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History of an Oilers fan – Part 1

As promised, today I begin my first in a series of posts about my history as an Oilers fan. The series will span from my early childhood, right up to this off season. Please leave me your comments, and share your own stories about growing up an Oilers fan for everyone to read!

History of an Oilers fan – Part 1

I have been a huge fan of Edmonton Oilers hockey ever since I can remember. I was born in the great city of Edmonton in 1976 at the old Edmonton University Hospital. Many of my childhood memories include snow, and more snow, some more snow, followed by melting snow, slush, followed by more snow, and then a nice dry hot summer. I never played ice hockey as a kid, in fact I could barely skate. I loved playing road hockey with friends in the winter or in the summer. Nothing beats taking a frozen tennis ball, whipping at your buddy, and hitting him square in the nuts! Unless of course it was me, then it wasn’t funny. I had a few favorite hockey players as kid, of course Gretzky, but I also really like Jari Kurri and Grant Fuhr. My absolute favorite player, and maybe even my all time favorite player was Paul Coffey. That guy was so smooth. He made everything look easy and the other team all look like a bunch of pee wee’s.

The first Oilers game I went to watch live was a pre-season game between the Oilers and Islanders. I can’t remember the exact year, but I was pretty young, 5 or 6 maybe?. My dad worked in the news room at CFRN and from time to time would get us tickets to games, though not as often as I probably would have liked. I remember one of the gas stations, maybe Esso? Anyway, they had a promotion that when you filled your tank you would get an NHL team puck. I begged my dad to bring me home a puck almost daily. From time to time he would. I had an Oilers, Flames, Habs, Nordiques, and I think Islanders puck by the end of the gas station promo! For reasons that are very unclear to me now, my second favorite team when I was a kid were the Flames! WTF you ask? Yeah, I know. I think it was because of those pucks, and I have to say, they have a pretty cool logo. **John quickly punches himself in the face for thinking these impure thoughts.** More likely still, it was probably just because they were the 2 teams my little hockey brain was most familiar with.

I remember one late afternoon my dad came home from work and asked if I wanted to go see the Oilers that night. I answered “OF F***ING COURSE!” Ok, I didn’t use the expletives. That probably wouldn’t have got me any closer to seeing Northlands Coliseum that night had I sworn at my dad. He then asks what team I would want to see the Oilers play, I of course answer, “THE FLAMES!” Sure enough he pulls out the 2 tickets to the Oilers vs Flames game that evening. I couldn’t have been any older than 6 or 7 at the time and to be honest I don’t even remember who won the game. But I do remember watching Gretzky’s #99, Coffee’s #7, and Kurri’s #17 skating around the ice from our nosebleed seats! I think I even remember being slightly disappointed that Andy Moog was in goal rather than Fuhr.

I vaguely remember the first Stanley Cup win in 1984. It was warm outside, spring had sprung. I was outside at a friends house doing whatever 8 year olds do. Everyone else was inside glued to their t.v.’s and soon enough so were my friend and I. I can’t recall much of the game but I remember the count down to end the third period, and everyone was counting along. I remember all the cars on 106th street leaning on their horns for hours following the game. I remember at school the next day the announcement the principle made over the p.a. congratulating our beloved hockey team. In fact at my elementary school they used to read out the previous nights hockey scores over the p.a. every morning, I thought that was pretty cool and a great reflection of how big hockey was to the city.

Looking back I wonder how much of growing up in that winning environment I took for granted. I mean, all I new as a fan was winning and having the greatest players and team ever assembled playing in my home town. I didn’t know what it was like to have a team struggle year after year after year. My only taste of sports heart break to date was the infamous Steve Smith “own goal” vs Calgary in 1986.