What professional sports teams did North Carolina root for before the Panthers, Hornets, and Hurricanes? (Charlotte: transplants, home)
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I've always been curious as I don't remember North Carolina before professional sports came to town. Before the Panthers, Hornets, and Hurricanes came onto the scene, what professional teams did North Carolina root for? I know the Triangle pulled for the Redskins, but what about other sports?
Personally I pulled for the Steelers, Mavericks, and Penguins/Whalers.
The hell with the Redskins... never liked those bastids... hated that they were the default NFL team that they showed on TV. They still had a Redskin radio affiliate here in the Triad up until a few years ago.
Redskins for NFL. Atlanta for MLB, still the case. I think the Braves have a Carolina fan appreciation day. I don’t recall a whole lot of support for NBA before the Hornets, which stems back to the popularity of college basketball around here. The Hornets have never gotten their popularity back to the level of the glory days with Muggsy. I don’t think we knew what hockey even was before the hurricanes.
Most people that I know used to be Redskins fans before the Panthers. Of course you also had and still have Cowboys fans littered pretty much everywhere. NBA fans were scattered among several teams as college basketball was more dominant in NC.
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I'm pretty sure the Redskins were the team in any sport throughout the state prior to the Hornets. I can vaguely remember my preschool teachers being excited about them winning their last Super Bowl in 1992. My grandpa was part of a group that took a charter bus from Raleigh to DC once a year to see the Skins play at RFK Stadium. The Cowboys and Steelers also had a lot of fans here, those teams tend to make up a good chunk of the crowd at Bank of America Stadium today when they are playing the Panthers, the Skins don't seem to have a lot of fans here anymore, at least not in Charlotte.
I don't remember a lot of enthusiasm for the NHL prior to the Hurricanes. Minor-league Hockey however did have a good core of fans in this state where there were teams in the ECHL (Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro/Winston-Salem). Those who did follow the NHL were probably transplants who rooted for their old home teams. The Capitals were probably the "de facto" home team.
Last edited by Canes2006Champs; 09-18-2020 at 12:37 PM..
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