Non-Mackems - Why do you support SAFC?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Its fair to saw quite a few of the posters here see that this place is a "Hive of activity" and that its a place they can get plenty of attention, and thus tag along with the SAFC side of things.

Yeah, I know what you mean.
 


Nee Onions Mate said:
SPUFF said:
Im a yakka (Blackhall), Dad from Easington, Granda from Seaham.

Not wanting to open another can of worms but with only support from within Sunderland SAFC would be well F****D!

Little yellow fecka with tin helmet on! :wink:

You could say that about most teams though.
I reckon a 48,000 crowd at the Sol would have about 20,000 townies there. The other 26 or so thousand would be summat like..
10,000 Tyneside (mostly South) and Northumberland
10,000 County Durham/N Yorks
6000 Rest of the country/abroad.

Of course I could be talking complete bollox :roll:

Oi man, just trying to open an interesting debate! :wink:
 
cec3

My Old Man (Jim Baxter's FanClub) is Scottish and when he moved down to the NE, SAFC had a host of Scottish players, including the aforementioned SlimJim. I followed suit, being dragged to games from a tender age, despite being brought up in Magland and never knowing any other supporters until I much older.
 
Come from consett which is fairly split down the middle. Family connection was that my uncle was the Shack's best man and it spiralled from there. My introduction was the Sixth round Man City 73 tie - what a glory hunter eh! but was totally hooked after watching a 0-0 draw with Fulham a couple of years later.
 
Supporting Sunderland from afar

I'm like I, Claudio an exception to prove Houghton Ref's rule. The closest I've been to Sunderland is the North Sea ferry Gothenburg-Felixstowe (and that almost 30 years ago). I have lived most of my life in Melbourne or nearby.
As a child in the 1950s, Champion and Tiger Weeklies and Annuals prompted my interest in English football. Australian (Rules) Football is our game of preference - these days watching, but earlier playing and reffing (umpiring).
The practice of my brother and I was to choose a team in any competition that we knew about, so we chose a team to support in each of the four English divisions. Because this interest was aroused at the time of the Munich air crash, I went with Man U in First Division. I was raised as a Catholic, so I know all about the requirements of repentance for one's sins, and I have long since ditched my United allegiance. In 2nd Division, I chose Sunderland. This was their first year out of the First, and iirc they were the last original team to lose that status, an achievement that seemed worthy of support. How little did I realize how frequently relegation would be repeated.
Like I, Claudio, I defer both to the knowledge and the intensity of pain suffered by those who are bound by geography, family history, and financial commitment. I can only offer the scant consolations of the following:
Henry Lawson (speaking of Australia, but applicable elsewhere as relevant)
"Another thing I've got against the bloody place, I was born here".
Guru Bob (a philosopher of Australian football): "Some people are destined to never know true happiness in this life. For these People God has created the _____ Football Club". The obvious relevance of this allusion to SAFC is surely inescapable.
 
Well I'm one of those glory hunting supporters who started supporting Sunderland after the FA Cup win in 73. Originally from near Northampton, I wanted to support a different team from the rest of the family (Coventry supprters) so decided to support the winners of the cup final that year. And it just stuck.

I've dragged my wife along to games, I proposed to her the evening after her first ever game (Oct 98 against Bury? at SoL) and now I've got a 17 month old who is destined to follow the same roller coaster ride - poor lad.

Now if I'd just thought about it a bit longer things could have been so different if I'd chosen Man Utd, but then you don't do that when you're only 4 years old do you :D
 
I was brought up in Stockton, so should have supported Boro really, all my mates at school did. My dad was mates with a linesman, who used to give him complimentary tickets whenever he was doing one of the big three's matches in the North East. Anyway, I fell in love with Sunderland, which is strange because when we went to Newcastle and Boro we got guided tours of the ground and got to eat sandwiches with the directors after the match. At Roker it was just a cup of Bovril from the kiosk. But it was a night match, and can remember seeing the floodlights when crossing the bridge, and there was just something special about the atmosphere. And the rest, as they say, is history... One thing you can say about supporting Sunderland, there's never a dull moment.
 
Was born in Newcastle and brought up in Northumberland where about 90% 10% split in favour of the Geordies. Went to SJP a few times as a young kid with friends and thought it was ok (saw a young Steve Bould score the winner for the Arse I think).

THEN I was taken along to Roker aged about 8 or 9 for the Gillingham play off second leg and saw us go down in mental fassion.

That was enough for me - I was hooked.
 
I've got no connection with Sunderland at all but both me parents (and the rest of the family) are from shields so I've been brought up on tales of Clough, Baxter & 73.

I never stood a chance!
 
I am from Nott'm, and apart from me old man taking me to a Forest/County charity match when I was younger, I had never been to a 'proper game'. When I was at Uni I joined a punk band with some 'local people' and they took me to my first ever match at Roker Park, standing in the main paddock. I think that it was the second home game of the season - Reids first full season in charge. I remember the atmosphere and the hairs standing up at the back of my neck. That might sound a bit gay but it was like nothing I had experienced before...

Since that day I been hooked. Still got a lot of friends in the area and the city of Sunderland remains very important to me.

Now if only I had taken the offers in either manchester or North London... :oops:
 
Its all my dads feckin fault the b'stard. :evil:
He's from Heselden nr Blackhall and he went to his first game in '59 and he took me to my first game in '84/'85 season against Notts County (i think, not 100% certain though) and i've had a season ticket since '85/'86. Great innit my first two proper seasons supporting SAFC were arguably the worst the club has ever seen resulting in us going to the (old) third division and i was still hooked. I still wear the exact same scarf i took to my first game and i wear it at every game i go to, not sure why but it just wouldn't be the same without it. Some of my earliest memories were standing in the main stand paddock next to the home dug out looking through the great big grey fences that had been put up. The first goal I saw was scored by Dave Swindlehurst in a 3-3 draw with Grimsby.
 
walesie said:
I've got no connection with Sunderland at all but both me parents (and the rest of the family) are from shields so I've been brought up on tales of Clough, Baxter & 73.

I never stood a chance!

Their's definately a connection there i just can't quite put my finger on it. :?
 
I didnt really get into footy untill i was about 10 years old, my dad (who's from Hilton Castle) used to piss me right off switching the cartoons or the A-Team off for shitty football, i then started hanging around with a Spurs fan so i started saying i was a Yido (His words not mine!! :oops: ) it wasnt untill about a year later my Dad took me and my brother to see Sunderland Vs Wolves at Roker Park (1-1, Nov 1989)....as i was living in Germany at the time none of my mates had ever seen a "live" game before so i was a bit of a hero teaching them all of the new songs about Newcastle and Marco etc.......from then on i was hooked.....and i loved the Hummel home strip to boot!! :roll:
 
RobD said:
Well I'm one of those glory hunting supporters who started supporting Sunderland after the FA Cup win in 73. Originally from near Northampton, I wanted to support a different team from the rest of the family (Coventry supprters) so decided to support the winners of the cup final that year. And it just stuck.

I've dragged my wife along to games, I proposed to her the evening after her first ever game (Oct 98 against Bury? at SoL) and now I've got a 17 month old who is destined to follow the same roller coaster ride - poor lad.

Now if I'd just thought about it a bit longer things could have been so different if I'd chosen Man Utd, but then you don't do that when you're only 4 years old do you :D

f***ing hell a glory hunting Sunderland supporter :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Smiler said:
walesie said:
I've got no connection with Sunderland at all but both me parents (and the rest of the family) are from shields so I've been brought up on tales of Clough, Baxter & 73.

I never stood a chance!

Their's definately a connection there i just can't quite put my finger on it. :?

I was meaning the city, none of me family are from or live in sunderland
 
Guess Im an adopted Mackem. Came over from Norway to get a Bachelor degree at Sunlan Uni 98-01. I didn't have any favourite teams before I moved to Sunderland, but I knew I was a fan when I walked into the SoL. Even though my first match was against Barnsley (only home defeat 98-99?) when we lost 2-3, but the whole experience was great. It just struck me that my three years in Sunderland were the 'glory' years; the promotion season when we got 100008 points and the two 7th. places in the PL. I moved to London last season for a year and the rot set in! I went to WHU, Arsenal and Chelsea and I think we conceded 10 and scored nowt.

Maybe I should move back to Sunderland in August and make sure we get promoted again!
 
I had no family connections with SAFC, and didn't really follow football till I moved to Durham in 1987 when I was 8. Despite the Gillingham play off games having just happend when I arrived in Durham, within a couple of months I started taking an interest, as most of the lads at my school followed Sunderland. By the end of 87-88 I was following the lads via the footy echo. It took until the last game of the following season though before I could persuade my dad to take me to a game. Within a few months Id got my entire family addicted, even though my parents, both in their early forties at the time, had never taken an interest in football until I did.
 
Thanks to all who've replied so far... I feel intense pride reading how people with no obvious reason have picked SAFC to follow :D

As for those who are sort of apologetic for not being Mackems - dont be.

You are as much fans as any of us, more so in some ways as you chose to take on this 'burden', rather than having geography make the decision for you!

Say it loud and say it proud - SUNDERLAND TILL I DIE!!!

Phew... think I need a lie down :oops:
 
SPUFF said:
Nee Onions Mate said:
SPUFF said:
Im a yakka (Blackhall), Dad from Easington, Granda from Seaham.

Not wanting to open another can of worms but with only support from within Sunderland SAFC would be well F****D!

Little yellow fecka with tin helmet on! :wink:

You could say that about most teams though.
I reckon a 48,000 crowd at the Sol would have about 20,000 townies there. The other 26 or so thousand would be summat like..
10,000 Tyneside (mostly South) and Northumberland
10,000 County Durham/N Yorks
6000 Rest of the country/abroad.

Of course I could be talking complete bollox :roll:

Oi man, just trying to open an interesting debate! :wink:

I think it really depends on what you call Sunderland, Are we talking historically as in as far as The Toll Bar and The Board Inn South and Town End Farm to the west. Or do you want to include Ryhope, Washington, Houghton and Hetton under that Sunderland banner
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top