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Remember remember the tenth of December…
By Kat | August 19, 2009
If you would’ve told me a year ago that I’d be here, writing for a hockey blog, I would’ve said you were nuts.
If you would’ve told me a year ago that I’d be a proud Blackhawks Season Ticket holder, I would’ve laughed in your face.
A year ago, I couldn’t have cared less about the Blackhawks or hockey in general. Hockey was that weird sport from Canada where they hit a little rubber thing with sticks while trying not to bust their asses on the ice. I still pronounced “Toews” as “Toes.”
And yet, here I am. How in the hell does this happen?
Well, before someone comes here and accuses me of being a bandwagon fan, let me just explain exactly why I never got into hockey before this year.
- Let’s just be real — I’m in the exact wrong demographic. Puerto Rican woman in her mid-20s? Oh yeah, that’s me. I know hockey is for everyone (or so the NHL says) but people like me are still a rarity in the sport.
- Hockey is completely foreign where I lived. In the area where I grew up, there was exactly ONE high school hockey program. There wasn’t a chance to grow up with the sport.
- And speaking of growing up with a sport — there weren’t any Blackhawks games on TV! How am I supposed to care about a team when I can’t even watch most of their games?
So what changed? Well, there were a few things…
- Blackhawks games on TV! Finally, I could start following the team from the beginning of the season!
- To be honest, I started watching on TV in the first place because a former coworker took the graphic designer job with the Blackhawks, and I wanted to see if his work would show up anywhere. Personal connection!
- My friend, Lisa, wouldn’t stop talking about the “Glory Days” when she was watching the Blackhawks. Tickets were $3, she saw Hull, Mikita, and Esposito play, and she had a mad crush on Doug Wilson. (She gave him a skate she made in ceramics class! Seriously, her memories are adorable and made me want to check out the game.)
- And then there was that fateful day in December of last year…
So, here I was, watching hockey on TV. I was slowly learning about the game, and the Blackhawks were quietly creeping into my heart. But that bang-whiz feeling hadn’t hit yet — the feeling that I had fallen completely for the game. And then something random happens. Someone posted this in the ChicagoChat community on LiveJournal on December 9th, 2008…
“Does anyone want Blackhawks tickets for tomorrow night?
My friend had to cancel on me, so I need to get rid of them.”
My response?
I’d be happy to take them off of your hands.
Who knew that that one sentence and semi-obnoxious smiley would start a love affair of epic proportions?
So, I end up going to the game by myself on December 10th — I couldn’t find anyone to take the other ticket on such short notice, so I turned in the other ticket to the box office (where it was apparently bought by an older gentleman from Montreal who sat next to me for the game). We played the Ottawa Senators that night, and looking back, it wasn’t the most exciting of games.
But I. Was. Hooked.
I had absolutely no clue what was going on, but the excitement of watching the game live is like nothing I ever experienced in any other sport. It was then that I was also introduced to the cheering during the National Anthem and the chanting of “DEE-TROIT SUCKS” (I was so confused — weren’t we playing Ottawa? I was such a newbie.) — and it was like I found the place I needed to be as often as possible! Suddenly, I had to learn everything I could about the sport and the team and the history and and and…
I only remember one other time in my life when I reacted to something so viscerally, and that was when I first listened to the Beatles at the age of 14. That was something that changed my life for the better.
Hockey has brought me new friends, new experiences — and I’ve only been deeply involved in it for less than a year! I can’t wait to see what next season will bring.
Hey, you know I’ll be there. I DO have a season ticket, after all.
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