My father is originally from Nigeria and didn’t grow up following American sports. He immigrated with my mother in 1982 to Houston, Texas to attended university. It is during his college years that he developed a passion for collegiate basketball; a direct result of the Phi Slama Jama era of the University of Houston Cougar men’s basketball team.
Behind the leadership of the flashy Clyde “The Glide” Drexler and always reliable Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon (a fellow Nigerian), the Houston Cougar’s experienced unprecedented levels of success, advancing to the NCAA Final Four each year during the period of 1982 to 1984. But for all their success, the Cougar’s never won it all and my father suffered for it.In the 1981-82 season my father saw his Cougars lose to the eventual champion UNC Tar Heels in the national semifinals. The following year, his Cougars lost in the championship game to the NC State Wolfpack on a last second dunk by Lorenzo Charles; this loss caused my father not to eat for an entire week… No lies, my mother still talks about this!
But for all the heart ache felt, my father still rode with the Scarlet and White of his Cougars. In 1984, his final year of college and the year of my birth, he witnessed his Cougars fall short once again in the finals to the Patrick
Ewing-led Georgetown Hoyas. This time his “fast” lasted for two weeks!
In the 1984 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets used the first overall pick to select Hakeem Olajuwon and paired him with fellow 7-footer Ralph Sampson. In an instant, my father’s sports loyalties were bestowed on the Houston Rockets. With the same passion he exhibited in college, my father rooted his guts out for Hakeem Olajuwon and his Rockets. The “Twin Towers” would eventually lead the Rockets to the NBA Finals 2 years later against the Boston Celtics. This would mark the second time in 5 years that the Rockets and Celtics were pitted against each other. And once again, a team with my father’s support fell short. The Rockets would eventually lose to the Celtics 4 games to 2.
The list of sports tragedies and heart aches my father experienced during his basketball fanhood would continue for another 7 years:
1986: Guy Lewis retires from coaching the UH Cougars ushering in a period of irrelevance that is still prevalent today
1986-87: The Rocket’s loss in the Western Conference Semifinals to the Seattle SuperSonics
1987-92: The Rocket’s loss in the First Round of the playoff each year
1992-93: The Rocket’s loss in the Western Conference Semifinals to the Seattle SuperSonics
But through them all, my father remained loyal and diehard watching every game on television with his Heineken in hand.
My father’s sports loyalty was finally rewarded 12 years after he first started watching basketball. In the 1993-94 season his Houston Rockets would win their first NBA championship over the Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks; a sweet-sweet revenge that my father still points out every time he sees Patrick Ewing on TV. The Rockets would soon follow up this championship with a repeat the next year over the Orlando Magic.
12 years of heart ache, tears, fasting or starvation, cursing, and isolation were finally rewarded with a taste of the promise land. The joy and jubilation on my father’s face when his Rockets won is a memory that I will carry with me to my grave. But it also serves as a reminder of what sports loyalty is all about.
Through the ups and downs, twists and turns, my father remained and still remains loyal to his Rockets and Cougars, even as the current General Manager of the Rockets tries his best to destroy the nucleus of the team in an attempt to lure Dwight Howard (who I despise by the way).
True sports loyalty is sticking with your team through all the pain and suffering. It’s an impermeable marriage between fan and team whose bond is only further strengthened during the trials and tribulations of a sports season.
My father’s sports fanhood has taught me that above all, loyalty is eventually repaid in full. So with the new international football (or soccer for us yanks) and American football seasons right around the corner, I take you on a journey down my father’s path to sports loyalty to provide a small reminder that the pain and suffering that often awaits many of us sports loyalists is well worth it in the end.
So with that I say good luck to each of your teams this coming season. May they all bow down to my Chelsea Blues, Texas Longhorns, and Houston Texans.
