I was brought up in a non-football family however I used to watch matches on our old black and white telly. The first game I remember seeing was the 1978 World Cup Final. I was just 6 and I just couldn't believe the size of the stadium.
Time passed and the family moved to Norwich.
At this time I would have called myself a Liverpool supporter for no better reason than they were on the telly again (sounds like a good name for a fanzine!) and winning lots. For my 10th birthday however, I persuaded my dad to take me and my friends to a game. We saw Norwich beat Doncaster Rovers 2-1 in the FA Cup 4th Round, on the 23rd January 1982. I loved it but I think my Dad was traumatised by the whole experience and never took me to another match. He still goes on about a stadium full of caged monkeys!
At this point I still wouldn't have classed myself a Norwich fan though. I was just a kid who enjoyed watching football and collecting Figurini-Panini cards.
At some point over the next couple of years I was picked by the school to be a ball boy at a City reserve team game. This was pretty much the most exciting thing to have happened to me ever. In the run up I was really excited but when the day arrived the game was postponed and I was gutted. I was promised by the school that they would reorganise, but it never happened. I never forgave them!
Some more time passed. The 1982 World Cup came and went (I still have the completed sticker album) and I moved up to secondary school. By May of that season Norwich had won the Milk Cup at Wembley (my Dad wouldn't take me, something I only forgave him for two weeks ago) but were struggling in the league. In an attempt to get an atmosphere going on the last day of the season, a must win game against Newcastle, they gave out hundreds of tickets free to local kids. Fortuitously these were distributed by my PE teacher who, as playground rumour had it, had one played for Crystal Palace reserves and now had a scouting role for City. I got a ticket and watched my second game, a boring 0-0 draw followed by a fight (was that you derehamyella?).
And now we come to the crux of this story, of how I became the impassioned and hardened supporter that I am today. After watching the Newcastle game myself and my best mate Ian plucked up the courage to talk to the PE teacher who had given out the tickets. This was not something that was done as he had a bit of a fearsome reputation (every school has at least one psycho PE teacher and this was ours). I don't remember the exact conversation but the upshot was that he mentioned to us that among other jobs he helped find ball boys for the club. Ball boys! Did he say ball boys? Ball boys, as in the thing that I wasn't two paragraphs back? I seized my opportunity. "Could we be ball boys for a game?" "Sure, be at the players entrance first game next season". Job done.
Saturday 17th August 1985, Norwich 1 Oldham 0, a result which (in my mind at least) pretty much hinged on the performance of one Moosheep patrolling the area behind the Barclay End goal!
But it didn't end there. What I didn't realise was that although most ball boys were there for just one game the club also had a number of regulars, four or five of which were called upon each game. Somehow I had stumbled into this group and for that season I watched all games, senior, reserve and youth teams. If I wasn't ball boying I had an 'access all areas' pass to get me into any part of the ground. It was so cool. I got to know the players, staff and even the 'Sweets, chocolates, hot drinks, cold drinks" man. It was definitely during this season that my City allegiances were formed.
At the end of the 85/86 season, for reasons unknown, the entire ball boy team was sacked save for myself and Ian who were kept on as senior ball boys, posts we held for two more seasons until our Broadside tracksuits no longer fitted!
What great memories. Thank you Morty for starting this thread.
OTBC
Moo
