Today's fan essay detailing why he became a life-long New York Giants' fan comes from Jeff Goebeler, known on the site as JG131.
When they announced the building of Giants Stadium my father decided it was time to become a season ticket holder. For years, he and his buddies had followed the team from the Yankee stadium to the Yale bowl to Shea stadium and decide this was there opportunity to become season ticket holders. Although, they new the odds were against them they also choose different paths to get the tickets. The deal was whoever got the tickets would share with the others and the kids.
One decided that the odds were too great and didn't bother to send in a request while another decided to follow the typical path by sending a request through the mail to the organization along with probably 10s of thousands of other fans. By the way, 30 years later the Giants called him and said he was eligible for season tickets. So it is true what they used to say about the waiting list.
My dad however decided; why not send the request directly to Wellington Mara himself. So he did, stating how he had 4 kids who he would like to share the Giants experience with and would be grateful for season tickets. Well, it worked 4 tickets in the end zone on the aisle. To this day my dad believes Wellington Mara not only read the letter but decided to use Jack as the name on the tickets, you see my dads name is John which was Wellington's older brother name but he was always referred to as Jack. My dad never changed the name on the tickets until the whole PSL thing came along.
He shared the tickets with his buddies and they split the 4th ticket and the kids would alternate as to who goes to the game. I was fortunate enough to be the first to go in 1976 to see them play the Dallas Cowboys, I was 10. I was probably hooked before this but this most definitely sealed the deal, I was a Giant fan.
This is just one memory I will never forget the other being the clinching of the championship in 1986 against the Washington Redskins. This is probably my favorite memory of the Giants, watching the fans who had endured years of mediocrity and now they were going to the Super Bowl. The champagne was popped in the parking lot, people "high fiving", hugging and acting like they just won the lottery. Man was it cold out too but no one cared it was something they had been waiting for, for decades.