Have we ever introduced ourselves?

[Airfix]

I notice that the Exiles board contains an introduction thread but I never saw one here.  So I'm creating one.

Tell us about you.

Here's me:

I come from Godalming in leafy Surrey which is ideal for Fulham as it's just up the A3 for me.

I've been a Fulham nut for as long as I can remember (and some times that I can't remember too).  My late father supported "them" but he was an old-school "them" supporter as LB can testify.  He came from Battersea so used to do the "Fulham one week, the dark side the other" and, whilst we never went a huge amount when I was younger (about 5-6 times a season), the decision was always "Shall we go to the football?  Yes?  Who's at home?".  With him being a blue, I decided to become a white to keep the balance, even to the point of wearing my black and white, home-knitted scarf to Slumford Bodge.  This practice ceased when I saw a scarf just like mine hanging from a lamp-post at one game with a Newcastle fan dangling from it by his feet.  Discretion being the better part of valour, I stuffed mine in my coat and stayed schtum.

I have been told that my enthusiasm for my team is infectious.  Certainly I tend to find that even non-football-supporting friends keep an eye out for our scores on a Saturday.  Even Mrs Airfix has been heard to say "we support Fulham" to a friend of hers.  As you will have noticed already, I have introduced two Fulham fans (bigdaddyat and sipwell) to the FoF board and for that you have my heartfelt apology.

I never supported another team before Fulham - there was no time to do that but I do have a firm second team - the mighty Gs... Godalming Town.  If I get a kitchen pass when Fulham are away and the Gs are at home, you'll find me at Wey Court.  Life is great in the Ryman South 1st Division where you can stand, drink coke from cans, have a smoke and put your brolly up when it rains.  That is what football should be about!

Being a Fulham fan has made me laugh and cry.  It has brought me friends opportunities to go to places that I would never have dreamed of going (like Hull).  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Best fans you can get, bar none.

Did someone say bar....?

 

[Peabody]

What a good idea. For what its worth, here's my tuppence worth. I was first taken to Fulham in 1946. My Dad had died in June of that yeay, so it was left to my Mums brother (my Uncle Jim) to take me to Fulham (sorry Finn but he was a scouser) he had just been demobbed and decided to take in a game, fortunately for me, Fulham were at home, as I grew older and living in Peabody, I discovered that there were a fair few of us who were Fulham and a fair few who decided that Fulham Broadway (or Walham Green as it was then). Basically that is it, I am Fulham and will never be anything else. Thick or thin, good or bad, I am a Fulham fan.

[epsomraver]

First went to Fulham in 1963/4, born in Putney lived there till age 5 then moved to Filth territory Battersea, did as Peabody did when taken, one week The Bridge and one week Fulham but the Chelsea visit was only  one week, soon as I walked through the park into the ground, saw all the flags flying, and as I have raved about for ever Jim Langley coming over to me as we stood by the railings of the Putney / Riverside corner noshing on the Percy daltons, he ruffled my hair ( I had some then) and said "should be a great game today boy" Hooked for life!!!

[Fletchino]

Hello my names Andy but most people know me as fletch my first fulham game was some time in the late 80's we had a young ian dowie on loan from Luton and he scored that day We won  3-1. My mum and dad met at FFC and i have lived most of my life in fulham my family is a bit of a split between fulham qpr the dark side and Wimbledon no brentford. I am a season ticket holder and try to do as many aways as I can I have a 3 year old son who is fulham mad he went to his first fulham game at two weeks old ( we lost in the carling cup) I went to hamburg and cry at the thought of it never happening again. I am 29 years old and work as a gas enigneer I
sit in the hammersmith end and hate people who call it the hammy end I belive that one day we will win the cup and then the flood gates will open COYW'S

[finnster01]

I posted most of this on the Exile site as that is what I am now I guess, but here goes:

Was born in London, in a part called Islington (Major Arsenal territory). My father was born and bred in SW6 and was Fulham through and through, as was his dad. The rest of the family (Mum's side & my Irish granny who gave me my name) all Arsenal except one uncle who always was Fulham. As a kid we moved back to SW6 and Fulham. My dad passed away when I was young, but not before he took me to Wembley in 1975. It is the best memory I have of him as he spent much more time in the pub than at home. My mom then moved back to Islington but my uncle took up where my father left and made sure I stayed Fulham and would take me to the Cottage on a regular basis. As I grew up, joined the Royal Navy, fought in the Falklands, came back barely in one piece but alive, graduated from university, started my own business, did decent I guess, and even opened a US office in New York. Had to get out of the London business as I got killed by the recession and Gordon Brown's insistence that no such thing existed.

Anyway, have now moved permanently to New York City and live with my native New Yorker girlfriend in Harlem. Fulham for life. The only problem I have is that I am not allowed to yell COYW's anymore as that causes some potential issues in my neighbourhood as I found out the hard way, and because COYW is a very difficult thing to control, I end up watching most games at home either on TV or computer with a generous helping of Mr Fuller's ESB.  

I have been treated extremely well here in New York and by the Americans, and it is very hard not to like what I see. So to all the yanks out there, thank you!! COYW!!!!!  

[finnster01]

How olds Otter ?  

6 minutes younger than me..

And I bet he has been reminded of that quite a few times over the years Mr Ska... 

[HatterDon]

kader, your lot wouldn't have done any better in the fight than you did in the match, mate! 

I'm HatterDon because my first football club was Luton Town in the mid-1960s [and because my name is Don  ]. It was part of my bonding with my father-in-law that I became a Luton fan. My parents-in-law were Somerset folk who met and married in London during WWII [tha big one]. He worked for Vauxhall and moved to Luton when the plant did. They were all Gooners. Once my father-in-law passed and my wife and I split, I got a Bosman from Luton and wandered in the Wilderness for 30 years or so until I found Fulham. I started watching because of McBride, but became first a huge Boa Morte fan and then of Moritz Volz.

During my Luton days -- all but one season in the lower divisions -- I went to a lot of grounds, including most in London. 90% of the matches we watched were at the Highbury Library [what a horrible lot of 1-0s I saw]. I had a mate who also married into a Gooner family, and taking the tube down from Cockfosters meant little crushing on our way to and on our way back from a match.

I've mentioned this before, but Luton didn't give a toss about the Yanks down the road in the secret base who were football mad. There was no recognition at all for us and nobody much was very welcoming. I found the exact opposite to be true at Fulham, first gaining acceptance through FulhamUSA and now here. I have seldom met a more amiable and generous bunch than your good selves.

Currently, I've decided that my 3rd retirement shall be my last. I'll be 64 in a few days, and it's tough enough for people younger than Roy Hodgson to get a job, never mind geezers like me. After doing my bit for god and country, I got into teaching, and then assessment -- including running my own consulting firm for a while. Nowaday's my band and my writing take up most of the time that I don't spend on here, on FB, or obsessing about Fulham. I haven't been to England since I left in January 93, but I will be back THIS FALL, dammit. I've gotten too many invitations to wait any longer. I'd like to get back and get to see the Whites in person, while I still have some brain cells left to destroy. 

I live in San Antonio, Texas, and will show any visitor the shortest route to the nearest Fullers ESB.

COYW y, viva Salcido!!!

[RidgeRider]

I'm a married with two young kids, 5th generation Californian who rides and races his bike a lot and uses butt butter liberally. Besides my own sporting activities, as a supporter, Fulham is it for me. I was a little distracted with my childhood team the San Francisco Giants the last 6 weeks, but always with an eye on the Cottagers. My Fulham commitment includes occassional 4AM wake-ups to catch matches but usually it kicks off at 7AM every Saturday or Sunday....... and the intrigue of the Prem, Fulham, and it's community has me addicted. The Cottage is in my near future.  :dft010:

[Scrumpy]

Hi all

 

[CorkedHat]

Hello my name is John and I'm here because I have a problem with..... Oh no that's Monday nights, sorry.
Most people know my story so I'm not going to relate it all again. You just need to know that I live in Outback Australia, wrestle crocodiles, root Sheilas, write books, drink a lot, used to teach at Uni, believe Karl Marx was a legend, my best friend is a man of the cloth even though I am an atheist, saw my first Fulham game in 1951 and have been addicted ever since. Grew up in abject poverty in Battersea which ironically I wouldn't change for quids, got thrown out of school (which I hated almost as much as I hate QPR) when I was just fifteen and told that I would never make anything of my life. A Uni degree in Communications, the inaugural inductee into the Brisbane Advertising Association Hall of Fame, the winner of the HK McCann International Award for Media Excellence (the first Australian based person to win it) two books, a research paper on consumer behaviour and a thousand articles later I am still trying to prove my teachers wrong!
PS Okay so I don't wrestle crocodiles and anything that slithers, crawls or don't look like a human frightens the crap out of me. But what do you expect from someone raised in Battersea?

[SuffolkWhite]

Hello my name is SuffolkWhite and I am also a Fulham addict.

I was not born in London or had any affiliation to London but my life was one of movement while young and 13 schools later and many homes I ended up in west London.
I used to play football in Bishops park and over the river at Barn Elms.

QPHAHAHAAAA was my nearest team but a mate took me to the cottage and the love affair started. It was the early 80's and my first game was a 0-4 loss to Oxford Utd under the reign of Bobby Campbell what a brilliant night, I loved it, and the crowed were singing for Campbell's head . What hooked me was there were not many Fulham fans at school and I felt part of a select few and the whole Fulhamish thing started, in truth the SuperMac era started at just the right time to hook me in further.

I watched Fulham for a few seasons and hardly missed a game at home and I went to many away games. When the decline came I moved to Suffolk and was skint, I missed whole seasons only reading the scraps in the papers about our team and worrying that we would go out the league with no ground. I take my hat off to you all who fought for the return to the Cottage.

Now I can make three games a year and managed six games last year, and the joy I get is worth every penny.

What ever happens in life there is always Fulham FC there for you, and if we were in Div 2 I'd still be in love with the club.

COYW

[Travers Barney]

Suffolk...wern't many in that night but 'Campbell out' reverberatted around the ground with such volume and gusto that my pal and I still recall it to this day.

We are the whites

[SuffolkWhite]

There weren't many going in those days Barney. I don't know what the average was back then for that season? But it can't have been more than 5000.

[The Rock]

This is the Rock. I am from Chicago, live in NY. I was not influenced by any club as a kid, and became enamored with Fulham as my friends lived in London and Brian McBride is from my hometown. I was in London often, but then I started coming just for the matches. Then I kept coming. Then, I had to live through 2 seasons of almost watching the club I support almost get relegated. I cried like a baby when we stayed up. Having endured that it was pretty clear I was Fulham for life. So now I can't get to many matches as I just had a kid. His name is "Robert Andrew". Perhaps you can guess where the name comes from.

[manxman]

hello, im lee. im 17 years old and live on the the isle of man.

An aweful lot of people over here ask why i support fulham, as the majority support the man utd man city liverpool and everton (geographicly)  in a quick response ill say my mum is from london and leave it at that, so there... but in truth my mums grandparents are from east london supporting west ham, they then moved to north london, where my mums mum (my grammy) supports tottenham, and my grandad supporting arsenal. my mum moved around alot in london so she followed the spuds as my grammy,

but at the age of 10-11 i decided not to follow those teams of above. but to follow a team from london, but which one?

there was arsenal west ham or tottenham, for family obv.

so i was lying in bed one night thinking ive got to pick a team to follow, and for some reason fulham popped into my head!? i really dont know why, i knew nothing about them! and thought sod it ill support them! so for the following months i was reading up on fulham, researching and following them, my friends and family thought i was a bit strange to support a southern tem, but somehow i felt it was right.

my first game was in 2006 against west brom, in which we won 6-1 (what a first game eh? )
i manage about 8 home games a year, and maybe 2-3 away games aswell - plus this years europa games and final ! hehe

and a couple of months ago my father (man utd supporter but now avidly follows fulham cause of me   ) was doing some family history research, and it turns out the furthest back he could trace ( somewhere 1800's or something) the family name originated from fulham!!

was it fate? id like to think so..  

[Lighthouse]

I am still waiting for my Wellington Boots and Jam Jar I ordered from your Catalogue last month. Despite many phonecalls you seem to be under the impression that your last so called 'introduction' was a success. Let me tell you, the lady in question (and I use the term losely) showed no signs of liking the same ' specialist interests' as I made clear on my form.
Her love of water skiing and swimming was not what I meant when I ticked the box. However as it turns out, I did tick the box, 'likes to watch' and so we both enjoyed my box set of The Fugitive Series 1.

I expected more from your company and will be writing to Watch Dog or other tv consumer progs to complain.

Yours in Anticipation (still)

Comeasyouare. (Membership number 46430545-03422-=439o498550948)

[PaulUMD]

I'm just a silly Yank, born and bred in Washington, DC, who played soccer (I know...) for many years but never had the ability to follow a club until high school when MLS began and I became a fan of DC United.  Our little league has come a long way in its 15+ years, and I've worn my colors in Europe multiple times and have been complimented along the way more than I ever realized.  I'm proud of where we've come from and the success we've had over the years and don't accept the idea that we're doomed to third tier status in the world, and I think we're on our way.

All that said, I always followed our American blokes when they played in Europe, especially in the early 2000s when we finally saw the bulk of our national team reside in Euro leagues.  I was a huge McBride fan, despite him playing for one of our MLS rivals for so long, simply because he not only had that American work ethic, but a touch of class that we had yet to see in an American striker.  I followed him, and Boca, to Fulham.  And I've been hooked ever since. 

Anyone can pick a Big 4 team to root for, or a Spurs, or the new kids on the block, Citeh.  I loved Fulham from day 1.  It was a working man's team that had an American attitude to it.  Hard work, structure, and a lack of ego.  And it was always more than the sum of its parts.  I cried when we made the Great Escape, and I cried when goddamn Atletico stabbed us in extra time last year.  And while I am Clint's biggest fan, if he left tomorrow I'd still be rooting for the Whites every week regardless.  Sadly, I've been to London twice in two years, and all 3 Fulham games in my time there have been on the road.  But I will get my chance soon enough to see a proper game at the Cottage.

Personally, I'm 30 with a wife and a 2 year old son.  I have a rabid appreciation and am a strong supporter of my university (the University of Maryland), especially in American football and college basketball.  And I'll be found on the Web at absurd times on the weekend mornings trying to find a Fulham stream...because that's the way it is in my household, and the wife doesn't even question it anymore! 

This board has been a lot of fun and that's just a little bit about myself.

[GoldCoastWhite]

This feels like deja vu but  . I'm Colin and I'm an alcoholic. Oh sod it, wrong meeting... I'm an Essex boy, born of Tottenham supporting, Edmontonian parents and Islington born, Tottenham supporting grandparents. We emigrated to the wide brown land in '65 and I started playing football (fairly badly) at 10 years old and considered myself a Spuds fan as a kid. Don't think much of them now but still have a high opinion of Pat Jennings, Steve Perryman, Gary Mabbut, Martin Peters in the early days and Ozzie Ardiles and The Hod later on. I spent 6 months in the UK (near Chichester) as a 20 year old and went to 3 or 4 games at wide tart lane. Clearest memory is being told to hide my scarf after a game against The Spam when walking back to friends home in Walthamstow, and kick off being delayed at the same game as the Spam had infiltrated the home end. Football highlight as a kid growing up in Para Hills (pommy ghetto in Adelaide's northern suburbs) was staying up until 11pm to watch the FA Cup Final at our local "soccer club" but I don't recall going to see FFC v Spam.
I moved back to the mother country in late '94 and was based in Hereford for a while. I went to a few home games and still keep an eye out for The Bulls results as Dad moved back just after me and is now a resident and season ticket holder at HUFC. My football obsession had lapsed a bit prior to my homecoming as I was more in to motor bikes, boozing and chasing women but I still enjoyed watching the beautiful game. After securing a job in London I went to a couple more Spuds games but hated the atmosphere. I was living in Pimlico and went to the dog track for a while, largely due to a promise made to a Blue mate I met on Hayman Island and I'll confess to enjoying watching them for a while, especially Zola and Gullit. Still didn't feel at home though and I discovered The Cottage after moving to a place on Fulham Road in '96. I wish I could remember what the first game was but I know there were about 4,000 there and a huge celebration at full time. I spent the next 6 years going to as many games as shifts allowed and saw my most recent games when I visited in '08. I will return and I will be a proud Fulham supporter until I go to meet my maker.

[FC Silver Fox]

Bonjour je m'appelle French Connection Silver Fox et ca fait 33 ans que j'habite en France. Whoops, wrong language.... My first game was Fulham v 'Pool in 1963 when our primary school did a football exchange with a primary school from Liverpool. We played in the morning (thrashed 'em and all went to the Cottage in the afternoon. The score was 0-0 so honour was saved all round and I was hooked on Fulham. I quit being an air traffic controller (ATC) in 1977 and moved to France with my then French girlfriend. We got married a year later, I learnt to speak French and went to a French university and got a degree in IT because I couldn't do ATC (you had to be a French civil servant to work in ATC. Still happily married and living in Lyon. Got 2 grown up kids. My daughter supports Fulham but I messed up my son's education as he support the Arsenal. Basically, when he was 12, the Dreamcast shirt was more inspiring than Pizza Hut.  I still get back to the Cottage for 2-3 games a year and love catching up with friends, many of whom contribute to this forum.

[Lighthouse]

Sorry, sent the wrong post to the wrong site earlier.

Born in Woking and moved to the South Coast when I was 3 and then moved to Alderley Edge Cheshire. a few years after that. My parents were fed up with me moving without telling them so decided we should stay there for a bit. My Dad worked for Unilever all his life and so travelled around. Even lived in Africa before I was born. Anyhoo he was the life long Fulham fan. He knew somebody who had a season ticket to Old Trafford. So he took me to see them smash Fulham. I was hospitalised for some weeks with a mysterious illness after that (no really). The GP (bless him) over prescribed a drug and I finished up worse than I started.

So I thought to my young self. I have been to watch a team that has been the direct result of an illness and they were badly beaten. They seem to be beaten on a regular basis and so naturally they were the team for me. At Secondary School I had Fulham FC written on my bag and etched into desks. My teachers called me  a 'rebel without a cause' (no really) probably because of this. Although I did watch Man Utd  when the season ticket was available I managed to see Fulham at Bolton, Blackburn, Bury, Stockport etc. It wasn't until a home game against Barrow in the old Third Division that I saw Fulham at the Cottage.

Not sure what it was but I just fell in love with the place and the fans. A Jewish chap came up to us outside the ground and offered us tickets with him to watch the Barrow game. My Dad insisted on paying the going rate but can you imagine a complete stranger coming up to you and inviting you to watch a game now. (No we are not Jewish either)

When I began working we moved to the South Coast and I have been trying to watch Fulham at every home and some away even with odd jobs that needed me to work Saturdays and shift work etc. After my Dad stopped going I have managed to convince family and friends to come. A great mate of mine, sadly died of Motor Neurone, travelled with me and despite never being a football fan until he watched Fulham never missed a game for a few seasons.

When Fulham played at Loftus Road I refused to renew my season ticket because of Fulham Park Rangers. Since then money,life and mostly other things have interrupted the flow of me going regularly. However I am proud of driving once from Scotland to Brighton to Fulham in one journey to watch a game. I now enjoy the game through the media of FOF. Fulham have been a constant in my life and I am proud of being a part of this special club.