I hope this isn't an offensive post. I'm just curious what the average age of our board is. You always think you know, but you're always a little surprised.
How Old Are You?
- Thread starter BleedsGreen33
- Start date
If enough members participate, it gives insight into what era that person started following the Herd. I know for me, it started before I was able to talk! Also - if you didn’t get your herd-on until after, say 25 y.o. - what hooked you?
https://marshall.forums.rivals.com/threads/how-old-are-you.49165/
https://marshall.forums.rivals.com/threads/how-old-are-you.49165/
I've answered the poll and to answer your question...what hooked me was my kid playing for them, lol.
Im 36... Started following Marshall around 2000 when I was in high school and beginning to look into colleges... I wanted to get the hell out of rural north-central Pennsylvania, but didn't want to live in a huge city (IE New York, Chicago, Philly, etc)... My first in-person Herd game was at Akron when Byron played the fourth quarter on a broken leg.
too early analysis: We are looking at close to 80% of the respondents over 30.....
I'm 38 and I have always been a Marshall fan. My grandfather has always been so that got me paying attention. Especially since my entire family are wvu fans.
I really started to pay attention when Randy was here. I think I was 13 or 14 when he got here. Everyone hated him so I felt compelled to pull for him. I tend to gravitate toward polarizing athletes that get a raw deal.
Once I was nearing graduation I knew I was going to be going to Marshall. My first ever game attended what the 2000 Buffalo game. This was my senior year in HS. My boss gave one of my friends a bunch of tickets and we all headed down.
After watching Byron light them up, I knew it was going to be fun!
I really started to pay attention when Randy was here. I think I was 13 or 14 when he got here. Everyone hated him so I felt compelled to pull for him. I tend to gravitate toward polarizing athletes that get a raw deal.
Once I was nearing graduation I knew I was going to be going to Marshall. My first ever game attended what the 2000 Buffalo game. This was my senior year in HS. My boss gave one of my friends a bunch of tickets and we all headed down.
After watching Byron light them up, I knew it was going to be fun!
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Started in 65. Herd broke out to 4-0, Howie Lee Miller broke his leg against the Marines and it was all down hill from there for 20 years. So I've lived thru the good, the bad, and the ugly, but enjoyed every minute of it.
This poll proves the theory that young people are too lazy to vote. That, or there's a lot of geezers on this forum, just like me.
Good year. I was WVIT, Class of 1984, but to be transparent, I redshirted my first two years of academia. I ended up as a 6th year senior.
I’ve attended Marshall games since the mid 50’s so I have seen all of the Division 1 era of MU athletics.
58. Class of 85. First football game - 1969, my dad took me to the Ohio game. First basketball game - 1971 against Morehead.
I'm Andy Griffith wasn't a rerun old!
Wow! MD soph RL jr RN jr TC jr - they were getting ready to have “that” year the next season !!
Got to MU in the early to mid 60s period. Got hooked on the HERD as Charlie Snyder's teams started being competitive on the gridiron led by Miller-Pruett-Cure-Mahone-Coyer-Good-Winters et. al. Same in basketball under Ellis Johnson once the likes of Redd-Allen-Stone-Davidson-and some little skinny dude named Danny started racing up and down the Field House floor burning up the nets at both ends!!
Back then just about all students who lived on campus and went to games WALKED to the game venues for every game. Just remember the good times walking out, and back, 16th street to Ernie Salvatore's "Ye Olde Fairfield" and the same along 5th Avenue to the Field House. A steady line of students on game days!! Heck today students on campus can roll out of bed 5 minutes before game time and be in the CAM for the opening tip-off and the JOAN is about 3-5 minutes farther! Not nearly the student support and enthusiasm as there was back then, IMO! (of course, no ESPN, a million cable TV stations, cell phones, a plethora of video games and various "social media", etc. back then either).
Back then just about all students who lived on campus and went to games WALKED to the game venues for every game. Just remember the good times walking out, and back, 16th street to Ernie Salvatore's "Ye Olde Fairfield" and the same along 5th Avenue to the Field House. A steady line of students on game days!! Heck today students on campus can roll out of bed 5 minutes before game time and be in the CAM for the opening tip-off and the JOAN is about 3-5 minutes farther! Not nearly the student support and enthusiasm as there was back then, IMO! (of course, no ESPN, a million cable TV stations, cell phones, a plethora of video games and various "social media", etc. back then either).
I became a Marshall fan in 1956 when my hometown hero Lou Mott came here to play hoops for Jule Rivlin. Even though I never attended and actually received my degree in Florida, I have been a Marshall and Lou Mott fan ever since. In fact I was with Lou when he was named a WV Legend last summer along with former Herd stars Greg White, Joda Burgess and others
Think of it this way - if you're 25, that means you were born at the advent of the internet. When you were 8, broadband internet access had been introduced, and by the time you were 11, YouTube was growing at an exponential rate, followed immediately by Twitter, Facebook, and all their social media descendants.
Message boards were for those of us born in the Time that Time Forgot, prior to all of this, when this was our social media, and our primary source for breaking news on things we cared about. Message boards are just the descendant of the old dial-up Bulletin Board System model, and if you remember those, your knees probably hurt in the morning when it rains.
Personal Observation, Myself Included in Critque: I miss the days when this place (and other places like this) were bumping, and there was a lot more humor and a lot less angst. Those of us who are clinging to it seem like we need something in our lives to chew on. The younger folks who come here come angry, looking for arguments, and we give 'em what they want.
Message boards were for those of us born in the Time that Time Forgot, prior to all of this, when this was our social media, and our primary source for breaking news on things we cared about. Message boards are just the descendant of the old dial-up Bulletin Board System model, and if you remember those, your knees probably hurt in the morning when it rains.
Personal Observation, Myself Included in Critque: I miss the days when this place (and other places like this) were bumping, and there was a lot more humor and a lot less angst. Those of us who are clinging to it seem like we need something in our lives to chew on. The younger folks who come here come angry, looking for arguments, and we give 'em what they want.
As we have chatted before Lou Mott was also my favorite Marshall player at that time. A really good player who was the team glue. As a youngster I loved his game.
I remember creating a log-in for Herdnation in my Freshman dorm room in Haymaker Hall (the first year it opened)... For a kid from a one-stoplight town in PA farm country, who got dial-up internet access at his house in the 8th grade, on-campus broadband and a message board that was updated pretty much hourly, or minute by minute on game days, was the absolute cutting edge. lol
Also this thread has been really informative... I would have been able to guess a lot of you guys ages based on what you post, your language, etc. But some I would have been completely off.
I turn 25 next month and you basically described my childhood in relation to technology perfectly. I came to Marshall in 2015 and wasn't getting the info I wanted for Herd hoops and football that I wanted from social media. Through some google searches, I found out about herdnation and got hooked. I’ve come and gone between the free and paid site since then because of the drama and negativity you mentioned.
I disagree with generalization that the young demographic is what brought that here. I’m sure there are a lot of new subs that stir stuff up that are older than me. I’d put good money on it actually. Age doesn’t have a lot to do with it though, there are just miserable people in all walks and stages of life.
Anyhow, I’m thankful for this site as well as the people who run it. Especially in a year like this, if I didn’t have some sort of sports related relief, I would’ve lost my mind at this point. Go Herd!
BS. So when was there ever not a Facebook or Iphones?
This guy here describes them perfectly.
Always a Herd fan. Born in 1959 I was more into basketball in the 60's and started following football in the 70's. Tuition in the fall of 1978 was $187.65.
I can remember my Dad taking me to the basketball game with Toledo in 1968 or 69 and we had to go home because it was a sell out. Got to see Ole Miss all american Johnny Neuman play against the Herd in 1971.
I loved watching Skip Henderson, Tom Curry, Bruce Morris, Jeff Battle, and Skeeter Roberts when I was a young boy (9-10). The Henderson Center rocked and the Huck's Herd t-shirt seemed to be everywhere. I liked basketball before that but loved it after experiencing that atmosphere.
On the football side I remember meeting Stan Parrish and thinking it had to be the greatest day of my life. In my 10 year old mind he was the greatest coach in the country. Another strange memory came during my sophomore year in high school. Sean Doctor came to speak to our class and I just remember thinking that he was just one solid muscle from the neck down. That dude was jacked.
On the football side I remember meeting Stan Parrish and thinking it had to be the greatest day of my life. In my 10 year old mind he was the greatest coach in the country. Another strange memory came during my sophomore year in high school. Sean Doctor came to speak to our class and I just remember thinking that he was just one solid muscle from the neck down. That dude was jacked.
Virtually every game from 71-73 was a sellout. That place was rockin`
I'm a month shy of 39.
I became a Herd fan because of Byron Leftwich and the Akron game. I grew up in Morgantown, so Marshall wasn't even in my mind or world until the 97 game. They were never on local TV or talked about outside of Randy and Pennington, until the game in Akron and Leftwich being carried. That got me.
I became a Herd fan because of Byron Leftwich and the Akron game. I grew up in Morgantown, so Marshall wasn't even in my mind or world until the 97 game. They were never on local TV or talked about outside of Randy and Pennington, until the game in Akron and Leftwich being carried. That got me.
Horoscopes are absurd to me. The idea that everybody born between September 24th and October 23rd are all selfish, or that everybody born between March 24th and April 23rd are good organizers. And that's just a month - generations are 20 years.
Wow, you are pretty far up there. The closest I have been to North Warren, is Titusville.
This poll seems to be pretty indicative of Marshall's Big Green Members and season ticket holders as well. They need to change their focus on engaging the younger generation. I'm 34 and the vast majority of people that I see at local Big Green events are at least 20-25 years older than me.
That's Huntington through and through. When my wife and I moved here in 2015, we quickly noticed how much older the entire area is.
I get your humor here, Duke. My observation: The very age group that Snare references is the 1st generation to opt out of society. They don’t join civic groups, they are less likely to spend $$ towards supporting causes/charities. The men of this group grew up playing video games & guess what? They still love their video games! In other words, they value investing time in staying in their homes living in alternative realities, communicating w/ their buddies on their head sets, playing against another group of their contemporaries in, say Nebraska. I hold out little hope for the millennials coming up behind them!
Am I wrong? Perhaps. But I do fear for sports and participation in them/fans supporting them.
Schools are going to have to be very creative in order to coax this group into the stands and willing to spend their disposable income on, in this case the Herd.
WS
Actually guys my age were a bit too early for video games unless they played with their kids. I will be 72 next month and have no children. Thus I have never played a video game of any type. Pinball machines, thats a different matter.
