Recalling Your First Sports Memories
With the start of another NFL season upon us, it got me thinking back to my early memories of attending sporting events as a kid. Those early years of attending live events can stick with you even into your adult years. As I grow older I may not be able to recall every detail, but segments of the experiences are still there in my mind.
The majority of my early sports memories involve the place where I would later go on to obtain my Bachelors degree….Fort Valley State University. FVSU is a historically black college in the state of Georgia. My grandparents and parents all graduated from FVSU, making me a third generation Wildcat. As far back as I can remember, my parents would bring me to every college football game with them. I can see myself now sitting in the stands leaning on my Mom when I was tired, or snacking on concession stand popcorn. The camaraderie between the fans was infectious. We would get to the home games early and set up in the parking lot to tailgate. My parents passion for their alma mater eventually rubbed off on me, which is why I ended up attending FVSU also. Now we go to just about every football game together, even the away games.
The first Atlanta Braves game I attended was against the New York Mets. The only thing I remember from that game is that a fight broke out on the mound. However, the second Braves game I went to holds more memories. We were sitting very low, near one of the dugouts. This was also around the time the Braves turned around their losing ways. The highlight was seeing Sid Bream hit a grand slam, and this lady sitting behind my Dad spill her beer on him. Good times!
My first Atlanta Hawks game was when they took on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. We had horrible seats….I believe we could literally touch the roof of the old Omni. But at least I can say I saw Michael Jordan play in person. It’s the little things in life people, remember that.
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up my first wrestling memories too. Since I live in the heart of former WCW country, they would always hold local house shows at the Macon Coliseum. My bro, fellow KLIQNation member Adam Black, and I would beg our Dad to take us. We got to see the likes of Nikita Koloff, Sting, Ric Flair, Terry Funk, and others tear the house down. The very first house show we attended I remember wrestlers brawling throughout the arena (it was a tag team match, unfortunately I don’t recall the teams), and the tag team titles switched hands. As the winning team was celebrating the lights in the arena were turned back on. Then the announcer got on the microphone and said the match was going to be restarted because of nefarious circumstances. This caused the original losing team to then win, enabling them to keep their belts. Our second live event turned out to be a WCW Saturday Night taping. The main storyline was between Terry Funk and Sting. I got so excited waiting for Saturday to roll around so I could watch the taping we attended on TV, then try to see if we were caught on camera. But alas, we weren’t.
I’d like to hear from some of the readers on what their favorite sports memories are. We all have them. If you’d like to share your memories with us, make sure to leave them in the Comments section below.
Timdogg
#ComicBookChronicles @CBChron founder. Editor-in-Chief of @thekliqnation. Comic book reviewer, podcaster #RABBLERABBLE
