How did you become a Tiger? | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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How did you become a Tiger?

AllHart

Shota Original
Dec 11, 2005
49
44
Melbourne
www.youtube.com
Tommo37 said:
Grade 1 mid 1980 show and tell.
I didnt know what to say or show until a kid got up before me and said he went to the footy on the weekend. The teacher then asked him who he barracked for and he said Richmond. It came to my turn and i said exactly what he said. so i went from a Melbourne supporter (dads team) to a Richmond supporter by telling a fib.

I then went home and told dad i barracked for Richmond.

Even though i could of barracked for any other team im glad that kid said Richmond because if i had my time again i would not change a thing.

Great story Thommo - really cute. I have a mate whose son barracked for Hawthorn as a child. Anyway, one day his mum took him to a sports shop to buy a Hawthorn jumper. But they didn't have any! So they bought a North Melbourne jumper instead and the kid has barracked for NM ever since. Unbelievable!
 

Tenacious Tiges

I remember when Balmey just thugged them .....
Apr 11, 2003
2,584
1,194
I was about 4 I reckon and in the late 60's early 70's we got a 1 hr replay on Ch 7. Three best games of the round got shown with the first two games about 10 min highlights of each game and the game of the round on last which was of the entire last Qtr.

Well I had been coaxed by my Old Man to be a South supporter up until this Sat night.

Game 1 of the replay I can't recall who won or lost
Game 2 Fitzroy beat someone by an average margin. I go to Dad, "South are crap they are never on the replay and always on the bottom, I'm barracking for Fitzroy".
Game 3 Richmond annihilated St Kilda. I go to Dad "Forget Fitzroy I'm barracking for Richmond!!!!"

I never looked back after that and it was great as a kid because we were so powerful, tough and good. Now it's badge of honour to perservere through to we eventually get some success which for the first time since the Hafey days I think we may be heading.

Can I be considered a South then Roy Boy supporter before taking up the Tiger mantle? I don't know, but from my memory, my heart has only ever been with the Tiges.
 

chaz

time to take out the trash
Feb 2, 2005
497
1
wangaratta
Was born and bred in wangaratta and live here still but when i was around 3 my parents packed us up and we moved to Wagga Waggafor a few years where i started school at Ashmont primary where footy began for me Rugby on thursdays for the school side, mom never knew i played dad signed the forms for me on the QT. Aussie rules on the saturdays it was there that i saw the wagga tigers ground, now memories are a little hazy but it was the emblem on the wall outside the ground that just did it all for me, so it was richmond that be came my great passion a passing interest in Balmain in the rugby, and the female thunderbirds in the rollerderby that was big on the tv at the time
I did so love my roller ball
 

YellowBlacks21

Tiger Rookie
Sep 26, 2011
179
0
Melbourne
My parents moved to Australia in 1969 (great year!) but most of my extended family were here from the late 50's and early 60's. When they first moved over from Greece they all pretty much lived in Richmond - so they all already supported the Tiges. When the folks moved here they lived in Richmond and the colours were the same as the soccer team my Dad supported in Greece (AEK Athens) so same colours/lived in Richmond/came here the year we won a premiership so the family has been Tigers ever since. I am the most fanatical one of the lot and now my son is also a Tiger. My wife is a Hawthorn supporter, and i still blame my father in law for that (he is a Tiger) who let his daughter become a Hawk!
 

cankster

Tiger Cub
Oct 13, 2005
54
0
Narre Warren, Victoria
Moved from England in 1973. First game I ever went to wasd St Kilda V Richmond @ Waverley (maybe 1974). Made the call that whoever wins is who I will follow. Glad the Tigers got up! Hate to be following the Aints!
 

rokin.tiger

Tiger Champion
Apr 8, 2007
2,685
0
Punt Road
Whole family is richmond. I think it started when my grandfather moved here from Italy and was taken to a game where Richmond won. This would of been in the 40s I would say thereabouts.
Everyone on my mum's side is pretty much richmond because of him.
Dad is Hawthorn but never really followed afl as he played soccer his whole life. His father was fitzroy.
My parents both re-married and both step parents are richmond.
There was a dark moment when I was about 7 or 8 and i fancied the dogs because of my aunty's new cute boyfriend.
Well that didnt last long... my uncle soon found out and here i am 13 years of membership later at just 20 years old.
Watched the tigers play once in a final since birth, wouldnt change it for the world.
Yellow and Black baby.
 

Knighta

Tiger Matchwinner
Aug 17, 2008
949
79
Whole side of Dad's family are tigers, bar Nan who is Essendon but she likes richmond more but wont admit it.

Was born into it, dad took me to trainings before i turned about three, then we went to matches together from there on at 4 years old i was a member and now its been 18 years, (but they mucked up so my membership says 19 years) Was aat the 1995 semi final against the Bombers, was at Fitzroy's last game in Melb and was at the Essendon and Carlton finals in 2001, geez we were a very good side that year, looking back at the personnel.
 

sashback

Our saviour??
Aug 22, 2005
680
0
I was born a tiger! Love it!

My grandfather and my old man spunked black and yellow!! :hihi
 

craig

Tiger Legend
Aug 19, 2004
45,632
29,182
Melbourne
My beloved Father made me a Tiger plus i was a Premiership Baby in 74 ;)

Most interesting is my family coat of arms from Scotland is actually Black with a Yellow sash, and my great Grandads corp signia from his WWI battalion was black and yellow, he also barracked for the Tigers.

My heritage is Yellow and Black.

Now ive got to have a son to keep it going.
 

Bennnny

Punt Road End. The best place to watch The Tiges.
Mar 29, 2005
1,303
468
Melbourne
www.indieinitiative.com
Was taken by my grandparents to a midweek game at South Melbourne. We lost, but supported them from then. Cemented that with a pre season game at West PArk at Burnie.

Greeat years in the 70's watching us win grand finals.

Dad is horrible Hawks supporter, llegiances all over the place for rest of family.
 

tigersnake

Tear 'em apart
Sep 10, 2003
23,483
11,633
I barrack for the tiges because of Jack Dyer. Jack was Pops cousin and also good mate. Jack was always at family funerals when I was a kid and I remember him as this jovial giant who everybody loved. Jack was a regular visitor to Gordon until Pop died in the early 70s. For that reason most 2nd gen people from Gordon barrack for Richmond as well, big catholic town big Tigers town.

I have 1 uncle who has always barracked for Carlton. The rest of the Family could never work it out, Dad used to joke that he got kicked by a horse when he was a baby. I used to ask him and pester him about it when I was a kid. Dad also has pestered him for years about it, 60 odd years, and he's always avoided it or laughed it off. Kev is going downhill a bit so he finally came clean and told Dad why he barracks for Carlton. When Kev was a kid Jack Dyer as a treat took him and another uncle, Vince, down to the footy. The boys got taken into the rooms and met all the Tigers of the day, he remembers them all, including Bill Morris, Kev is 85 and he was little. That day we played Carlton, who beat us by 10 goals, Kev thought, 'I'm barracking for the winners'. Ungrateful little bastard. ;D
 

larabee

Tiger Champion
Jun 11, 2010
3,694
5,433
Tigerland
one of my earliest memories is of a hand knitted Carlton jumper I had when I was a baby/toddler - must of come from the grandparents on dad's side as they were Carlton and St Kilda.
Dad is a Collingwood man and took me and my brothers to few games at Vic Park, early 70s. I was not that into Collingwood, but liked Peter McKenna


BUT, parents divorced pretty early on and I remember visiting friends of my Mums - I would've been about 5 - and they were fanatical tigers! They had pictures on their walls, yellow and black everywhere and it really made an impression on me, so much so that I started as a Tiger that day and have ever wavered. Best thing that ever happened.

My older brother and sister stuck with Dad and are still Pies, and my younger brother follows Hawthorn - he was a Peter Hudson fan. Makes for some fun footy banter at family gatherings - I cop a bit, but say little. I am waiting...
 

julie

Tiger Rookie
Aug 6, 2005
282
0
My family came to Australia in the 1960's, moved into a Collingwood zone. So it was decided by dad that the whole family should support Collingwood.
My brother and i used to go to pie's games most weekends, one day we where at Victoria Park and Collingwood got smashed, at the end of the game one fan from the other team had left their jacket. I tried it on and it fit like glove. I asked my brother if i could keep it, he said yes.
It was the biggest mistake of his life letting me keep that jacket. ;D
The jacket was a Richmond one with a big tiger on the back.
I'm sad to say i have suffered 28 years of pain since, specially since wollywood have won a flag!!
I have managed to convert my niece into a tiger in that time, so now it's the two of us. :clap
YELLOW & BLACK