World Wide Flames Fans!

[The Swedish Flame]

I mean, the handle on here maybe gives away where I am from.

I'm from the most northern part of Sweden and hockey's always been my sport. At first I only really had a favourite team back home (Luleå Hockey, from which Holmström, Öhlund, Renberg, and others have made their way to the NHL). After I started to follow the NHL in my youth, I quickly became fond of the Flames. I think it happened because I loved some of the players. I could identify with Theo because I was always the shortest guy around in whatever sport I played myself. I am pretty sure that the first NHL game that I was able to watch on television included the Flames as well, and I might have become attached because of that.

I also started collect hockey cards and fell in love with the Flames' logo/jersey and tried to collect every Flames player I could get my hands on. My friends thought I was weird trading away Red Wings players and others to get my hands on Calgary cards.

Lived in the US the past five years now, the last two here in Illinois. Went to my first Flames game at the United Center last season and watched them beat the Blackhawks in overtime. That was awesome!

Some people think that it is really strange that, out of all teams in the NHL, I am a Flames-fan. I couldn't imagine supporting any other team though and generally ask them why they're not Flames supporters!

[Texas Blueliner]

Grew up in northern Ohio without a hockey team to cheer for, moved to Texas in the early 90s and picked up hockey (watching and playing). Already had an appreciation for Calgary and its people after the '88 Olympics so I became a Flames fan. Intensity of the Rangers Nucks '94 Finals really spurred my interest.

[miraisoup]

Sydney, Nova Scotia Canada here. Been a Flames fan for as long as I can remember, 34 now. Can be a bit rough at times trying to watch every game when you got work in the morning since they are on at 10 and 11 at night(I'm sure that pales in comparison to some on here though.) But it is worth it.

[FireGilbert]

It's cool all the different ways people became Flames fans.

I was born in everyone's favourite place, Trail BC, and moved to Calgary as a kid. It was a pretty good decision by my parents or else I may have become a Nucks fan. I almost instantly became a Flames fan and regularly stayed up past my bed time listening to Peter Maher on the radio. The 1993, 94, and 95 playoffs were all particularly memorable and heart breaking.

After 20 years in Calgary I ended up moving to Brisbane, Australia and am still a huge fan. This is the first time they have made the playoffs since I left town and I was starting to get worried I had jinxed the team. Thankfully, that was not the case, Go Flames Go!

[driveway]

Born in Calgary, flames fan as long as I can remember, went to the parade in '89.

Moved to Victoria for 10 years through university and after, came back to calgary for a few years and the moved to Taiwan almost four years ago.

There are a lot of Canadians here so there's some good hockey fandom but I have yet to meet another flames fan. Several Canuck fans, a few oilers fans, lots of leaf fans, but so far I'm the lone flamer.

[Party Elephant]

Born and raised in Calgary. Set off to New Zealand just over three years ago for what was originally going to be a one-year working holiday, but made it a permanent move about a year ago. In the last few years the flames weren't very good so I didn't feel like I was missing much, but this year has been different obviously. Really wish I could be around for playoff games and the red mile and all that.

I imagine I look like a bit of a crazy person driving around town with this red flag on my car. I've been lucky enough to have most of the playoff games in HD at my work. I'll usually sit there and watch, enthusiastically explaining the rules of hockey to coworkers and customers. I showed one of my coworkers (who is dutch) a video of the infamous Vancouver brawl today. He loved it.

[Cheese]

Born in the 'toon, raised in Calgary, had season tix from the first game through 98 when I moved to Waterloo ON. Now an expat in Seoul, South Korea.

[vilzeh]

I've loved hockey my entire life, I started watching Finlands & Swedens hockey leagues when I was about 7 years old.. Then they started to broadcast NHL more and more here in Sweden / Finland, I watched the Finnish players mostly but one magical year (2004) I fell in love.

I'm from a pretty small town called Haparanda (Sweden), I think I'm the only Flames fan in this area, and my friends do/did give me a hard time when Flames didn't make the playoffs for such a long time, but oh the great redemption when they made this year, haven't heard any nagging!

Love the Flames, always!

[JD]

Born and raised Calgarian, moved to the UAE last February. Still have my season tickets for the day I eventually come back home... Whenever that may be!

I've been waking up at ungodly hours to watch all the games this year, even having small get-togethers on weekends at 6 am with beer and a fellow Calgarian in Dubai. You can't have playoff hockey without beer, can you?

[gargamel]

I was born in Pennsylvania, but didn't have any hockey fans in my family and was about equidistant from Philly, Pittsburgh and DC, so I didn't have any natural team to root for. I first got into hockey in the late 80s when a buddy's family took me to see the Hershey Bears (that explains my loyalty to Feaster and my early love of Hartley), and since the Olympics were in Calgary at that time and I thought it was the coolest city in the world, I started rooting for the Flames.

For the next 18 years, I continued to support the Flames, but hockey was still a distant 3rd for me behind baseball and football since I could only see one or two Flames games live and maybe 3 or 4 more televised each year. It wasn't until I moved to Boston in '06 to attend Boston College (that explains my early love of Gaudreau) and started to share the Center Ice package with a hockey-crazy friend that I became a real die hard. Since then, I've been to dozens of live Flames games in 15 arenas (including one at the Dome for an Iggy hat trick against the Wild) and haven't missed more than a handfull of games on TV.

Now that I'm in Cambodia, I usually come home after my early morning class and fire up a stream of the Flames games. The last 2 years, I've timed my visits home to catch a Flames game (a loss in Chicago during the losing streak this year), but I'm hoping to make an unscheduled visit to North America for the Finals if the Flames manage a comeback against the Ducks and a win against Chicago. Hopefully I'll see you all soon.

[RUS]

I'm from Russia.

[da_nige]

I'm in Scotland.

We were on holiday in Banff in 1997 and went to our first game at the 'Dome. The tour operator messed up our seats so we got free tickets to the next game which happened to be against the Stanley Cup champion Avalance.

I was hooked. As a 10 year old I'd never experienced an atmosphere like that. Over the coming years we went to 1 game a year whenever we were over on holiday including sitting in row 2 for the Battle of Alberta.

2004 came along and since then I've followed the Flames more closely than any other sports team and I own 9 Flames jerseys (most with 34 on the back and now 1 with 13) and a Kiprusoff Finland Olympic Jersey.

I've subscribed to Gamecenter Live since it became available over here and love every minute of Flames hockey

Neil

[Quis_Separabit]

From Glasgow Scotland. Moved here 8 years ago. Don't know why the flames are my favourite team. Just liked them since I landed here... Even bought a jersey my first week

When we were in the process of immigration and moving to the Calgary area the flames were in the Stanley cup final. My dad stayed up to watch some of the games early in the morning.

And instead of Calgary we ended up in lethbridge

[Gaskal]

About me:

-Made in China
-Made the trip to Canada when I was 5
-Became a Canadian citizen two years later

I first was a Leafs fan because the games started at 5pm (which means I could watch the whole game as a young kid rather than the 8pm starts) and all my friends were Leafs fans. I remember that this game became the model of everything that was awesome about hockey for me; end-to-end action, crazy stops from both goalies, coming back from behind to tie it late and winning it in overtime.

I didn't watch the Flames until a late one vs Vancouver in Nov 2003, a back-and-forth affair in which we tied it 4-4. Knew about Iggy, of course, but it was actually Shean Donovan with his blazing speed that caught my eye. We acquired some no-name 3rd string goalie named Kiprusoff later that season and the rest was history.

Over the darker years I've tuned in. I still bear a grudge against the Ducks for 06. I still hate Brent Sutter. However I wasn't as into hockey as I am now back then. I wasn't into the draft, or developmental leagues, I didn't even know the names of our current draft picks.

It wasn't until Iginla got traded that I was like "Woah, wtf" and really started following the team closely again, much more than I ever did before. I guess it was because Iggy 'was' the team for me, and with him being gone meant a huge paradigm shift. We got three 1st rounders that year so I decided to really do some research into the draft for the first time and see who we might end up picking. Basically from that point on I paid attention to all aspects of the organization, not just the games.

I picked a heck of a good time to discover CP and HF. Just over a month into the first year of rebuild.

[skudr248]

Born in Latvia, GO LATVIA! moved here when I was 6 ('97), been the nuttiest Flames fan since. Vladdy Bure was my favourite player growing up on the Flames, was there for many blowouts, but as a 13 year old in 2004 I don't think I had a better spring in my life watching with my dad the run to the cup (IT WAS IN). Well, boarding a plane now to Anaheim to watch Game 5 with the same guy. LETS GO FLAMES

Still remember watching my very first Flames game on cable tv in Canada, WHICH GOT ME HOOKED! Funny enough it was a Calgary vs Edmonton game way back in 1997, after that I was constantly clicking through the channels to see if the Flames were on

[woob]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

It's cool all the different ways people became Flames fans.

I was born in everyone's favourite place, Trail BC, and moved to Calgary as a kid. It was a pretty good decision by my parents or else I may have become a Nucks fan. I almost instantly became a Flames fan and regularly stayed up past my bed time listening to Peter Maher on the radio. The 1993, 94, and 95 playoffs were all particularly memorable and heart breaking.

After 20 years in Calgary I ended up moving to Brisbane, Australia and am still a huge fan. This is the first time they have made the playoffs since I left town and I was starting to get worried I had jinxed the team. Thankfully, that was not the case, Go Flames Go!

Love Trail! Spent a lot of time there in the summers visiting an aunt and uncle. Family dinners out at the Colander were always my favourite, as well as riding my bike across the old bridge and through downtown . Do you ever get back to visit? Thanks for sharing!

[Ben_in_Canada]

From Brisbane on Australia's east coast but have called Calgary home since 2008.
Had liked hockey for years but became a Flames fan on my first trip to Canada in 1999.
I remember watching a game on tv in the hotel Flames v Colorado (IIRC) and Fleury scored to become the Flames all time leading scorer. And then got to go to the next game in Calgary where he was presented with the silver stick. Flames fan since then.

[Huntingwhale]

Some really cool stories here, thanks all for sharing.

One of the coolest things I've read is that many of us seem to have been brought to the Flames from old school video games. That's awesome how some random dude in Russia, Netherlands or Sweden can be a life long Flames fan because of a video game. Awesome stuff. Glad the internet has brought us all together.

[josef]

i´m from germany, some friends of mine were playing hockey in calgary and telling me how much fun they had,they brought me a flames cap, so team decided , not sure exactly but 1990 or 91 i made my first trip to canada, my first nhl game was in vanvoucer at the pacific coliseum, where the flames beat the canucks, of course...dead tired after a long flight, there was a very small guy on the ice who totally caught my attention.........theo fleury, now i was really hooked!!! since that time i was in canada/calgary about 10 (??) times and i can honestly say that calgary is like my secone home... i am canadien!!!
joined the fire on ice forum almost as it started, there were always some europeans on the board like fredrik from sweden or scottie & pointman

some highlights of my trips were:
- playoffs 2004 first round against vancouver
- heritage classic
- 2013 x-mas trip with my son & friends (bosten,detroit,pittsburgh)
- heckle in eckville pt I & II
- buying season tickets for the save the flames campaign

and of course meeting members of the board is always a pleasure, there are some awesome people in this community, lot´s of other stuff to tell but i´m lazy now

btw we should go for an european cp-meeting!!

[OffsideSpecialist]

I was born in Oshawa ON. Went to Calgary when I was 8 years old to visit an aunt and uncle. Because they were my favourite aunt and uncle, I decided I should like their city's hockey team. Also, I didn't want to be a Leafs fan.

I lived in Ottawa for 5 years for uni and went to every Flames game in the city during that time. I am currently in Perth, Australia