For fans that are not from Kentucky

[trublu]

I hope I'm not prying too much, but I'm curious to know how you became a fan of the Big Blue if you are not from Kentucky oryou were not born into a Wildcat fan family. I read on another thread where that someone had become a Wildcat fan after watching the '92 game. Any others?:)

[Prince21]

I was born in Kansas, but my dad was raised in Kentucky and taught me to like them. Now I think I like the Cats more than he does.

[catfeverintennessee]

I was born in Nashville, Tn and am now considered by friends a traitor because I pull for UK. I married a Paducah, KY boy and was "recruited" in the late 80's/ early 90's. First SEC tournament in 91 really sealed the deal for me.

The funny things is hubby always bugged me about being from Tn and him from Ky. When I got into researching the family tree, I found that most of my relatives on both my mom and dad were from West Ky or lived there at one time while his dad's side was more from Tn.:shock:Guess I had the "Blue Blood" all along!

[JDHoss]

I was born in the coalfields of Wise Co. Va. about 8 miles or so from Cumberland/Lynch/Benham. My dad was a huge fan, and we spent many a fall afternoon & winter night listening to Cawood call the games. I've followed since the late 60's.

[WildcatGirl]

I was born and raised in North Alabama...have never lived any farther north of Huntsville than about 6 or 7 miles and never any farther south than 2 and actually currently live in ther house that by parents moved into the week before I turned two years old...so I'm certainly not from KY. Mom was born in TN and raised in AL and Dad was born and raised in PA. Grew up in a house where the only sport on the tv was golf. (although my mom would watch the bowl games sometimes on New Years but that was usually when we had other people over and then I'd just be playing with their kids so I certainly wasn't watching) Most of my friends went to other schools... so I didn't even go to my high school footbal or basketball games because I wasn't big on school spirit, nobody I wanted to hang with was going to be there anyway. Then I met Brad (avidUKfan) and we started dating right before football season began and he was SO into sports...so I decided to learn a little about them and asked what was probably WAY TOO MANY questions while he was trying to watch games on TV...lol. I'm sure he was thinking 'what planet did this girl come from and how in the hell did I get myself into this!!!' but he put up with me anyway and answered all my stupid questions. (Luckily I ask far fewer stupid questions these days...lol) Then he took me to my first football game ever...UK/LSU in Baton Rouge in 2000 and I had a ball (insane LSU fans aside...lol) We went to a couple of other games that year too at home...and I've been a 'WildcatGirl' ever since. Then came basketball season:ggrin:

[trublu]

I love it! It is great to know that you don't have to be born and raised in Kentucky to be an avid Wildcat Fan.:)We ARE everywhere.

[WildcatGirl]

Nope...first time I was in the state was to come to a game! http://www.geocities.com/bradleystarks2003/kypaw_blue.jpg

[delkfor3]

This is amazing, that peoplehave whonever even lived in Ky, could be a UK fan. It just proves the point, that once the blue is in your system, you never get it out. Being Ky born and ky bred, this thread only gives meeven more pridefor THE CATS.:)

[UK 4 Life]

I've lived in Indiana my entire life and the only team I've ever followed besides UK was Purdue. I still follow the Boilers because my dad went there and I have a good friend on the football team. I fell in love with UK sports because of the tradition, they're regionaly close and thier passion and loyality of thier fans. I'm 100% Wildcat.



P.S.: Also since I was born to dispise anything IU it was a natural..lol

[Spanish Moss]

Born and raised in Florida but my dad was from Pike Co, Kentucky. He raised us right.

The first memory I have of any sport was listening to UK games on the radio. When the Cats were on, dad would get his radio out and try to find a spot in the house where the reception was the best. When he found it he would lay a blanket on the floor and turn out all of the lights (dad thought it cut down on the interference). He would light a coal oil lamp to have a way to see in the dark. I would get next to him and shut my mouth because nobody made idle chatter when the Cats were on the radio. if you said something it better be important because dad did not want to miss one word the announcer had to say. Mother woudl usually be out on the porch swinging and the younger kids were put to bed.

I can remember the Fabulous Five playing when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Dad never missed a game that I know of.

[delkbestalltime00]

Born in Jackson, TN. My dad went here and would watch the games, I soon fell in love with UK. Now I go to UK, the only college I applied to, and I love it more than ever.

[hoosierhateruklover]

Without a doubt the stories from those Kentucky fans out of the state are very interesting and full of interesting details.

[SunBaller]

delkbestalltime00 wrote: Born in Jackson, TN. My dad went here and would watch the games, I soon fell in love with UK. Now I go to UK, the only college I applied to, and I love it more than ever.

I think it's odd that there's only one response fromout-of-state UK fan-atics that love UK because they attended UK as a student. Since delk00's dad went here he was already a good candidate anyway. There's certainly nothing wrong withloving the Big Blue regardless where you're from, but it still seems odd to me.I love it when those not from Kentucky are a fan of the Big Blue, but I thought most had attended UK.

[WildcatGirl]

I think I might have an explaination for you on that because of my DD's current college search. UK is known (in other states at least) for being next to impossible to get into as an out of state student. My DD want's to go to UK and did a lot of digging into this...and it appears that historically less than 5% of the average incoming freshman class each year has been out of state students. (If my poor memory is actually correct here I want to say the actualpercentage was around 2%) With such a small amount of students being residents of states other than Kentucky I think it stands to reason that there would be few non native fans who became fans as students.

Good news (at least from my DD's perspective) is that according to the school recruiter who came to her high school (for the first time that I know of) this year...they are actively attempting to change that and setting a goal of bringing in more out of state students starting with this next freshman class.

*Disclaimer - This is second hand information from my 17 year old so please no rock throwing from anyone representing the school if I'm wrong...lol. But DD's pretty thorough, and usually makes sure she get's the whole story so I'd be willing to bet it's good information.

[SunBaller]

WildcatGirl wrote: I think I might have an explaination for you on that because of my DD's current college search. UK is known (in other states at least) for being next to impossible to get into as an out of state student. My DD want's to go to UK and did a lot of digging into this...and it appears that historically less than 5% of the average incoming freshman class each year has been out of state students. (If my poor memory is actually correct here I want to say the actualpercentage was around 2%) With such a small amount of students being residents of states other than Kentucky I think it stands to reason that there would be few non native fans who became fans as students.


Thanks a whole lot WildcatGirl, but that's not exactly what I was getting at. It is very typical for any major university in any state to have a majority of in-state students. The major and primary reason for that is that out-of-state tuition is generally 3 or 4 times more than in-state tuition in any university. This discourages many out-of-state students from applying at other state universities. There was a time many years ago that college tuition was so expensive in some states (especially the northeast)that it was still cheaper to come to Kentucky for college. It has also been common for many students in other states where college tuition is enormous to set up residency in a statebefore applying. Many states only require one year (non-college) residency to be eligible for in-state tuition. With approx. 26,000 students enrolled at UK (undergraduate and graduate), 5% would only be about 1300 students. Just academic scholarships andathletic scholarships alone for football, men/women's basketball, m/w track, golf, soccer, etc., etc. would probably bring in about 25% or more of that 1300.

Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent, but I was trying to point out in my previous post how interesting it was for people who didn't/don't live in Kentucky and didn't attend UK to be fanatic about Big Blue Basketball. I've made a lot of out-of-statepeople fans of Big Blue Basketball myself, but none enough to spend their time on one of these Forums. Most of them have lives :lol:. I still find it odd and interesting thatsome are that enthusiastic about UK to spend theirtime on these boards without ever having lived in Kentucky or attended UK. There's several million UK fans throughout the nation, but only about 950 members of WCN. Those 950 must be extremely fanatic about UK to spend their time on these boards. That's all I was trying to say.

[SunBaller]

WildcatGirl wrote: I think I might have an explaination for you on that because of my DD's current college search. UK is known (in other states at least) for being next to impossible to get into as an out of state student. My DD want's to go to UK and did a lot of digging into this...and it appears that historically less than 5% of the average incoming freshman class each year has been out of state students. (If my poor memory is actually correct here I want to say the actualpercentage was around 2%) With such a small amount of students being residents of states other than Kentucky I think it stands to reason that there would be few non native fans who became fans as students.

WildcatGirl - Have your DD to check out the UK website. The UK website says: One of every five students studying at the University (Kentucky)is from another state.

That would obviously be 20% of the students or more than 5,000 students. Stats are through 2004. I suppose 2005 hasn't been determined yet. Here is the website:

http://www.uky.edu/IR/dsi/enroll/res/enroll.reside.f9504.all.shtml

[151Grunt]

I was born and raised in Columbus, IN. Its about an hour away from Bloomington the home of the Hoosiers. I was brought up a wildcat fan though. My dad was raised in Jackson, KY. He had always been a Kentucky Fan. I grew interested in the Cats right before "The Unforgetables".I've been bleeding blue ever since I was in 3rd or 4th Grade! GO CATS!!!!!!!!!