How/when did your Michigan football fandom begin?

My first game? Colorado in 1994. That did me in.

1984 (!)
I was four, I remember watching the games with my Dad...we were so upset when Jim Harbaugh broke his arm in the MSU game...that is one of the only things that really stick out in my memory...that and how close we played National Champions BYU.  The next year I was hooked.  Jim Harbaugh was my hero when I was five.  '85 was a great season.  I followed him for a little bit in the NFL but I wasn't a big fan of his teams.  Watched almost every Michigan game I could though ever since I was four.
Interesting thing though, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio defending my fandom against Buckeye and ND fans all the time.  I feel my love for U of M was FORGED IN FIRE.  We moved to Atlanta when I was older and it wasn't as bad.

"Hello Heisman" 1991. I was 9.

I've always had memories as a you good around 5-10 years old of my dad wearing Michigan gear and doing yard on Saturdays listening to Frank Beckman on the radio make the calls. I distinctly remember my first Michigan game at age 12 when we were undefeated going into the Minnesota game in 1986. We lost that one and it was a bittersweet start to my somewhat more active fandom. In junior high and high school I was so busy with extracurricular activities that I didn't have time to follow each game but I always considered myself a fan. I started really following the team with significant consistency in college. I was an Albion College student in the mid 1990s when we racked up pretty mediocre years but I distinctly remember the UVA comeback, the Colorado Kordell Stewart game, and of course a few years in a row when we were 7-4 going into top ranked OSU and we just totally tripped up their season by beating them at the end. The 1997 Championship run really solidified my interest as an avid Michigan follower and since then I've made efforts every Saturday to follow along, although I've gotta admit during some of the terrible Rich Rod years I may have tuned out a few weeks in utter depression of the team prospects.

Went to my first game in lare 70's. My dad scored season tix in '85 and we've had then ever since. When I was a kid, my friend and I used to go to Yost and round up all of the practice pucks and turn them in and got game pucks in return. Still have the pucks to this day

November 1979. I was born in June 1980 and both my parents are avid Michigan fans and graduates.

that was the first game I can remember watching. As a child growing up in Detroit my fandom was probably rooted in the local, collective reverence for the program's iconic institutions: Bo, the helmets, the Big House, etc. As an adult, my fandom is a bit more complex but probably not by much. At the end of the day, you root for a team and participate on a blog because you enjoy the experience of being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Great grandfather, grandfather, father, brother and sister ALL U of M Dentists. Remember going to games in mid 60's with my brother and being told do NOT drink the cider they were passing around (I would've been around 5 or 6). Remember being so upset when Woody went for 2 in 1968 and so excited when we beat OSU in 1969 and all the crushing Rose Bowl defeats in the 70's. I dont ever remember not being a hard-core MIchigan fan.

It's in the blood.

My grandpa and dad took me to every home game starting in 1996 until 2009. Great times!

I always remember watching the NFL. But my first memory of college footbal was when my stepfather was watching it one day when I sat down to watch with him. I saw these awesome helmets. I had never seen anything like them before. I was instantly hooked. It's been roughly 35 years and I'm still hooked.

Like everything else that happened

Birth

I know I had watched Michigan games on (black & white) televisions before, but in 1968 Woody went for 2 in order to reach 50 points and my dad went ballistic.

we went outside to rake leaves and he just went off on what a subhuman culture it took to maintain a cesspool like Ohio State.

I would go on to graduate from Michigan during the late '70s Bo years.  My son, unfortunately, was there for the RichRod years.

and to this day, when anyone mentions a relative who attended Ohio State, I always say, "My Condolences".

Birth

I became a Michigan fan in 2011 at the age of 25 when I started my master's program at Michigan. I grew up in Big Ten country, but we never really lived anywhere long enough for me to have much of an attachment to a particular team. My grandparents are Illinois grads, my parents are Nebraska grads, and we lived in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, so I had casual relationships with all of those teams, but never real fandom. I also went to a D-III school for undergrad and wasn't that into sports throughout high school and college, so that didn't help much.

When my wife and I moved to Ann Arbor, we became friends with some people who were really into all things Michigan sports related, and through them we got really into it as well. It revived a lot of the nostalgia for college sports (and particulalry the Big Ten) that I had from my childhood, but now I had a team that I genuinely cared about and had a connection to to cheer for. We ended going to several basketball and hockey games, and even got season tickets in the student section for football (my wife snuck in with a fake student ID). Even though we've since moved to Austin, TX, we still go to the Alumni group's watch party every Saturday in the fall to watch Michigan football.

7 yrs old Mich/OSU game in '71.

My grandfather got his undergrad degree during Yost's first four years, and later he and his young family—including my dad—lived on Packard and then Wells during the late 19-teens and early 1920s.

When my parents met each other through a mutual friend in South Quad in 1970. The day I was born, our neighbor hung a "Call Bo, It's a Boy" banner on the garage door. The rest is history.

Grandfather went to Michigan in late 20's. Took me to a lot of games in early to late 60's. Favorite player was Jack Clancy WR. He passed in 68 never seeing Bo coach. He would have loved Bo. Lived in Ohio entire life so plenty of highs and trying times loving UM My son was hooked from birth tried and true-maize and blue.

From birth. UM grads include: myself, my wife, two sisters, my dad, my mother, my father in law, my mother in law, my brother in
law, my wife's uncle, my uncle, my aunt, my grandfather and my grandmother. There was never any doubt in our household where your loyalties should lie and that was impressed upon one after exiting the birth canal.

This is pathetic, but my first real memory is crying as ASU went up and down the field in the 1986 Rose Bowl.

10 years old. Dad had tickets to the rainbow Classic in Hawaii. M-vs-North Carolina. Jalen hit a buzzer beater to win the game.

My fandom became when I was a student at UofM attending my first game vs Notre Dame in 1999.  Unfortunately, I grew up a Spartan fan, but at least I evolved and got my degree from the proper school.  :-)

I was six years old when Michigan played in the Rose Bowl. At that time I couldn't quite comprehend college football yet, but I was dragged along to a watch party my parents were going to. I remember seeing everyone so happy watching the game that I thought this must have been an amazing thing. It also helped that they were playing betting squares and my parents put money down and had me pick some squares for shits and giggles. I ended up winning and the winnings were used to take my family to see Flubber in theaters.

My parents divorced when I was one year old. Didn't live with my dad, and on top of that he wasn't a football fan. My older brother wasn't a fan either. My first taste was at family gatherings watching Michigan on TV. I was mesmerized by the helmets and uniforms, especially on a swarming tackle. I picked up interest on my own. Loved the epic battles between Bo and Woody. Loved Rich Leach, and was even a fan of Archie Griffin. I went to one game before I went to Michigan, and all home games when I was I attended school at UM. I usually catch one or two games a year. Going to homecoming and the MSU game this year.

Since birth. I had great parents. 

First game in 2004 against SDSU is what put it over the top for me. I have that date of that game tattooed on my back neckline.

I consider 9-18-2004 my second birthday. (bottom right is me)

 

I remember getting those football costumes with the helmets from jc penny as a kid....and would pretend to be different Michigan players in my backyard...this was probably the dawn of my fandom (so 1991ish). But I became obsessed in the summer of 1995 and have been ever since. That game against Virginia on August 26th, 1995 (Mercury Hayes in the corner of the endzone) was a great way to kick things off...and then I got a National Championship just 2 years later.

Watching tv with my dad we watched a lot of MIchigan, but i think it was Harbaugh that really birthed my fandom. We'd always had monster defense and OLine classes when Bo was coach and Moeller and Carr were assistnats. We put mauler OLinemen into the NFL every year, and Butch and AC were amazing, but we never really had good qb play. I think Harbaugh was the first real "star" at Michigan that put me on the edge of my seat and made me say "wow." After that I always expected to see magic when MIchigan was on, and Desmond and Woodson and Denard followed and did not disappoint.

was born in Detroit, but moved to Ohio when I was really young, like 3. my older brother was 5 and him and my parents loved Michigan so naturally I did too. I remember when I was like 10 or something we were about to move to Columbus and someone asked if was going to change. I just remember laughing at them and saying of course not. I didn't have the opportunity to attend Michigan, but I never stopped being a fan. and now living in Texas it's all sec and Texas stuff here. but atleast there's not too much Ohio state garbage around.

My oldest brother is 11 years older than me and attended Michigan in the mid-60s during the Bump Elliot days. So, football isn't what got me hooked. Somehow, I went to Ann Arbor with him for the day so he could register for classes back in the days of tables spread around the diag. I got to see his dorm room, too. So, in my head, that's what college was supposed to be like. Went to Ann Arbor for a campus visit senior year of high school and that ended all doubts in less than a second. Of course, by then, I was totally into Michigan football. That started in 1969 a year after my brother graduated.

My first game was the '03 central michigan opener as a freshman. From the east coast, most of my fam are penn staters, but I was hooked on michigan the first time I visited during high school.