Seahawks fan. Trail Blazers were winning their NBA championship and listened to Schoonz (old school radio/tv play by play like all those old baseball greats). Just getting into sports. Semi fan of Chargers, Fouts and Air Coryell but then we got our own NW team and it had all sorts of characters. A lefty QB. Sherman Smith (always reminded me of the Tank), Efren was awesome. And are man, greatest receiver ever, Largent. Mom cross stitched Seahawks helmet on sweatshirt and 80 on one shoulder and 79 (“MY MAN JACOB!!) on other.
We moved from Oklahoma to Seattle in 1986. I was just starting 1rst grade and had a weird southern accent. I instantly became a fan of all Seattle sports teams just to try to fit in and make friends. I remember really liking Brian Blades because he had the coolest name and was the young new guy. I remember celebrating drafting both Mirer and the Boz. I never really watched the games though. The were pretty bad in the late 80s and early 90s and I just wanted to know who I was supposed to care about to be cool.
It was actually a non-Seahawks game that got me hooked on NFL football. No one else in my family really cared about football, so it wasn't often on TV in my house. But, I was bored or sick or something and it was the playoffs, so on January 3, 1993, I was watching the worst game ever turn into the best game ever, as the Bills came back from 32 points down to beat Warren Moon's Oilers. It was the first time I ever had a real emotional reaction to a live sporting event and it changed my Seahawks fandom. I guess I had to fall in love with the game of football before I could really create an emotional attachment to the Seahawks, but I was emotionally invested after that and started watching all the games I could. Brian Blades and Cortez Kennedy were my favorites until the Holmgren era began. It was pretty cool getting Warren Moon for a couple of seasons, too.
First favorite player was Zorn. Largent, and Efren Herrera were tied for 2nd
I became a fan when expansion team for Seattle was announced, and they held a contest to name the new team.
1983 when they made the playoffs. I grew up in rural Nova Scotia so only saw nfl games at playoff time. Always had a soft spot for the underdog, so they became my team.
We moved to Seattle from Austin in 1990. Loved everything about Seattle. Anyway, to make a long story short, in 1997 a Seahawks season ticket holder friend offered me tix to a game he couldn’t make. I took my then 12-year old son and we had a great time. It hit me that adolescence meant that he would pull away from me, so I became a season ticket holder in 1998 for the two of us. To this day, we are loyal Hawks fans even though we’ve both moved away from Seattle.
Summer, 1976, I am 9 years old and living in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. All my friends were Raiders or Niners fans, since they were the closest teams, and I hated both. The local grocery store had the football helmet gumball machine, so I decide to buy a helmet and whatever team I get will be my team for life.
Flash forward to 1992 and I get a chance to move to Seattle with my job. I jump at the chance so I can live in the city that my favorite football team plays in. Still in Seattle and still love the Hawks. Ever since I got that helmet in 1976.
I had a stuffed animal that was a ferret. I named him Zorn. I kept him in a cigar box and kept that Seahawks helmet on his head since it fit. Carried it in my backpack all through 1st grade.
I'd forgotten that those little plastic helmets came out of a gumball/vending machine. Thanks for jogging my memory!
Right from the beginning. I was attending the University of Washington and living with my brother when he told me he was on the list for original season tickets. So Zorn was my favorite from that first team.
I grew up on Queen Anne Hill, and was a big Huskies fan before we had a pro team. Became a fisherman and am mostly retired living on Kitsap Peninsula.
Currently live in the Las Vegas suburbs. Born in South Jersey, the heart of Eagles country. At the time (mid to late 70s), pretty much every major sports league was going through expansion. MLB had the Blue Jays and Mariners, NHL had the Capitals and Scouts, followed by absorbing the remaining WHA teams (Jets, Nordiques, Whalers, Oilers), the NBA merged with the ABA and took on the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers, and Spurs followed by the Mavericks in 1980. And finally, the NFL added the Seahawks and Buccaneers. I was fascinated by the process where these new expansion teams (not the merger teams) got started from scratch. I was impressed with the approach the Blue Jays took and was also interested in the Seahawks. What sealed the deal was the Seahawks' Monday Night Football debut, which was the first time I got to watch them on TV, on 10/29/1979. They played a sloppy, but entertaining game. They had a punt blocked, fumbled 4 times and lost all 4 of them. But they had a fake FG, where Zorn threw over the middle to the kicker Efran Herrera for 20 yards and a first down. The defense played pretty decent including 2 interceptions by Dave Brown and they won 31-28. I was hooked. I followed Steve Largent and he quickly became my favorite player, to this day. I have two of his replica jerseys (home and away) as well as a baseball cap with the old style Hawks logo that I had him and Jim Zorn sign at a team event held at Lumen 2 days before the home opener in 2016 against Miami (which they pulled out late) as a birthday present from my wife.
Saw that 1979 game and loved it! There were moments where I laughed out loud when the trick plays worked. They beat the Falcons.
I live in upstate New York and wasn't interested in sports, at all, until I hit high school in 1980. I rather cynically decided that I needed to become interested in rock-n-roll and sports to become more popular, and over time they became my favorite activities!
I had no allegiances to local teams (Yankees? Giants? Jets? Yuck!), so I decided to name my own favorites. I mostly picked teams that were decent but not championship caliber at the time (KC Royals, Philadelphia 76ers, NY Rangers). With football it was different. I sat next to a much younger kid on the school bus who had a lunchbox that showed all the helmets of the AFC teams when held at one angle, and all the NFC teams when you angled it differently. I decided to pick my favorite team based on the best helmets.
I guess I like birds, because it came down to the Falcons and Seahawks. Thank god I chose correctly! Imagine the horror and shame had I become a Falcons fan.
Despite the 'Hawks rather dismal pedigree at the time, I became a ravenous fan. As a 14-year-old with no knowledge of football (no one in my family cared), I was drawn to the obvious: Largent, Zorn, and Efren Herrera's occasional goofy trick plays. On November 27th, 1980, I somehow managed to convince myself (from pregames, etc.) that the Seahawks had a chance playing in Dallas . I got to watch it on TV since it was a Thanksgiving game. The final score was DAL 51, SEA 7 and I hid myself away and cried in the bathtub in fan humiliation.
I played football for one year as a senior in high school and was tolerated as comic relief as a 125-pound guard and middle linebacker (I was too much of a spaz to touch the ball, and on defense in the middle no one could get around me without help). In the program they beefed me up to 135 pounds. I loved every minute on that team.
Things got better (and worse) for the Seahawks. All the teams I picked when I was 14 are still my favorites and I generally suffer with all of them. I'm also back in upstate New York, which I cannot seem to shake.
Apologies for oversharing! I only decided to comment since I was born in 2236 and felt entitled.
Okay, I didn't become a fan in 1980 because I distinctly remember the 1979 Seahawks-Rams game where the Hawks lost 24-0 and gained **negative seven** yards on offense total for the game. That, obviously, was another bad one for me. How does a team do that?
Against the Rams. That one still stings.
I was born in LA in 68 and ended up in Boise via Oklahoma. When Seattle was awarded the Seahawks mm franchise, we lived in Boise. At that time, at least as far as I can remember, everyone in Boise was a Broncos fan. I could never get into them so I loosely followed Seattle. We ended up moving to Bremerton somewhere around 78-79ish and I started following them a little bit more but still really couldn't connect with them. We ended up moving to Alameda in the Bay Area in 1980 and I immediately became a fan of the Raiders because a few of them went to the church we went to (I so wish I could remember who they were). The team that really captured me as a fan, however, was Steve DeBergs 49ers (sorry) and eventually Joe and Bill took them to new heights, which made them even easier to root for. In 83 we moved back to Bremerton and this is when I became a full fledged Hawks fan. Like most, I assume, Zorn and Largent were my favorite players of that era, along with Dr. Dan Doornink. I just thought it was too cool that that dude was playing in the NFL and going to medical school. (Ironically, we now live in Yakima where both him and his dad practiced.)
Zorn and Largent. I remember a milk mustache commercial that even made it to NC.
I was born and raised in New York City, lived there for 31 years, was a NY Giants fan for those years. I moved to Palo Alto CA and I was there for 28 years. It’s impossible to go from a Giants fan to a 49ers fan. They are mostly hated by Giants fans especially when they were good for that long stretch with Montana and Young. I moved to Seattle right after they lost the Super Bowl to Brady. I met a friend from Ballard who was a die hard Seahawks fan. My affinity for the Giants had waned greatly over all those years in Palo Alto.but not my dislike for the 49ers, so liking the Seahawks was easy. I loved the defense and Beastmode.
I was born in Bellingham Washington in 1970 and grew up in Ballard. Been a fan ever since I can remember but started going to games in 2012(first game was hawks thrashing Niners 42-13)...just when they started crushing it!!
I also have many memories of Dave Krieg who could win or lose any given Sunday depending on how many tds or fumbles he had😊
First favorite player was probably Krieg.
We had season tickets for the first three years. Zorn to Largent. 10 to 80 = 7
Both my sons had Zorn and Largent jerseys in both colors.
I have to admit to being pretty fickle as a fan. I grew up in Milwaukee in the 1960's and every Fall Sunday was a Packer Sunday. Lombardi coached and I can still name all the starters on the teams that played in the first 2 Superbowls. Football was branded on my brain from early on.
But then I went to Cal Berkeley for college, lived in San Francisco and watched Joe Montana and Steve Young and my favorite player to this day, Ronnie Lott. I fell hard for the Niners. Bill Walsh was cool and the city hadn't had a winner for a long time. Watching "the Catch" by Dwight Clark was an unforgettable moment.
After 25 years there I moved north to Seattle. My son was just getting old enough so we went to the Kingdome and watched a few games pre-Holmgren, felt the excitement of his arrival, and watched early one Sunday morning as the dome was imploded. BTW, everybody misjudged the spread of the concrete dust and we went home looking like chimney sweeps. It was really fun to watch the Hawks become contenders and I slowly but surely became a Seahawk fan. I already was a practiced football philanderer and the Hawks were attractive, so I fell in love again.
But here's my current problem. I've lived in Savannah for 15 years now and I just can't quit my Hawks. I helped to build a Packer bar here and have a bunch of great friends who are staunch Green and Golders. I have been trying to go back to the Pack for about the last 3 years and I feel my allegiance moving a little that way, but for whatever reason, I have faithfully watched every Hawk game possible since moving here. I've even visited Packer bars in Manhattan. Somehow it seems Seattle has stuck with me and that's going on 25 years now. Go Hawks y'all.
Born into Seahawks fandom in 92. Was a passive little kid fan until I moved to Texas in 04. I hate Texas, and hate the cowboys, so I got me a Shaun Alexander jersey, wore it to school almost every day, got tons of crap for it, and it galvanized my fandom. I now live in south central Montana. Go Hawks!
I’ve lived in Washington most of my life, but lived near LA in the mid 60s and Pittsburgh in early 70s. I was a casual Rams fan, but my first real NFL crush was the “Mean Joe Greene” Steelers. I was rooting for them against my mom’s favorites the Raiders when “the Immaculate Reception” happened.
We returned to the Seattle area before the Seahawks formed and I was a fan from day 1. I loved Zorn and Largent, of course, but I always had a soft spot for Sherman Smith’s “sprint draw” play. And who didn’t love the wacky special teams plays featuring Efren Herrera?
I’ve been a fan my whole life. I went to the very first game when I was 6 and haven’t known anything else.
I now live in Texas and love when I drive through Wall and see the Seahawks logo in every window of the school
Wow. Great response (& I’m a little late to it - busy with work).
As some of you already know, I’m from Victoria, Australia and have been following SSJ from the beginning (or thereabouts).
I’ve always had an interest in the NFL, even as a kid (I’m 54yo now), but here in Australia, we only rarely had games televised - one game a week at best. I would watch that game when I could, but they were always different teams, so it was hard to get a feel for who to follow specifically. I generally just followed the game more than a team.
Then the internet grew and things became more accessible. So, I eventually decided to make the decision to become a follower of one team. This was around 2010, I think. My decision to follow the Seahawks was a combination of liking their colours as well as the team having players with names that were the same as the players in the Australian football team I followed (eg. Lynch & Wilson).
I truely love SSJ and the community and look forward to the posts each day. I’m seriously a novice to the intricacies of the game and learn a lot from everyone here.
I appreciate you, Dale! Not only do you share the same name as my father, but he lived in Australia for over 20 years. I've probably told you this before.
Yeah, you have 😁.
Well SJ since your a draft junky, watch it Day 2. Just read, Sherman announcing second rounder (50 likely) and Shaun Alexander is in Titletown as well.
Currently Portland, OR area. Fan since inaugural season. Nordstroms the owners (local mall had the store and here was their owning a team we knew). Grade schooler just getting into sports. Blazers and Sonics rivalry and here comes the Seahawks to own NW (WA, OR, ID, MT, BC). Adams, backup QB comes to me grade school. Because season ticket holder when Paul bought the team. Even now drive up from Portland, park watch game, go home (12-14 hour day). Used to be couldn’t talk on Monday from the yelling. Beast Quake, loudest abrupt noise level in world. Golden caught it! And still remember that championship win over Steve Smith for our first ever trip to a SB. Tens of thousands not leaving Seahawks stadium for a really long time then. Just soaking it up.
Juneau, Alaska
I was 8 in 1976, living in Bellevue when they appeared, seemingly out of thin air. I have no memory of anything "expansion". I remember loving Jim Zorn and Steve Largent, and saw my first live football game in the Kingdome. My dad would come up from Vancouver, WA, pick up me and my sister and take us to UW and Seahawks games on weekends when they were both at home, then drop us back with our Mom on Sunday night. Magical memories. Moved to Yakima when I was 10, and joined the Navy after graduating HS. Stationed in San Diego and DC mostly, both places where it stood out to be a Seahawks fan. Left the Navy in 2013 after 23 years, back in WA in Kitsap County. Still a fan, though don't stand out near as much as when in San Diego or DC!
I’m from Newfoundland, Canada. Attended university in a jock house in the 80s; had never followed the NFL. A house mate was a huge Raiders fan, who I loved to razz whenever they lost. He eventually pointed out that I didn’t have a team of my own. I decided to pick one without being a bandwagoner: average team; average QB (Krieg); and a RB who I loved (Warner had the best cutbacks!) I didn’t know enough to think about too many other positions… bonus was that that they were in the same division as the Raiders! This was 1986.
Been living in south central BC since 2012, after ~20 years in northern Canada. Go Hawks!!
Welcome to the comments, Paul! Thanks for sharing your story, please enjoy some free Regular Joes!
Born and raised in the PNW Greater Seattle area. My earliest memories of the Hawks are of Shaun Alexander and Matt Hasselbeck, and I remember watching the Beast Quake when I was 10. After that I just got more and more invested. I'm very lucky that the Pete era started right when I was old enough to really get into sports and start to love a team like it was a part of my extended family.
Thanks for sharing, ab!
I became a fan of the Seahawks when I was 14 in 1976. I live in Victoria BC Canada, but was already an NFL fan. To be honest I watched and played all sports. God blessed me with real speed. The sports I focused on I got very good at the basics. Those two things combined gave me a leg up. At 17 I ran a 48.3 in the 400 meters. Problem is I hated the race so I just did enough to win. It was clearly my best event. I stayed with premier rugby until I was 33. It by far is the biggest league in competitive sport in BC you would think hockey, but it your not on your way to the pros at 16 it's over. The first time the Hawks got good was under Ground Chuck Knox. This meant Seattle was selling out home games so we didn't get blacked out. As the crow flies we are 70 miles. However you add an hour and 40 minutes on the ferry kind of going in the wrong direction. After that it's a w hour drive. A long day indeed.
The Seahawks first draft pick I was excited about, DK Metcalf. We had been very good or up and down since 2000. I thought we stole him and I think we did well. We got a higher 2nd round pick after 6 years. DK is an A plus athlete with B hands. That still made him better than most. No hard feelings towards DK. I think paying him $33 million for 100 targets would never have worked for DK or Seattle. He got his money will Mason Rudolph be the QB ?
I will follow the draft on my phone. I hope this added something
Welcome back, Chris!
When the Seahawks drafted Russell Wilson, they discovered a game-changing quarterback whose talent and leadership would redefine their franchise.
Again, my apologies to all for not changing the setting to open comments up for everybody. I felt very silly when I found that out. I have a lot of comments to read here and I plan to read every word!