When I was younger, my life literally revolved around sports. When I wasn’t playing them, I was watching them or reading about them. Baseball was my first love, and it may have been a generational thing with growing up in the 70s and 80s. We were always outside playing catch, playing 500, hot box, or strike out. If there were enough of us, we’d get in a half-field game or play pitcher’s-hand out.
But I soon discovered football, basketball, hockey, and any other competition that was on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
Once I truly settled into my sports fandom, I’d rank my favorite teams as the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, Michigan Wolverines (football and basketball), and Chicago Blackhawks.
My list has changed over the years, but what about you guys?
Here’s today’s discussion topic of the day.
What is your sports fandom hierarchy? Are the Chicago Bears number one on your fandom list, or are you MLB-first, college-first, NBA, NHL, or something else?
Walter Payton’s greatness eventually pulled the Bears ahead of the Tigers, and then 1985 happened, which cemented them as my number one for a few years.
But I played a ton of basketball in the late 80s and early 90s, which coincided with the Michael Jordan era, so my hierarchy changed to the Bulls, Bears, Tigers, Blackhawks, and college sports, which brought up the rear.
As I got older, the Bears and the NFL became my singular focus. These days, I’d rank my fandom hierarchy as Bears—a really long gap—Tigers and Bulls (box scores and highlights)—another long gap—Blackhawks—some occasional Chicago Sky (because my timeline is full of Angel Reese), and I pay attention to college football more for prospects than teams.
Now it’s your turn. Rank your favorite team hierarchy.