FanPost

The Oldest Fan at Niners Nation?  Maybe!


My birth pre-dates the founding of the Niners in 1946 ... but not by much. I was born/raised in the Willow Glen area of San Jose, the son of a retired business executive, semi-pro baseball player, and AVID sports fan. We were the first people in our neighborhood to buy a television set ... because a San Francisco auto dealer decided to sponsor occasional telecasts of San Francisco Seals (AAA baseball before the Giants relocated from New York) baseball games and California and Stanford football games. I attended my first Niners game, at the age of 11, at Kesar Stadium in 1950 ... the Niners beat the Packers, one of only two Niners victories that year. But I had watched Frankie Albert and many other early Niners players play college football (in the old Pac-8) before they became Niners.

As a teenager I played football ... then coached it while in graduate school.

As a Bay Area native, I followed the careers of Bill Walsh (and John Madden) ... as players in high school and at College of San Mateo, then at San Jose State; then as a coach at San Jose State, Washington HS, Cal, Stanford, then the Raiders, the Bengals, back to Stanford as HC, then the Niners. In his later years Walsh and I were neighbors in Woodside.

Eddie's Bay Area home was in Sharon Heights, just down the road from where I lived ... I saw him frequently at the grocery store or with his compatriots at the British Banker's Club in Menlo Park.

Before Eddie built the Santa Clara facility the Niners trained at facilities near Sequoia High School in Redwood City. As a Woodside resident I frequently saw Niners players all around the mid-Peninsula; several of them were neighbors; my son played catch with Joe Montana (before he became a starter) when Joe's then-GF lived just down the hill from us. I got TO's autograph when he was sitting at a card table outside a grocery store doing his first promotional work as a Niners rookie.

Throughout the years I attended MANY Niners games ... a number from a business-leased suite located within sight of Eddie's suite at Candlestick. I have not attended a game at Levi Stadium, nor do I intend to. I'll admit that being a Niners fan since the transfer of ownership to the York family has been very difficult ... sadly, their level of intelligence, motivation, commitment and fandom simply isn't the same. But, alas, I'm a lifer.

It's not very complicated ... how could I not be a Niners fan? A grew up with them.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.