Your Panthers fandom biography...

[Black&BlueBubba]

I was born and still live in the Philadelphia, PA area.  I followed the Phillies and Flyers (and still do) because my parents did as I was growing up.  For whatever reason (I'm sure many people here could list a few), my parents were not Eagles fans and did not follow football very closely.
I was 10 years old when the Panthers joined the NFL.  Not having a favorite NFL team up to that point, I decided the Hall of Fame game between the two brand new teams would be a good way of choosing a favorite team with a clean slate.  I'd be able to be a fan from the beginning.
Well, the Panthers won that game against the Jags, and I've been a fan ever since.  I get asked all the time in this area why I'm not an Eagles fan.  I don't know if I'd be an Eagles fan even if I didn't make this decision back in 1995... but it's the reason why I'm a fan, as corny as it may seem.
 
Yeah... I'm really glad the Panthers won that game.

Philly boy also. I moved down here in 1995. So I was a new college grad in a new state and a new NFL team. It was a perfect fit. Die hard fan!!!!


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[Soul Rebel]

Originally from NY and was a Jets fan growing up.... feel free to fire away insults and jokes.

Anywho......

Moved to NC in junior high, and attended school, as well as college at State. Then in 1995, this amazing gift comes along as a freshman in college and off to Clemson my friends and I go to watch the Panthers.... I believe it was against the Colts.

Been a loyal fan since and have endured everything from passing up Eddie George, to the awful drafting of Jason Peter... Rae Carruth, Rashard Anderson, and of course Everette Brown. There was also the epic picks like Peppers, Cam, Beason & Star falling into our laps. 

Favorite game of all time is the Rams/X-Clown game winner... the eventual Sports Illustrated cover that put Charlotte on the map.  Smitty is arguably my favorite Panther ever, though Olsen and TD are clawing their way up to that level... so maybe there should be my Mt. Rushmore of favorite Panthers players.... I'll add Cam to that group and we're good.  

Best game I've ever been to in my life was the 2013 house party/rain deluge game against the Saints. BofA was shaking after Hixon pulls in the catch. I was down in the end zone opposite side of the field but it was epic... not to mention the beerfest that insued on Morehead Street afterwards.... it was like we won the SB.

Still follow the Jets, but nowhere near the level of the Panthers. Being able to watch a team from inception through all of the good and bad makes it all the sweeter. 

[KB_fan]

I trace my fandom to Dec 2012 when the Panthers beat Atlanta. 

I'd just gotten back to the US for a brief break, my first time being in Charlotte during football season. 

I grew up in NJ and was a casual fan of the Giants.

While in grad school ('87-'91) I lived in the DC area for 4 years during the golden Joe Gibbs era of the Redskins.  Became a rabid Skins fan.  Tried to keep following the Skins from overseas my first few years in Africa (92 -93), but it just got too hard and so sadly, I stopped caring. 

(There was no internet back then, obviously.  I used to visit friends who worked at the Embassy who had access to Armed Forced Network TV, and I'd watch any Skins prime time games at 1 a.m...., but then my friends got reassigned and I had no way to watch football, so I stopped following it.)

Basically, I totally ignored the NFL for almost 20 years, even during a several year stretch (1999 - 2001) when I was back in the States and living in South Florida caring for my mom when she was terminally ill.  I inherited my Mom's house in FL after she died (2001), and called FL "home" in the US for about 10 years (late 1999 - June 2010).  I don't think I once watched a Dolphins game.   If in the States for Christmas & January, as was sometimes the case, I would usually watch playoff football, and I happened to be in the States for the Super Bowl in Feb 2004, and I DID cheer for the Panthers, but it was mostly out of hate for the Patriots.  I hardly knew anything about the Panthers at all...

But fast-forward to Dec 9 2012.  Charlotte had been my home in the US for nearly 2 1/2 years, but I'd only spent about 8 weeks total in the city up until that point.  My brother was a casual sports fan and would occasionally mention the Panthers but I knew little about them other than that they were awful in 2010, but that there was hope things would improve under dynamic new QB Cam Newton.

I'd just arrived in the States something like 24 hours before, so was still jetlagged.  My brother had the game on TV but warned me it would be a "bad" game.  Atlanta was a powerhouse, and the Panthers were struggling pretty badly (what 3-9 I think?).   Surprisingly the Panthers won seemingly easily.  It wasn't the most electrifying game.  There were a lot of Field Goals!  But here's what got my attention.  Cam's 70+ rushing TD.  THAT made me sit up and take notice.  Wow, what kind of QB can do THAT?!?!?

As you all know, the Panthers went on to win 3 more games in a row that December.  I watched them all and increasingly got excited by the team.  I felt a little bit like a good luck charm for the team... no sooner had I arrived in the US than they pull off a 4 game winning streak.   Anyway, those 4 games in December 2012 were enough to hook me...  I saw a team with big heart and some amazing talent.  It's been a blast following every up and down since.

 

[goodoleboy]

One of my bucket list items was to go to games in all the pro sports. I had been to MLB, and NBA games and was able to get tickets to the Saints game that first season in Ericsson Stadium. It was the famous Jim Morra diddily poo game.

My wife and I had such a good time we decided to buy PSLs. The panthers were just opening up section 531 to PSL sales and we were able to get seats on row 1. We got tickets for the rest of that season way up in the nosebleeds in 537. Our first game in our PSL seats was the Dallas Playoff game that year.

[rodeo]

Was banging someone in 2003 who was very into the Panthers, so I watched them and never stopped.

So needless to say I'm really excited he's back on the team from Green Bay this year.

[arbnranger]

3 hours ago, Cam El said:

I was a student at UNCC when Charlotte was awarded the franchise. I remember they were showing a local t-shirt factory on the news and the Supervisor had his hand on a lever. As soon as the announcement was made, he threw the switch and started printing t-shirts. My roommate and I went out at 6:00 AM looking for shirts (and found them). 

Pretty cool. 

Still have the shirt or get lost over the years?

[Toker Smurf]

1 minute ago, arbnranger said:

Pretty cool. 

Still have the shirt or get lost over the years?

Nope, unfortunately the long gone. 

[Jmac]

moved to mountains...became Panthers fan....drop microphone

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[o803oVaDeR]

I was a skins fan before the Panthers. I was 16 in 95. I went to a preseason game I believe it was in 92, at Williams-Brice Stadium. It was Jets vs Skins. At that game they announced that the Carolinas were in the running for an NFL expansion team. I was so excited. I have been a fan pretty much from that day. I remember people saying that there was no way Carolina would get picked for an expansion team. I read so many articles that were predicting the cities that would be chosen, and not very many of them chose us. I still have a copy of the South Carolina State Newspaper from October 27th 1993 with Mr Richardson holding the helmet on the cover. It was announced that we were the first expansion team selected. I Didn't get to go to my first game until Nov 7th 1999 against the Eagles. For the next several years I went to one game each season until 2006, when I met a PSL owner that doesn't attend very many games. She sells me her tickets every year, so I go now to pretty much every home game I am off work for, or can get off work for.

My greatest memory by far is the NFC Championship game. Seeing my team go to the Superbowl in person was the most amazing feeling. I stood in snow and ice the whole game, but it was very much worth it. 

[sr20nc]

Growing up I didn't have an older sibling to look up to (being the middle kid), so all I had was my cousins 50 miles away.  My first exposure to the NFL was through trading cards given to me by my cousins and occasional games they will watch.  This was during the early 90s so the team I liked and chose out of all the cards that I was given to choose was a Bengals card.  Fast forward to 2002 where I now reside in North Carolina, I started watching football with another cousin.  This is where I finally got hooked to Football and finally picked the Panthers as the team I followed religiously.  I wasn't there for the beginning of expansion team, but I was there for the birth of Delhommey and the fall, through the Fox era and now the Cam era.  

[PhillyB]

2003 bandwagoner after moving from colorado in the early 2000s. i was a low key broncs fan on the side for years but fug them now 

[pantherphan96]

From the New England area, was only interested in baseball when I was younger. Was a fan of Favre and saw the Packers lose to the Eagles in the 03 playoffs leading to an intense hatred of Philly. Watched the NFC Championship game to root against them, Panthers won, and I became a fan. Basically jumped on the 03 bandwagon and held on ever since. Still root for all the other New England teams except obviously the Patriots. No regrets.

[jfra78]

I grew up a Navy brat, moved alot, and had no real team to follow. I started following the Packers since they had the same colors as my youth football team. My dad retired from the Navy in 1990 and we settled in Charlotte. I remember going to a "Make it Come True in '92" rally uptown, which really got me excited about the possibility of football in the Carolinas. So needless to say when it was announced that we got a team, I was all in. I claimed I was still a Packers/Panthers fan until '96 when Green Bay destroyed us in the title game. I hated the Packers so much after that, and have since only loved 1 team. Go Panthers.

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[party_animal]

I work at a college as a janitor even though I feel like I'm smarter than most of the people that go there. Sometimes I see an equation written on a blackboard, like half an equation, and I'll just figure it out.