Jay Haas

“I grew up around the St. Louis area and the Cardinals baseball teams were big right when I was growing up and playing Little League baseball. In the mid-to-late 60’s they had a really good team so it was fun to watch them. I always really enjoyed Bob Gibson pitch. He was a really dominating picture and had a lot of success in that era.”

John Cook
 
“My favorite team was always Ohio State just because of my dad’s ties there as a coach and going to graduate school there. We bled Scarlet and Gray growing up and I was always a big Archie Griffin fan. Not only was he a great player, but he was such a role model for people. Now he’s President of the Alumni Association there and that’s a big responsibility. There’s no better person for it.”

Keith Fergus

“Baseball it was the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle and the Dallas Cowboys. Those were the two pro teams and I also liked Texas A&M.”

D.A. Weibring

“Well, for me it started in my hometown. Basketball was a big part of my life growing up and my next door neighbor who went on to play in the NBA and I pulled for him (Gary Phillips). He played for three different NBA teams and when he came back he’d bring me basketball signed by teams he played on. He played for the Celtics, Warriors and the Sixers. I had the chance to see him play down in St. Louis and I got to meet Wilt Chamberlain. I remember him just picking me up in his arms when I was about six. When I was about five or six I was the mascot at Quincy College which was two blocks from my house. I’d run out on the floor with the team. I got to know all those guys. A lot of it was basketball related when I was young.”

Curtis Strange

“Gosh, growing up you didn’t get to see too many teams on TV. It was probably the Baltimore Colts. I follow the Redskins now, but back then it was the Colts with many of their great players. John Unitas was probably my favorite as a kid.”

Hale Irwin

“When I was a kid living in southeast Kansas KMOX did the St. Louis Cardinals broadcasts. We didn’t have television so we listened to the radio. Our neighbor was an elderly couple and he listened to the Cardinals game every day and night so I was always a Cardinals fan. I grew up in Mickey Mantle country but he was a Yankee and wasn’t a Cardinal. he wasn’t Stan Musial or Red Schoendinst.”

Jeff Sluman

“I kind of grew up liking the Steelers in football. It was relatively close, but Buffalo was closer to Rochester, but I always liked Pittsburgh. My favorite player was probably Lynn Swann because of the way he handled himself and how he played in the big games.”

Loren Roberts

“The San Francisco 49ers and the San Francisco Giants. Joe Montana and Jerry Rice were probably my favorite players.”

Andy Bean

“No, not one particular team or one player. I liked a lot of different teams.”

Eduardo Romero

“My favorite team as a kid was River Plate, one of the football (soccer) teams in Argentina. There was no TV at the time, but I remember following them in the paper. My favorite athletes were Jack Nicklaus and Robert De Vicenzo.”

Ben Crenshaw

“I liked baseball and it was my second love. I was a catcher. I got a chance to meet Mickey Mantle a few times and there wasn’t anyone like him. That was unbelievable. As far as favorite teams being in Texas I enjoyed following the Astros and Rangers, but for me it was always a toss up between Boston and New York. I liked both of them. That usually doesn’t happen. You’re usually a fan of one or the other.” 

Tom Watson

“The New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle.”

Tom Kite

“I’ve always been a huge University of Texas fan. Whatever sports they were playing at the time, they were my team. There were some phenomenal players when I was in school, but Earl Campbell is hard to beat.”

Allen Doyle
  
“I was born and raised right around Boston so it was the Patriots. First it was the Boston Patriots then they became the New England Patriots. They started in the American Football League and we actually went to one of their early games when they played at Fenway Park. I remember guys like Gino Cappelletti at quarterback and kicker, Jim Nance out of Syracuse and later players like Steve Grogan and Tony Eason. I’ve always followed the Patriots.”

Bernhard Langer

“Soccer was my favorite sport in Germany and I always followed Bayern Munich (FC Bayern Munchen). Some of my favorite players were Franz Beckenbauer, Georg Schwarzenbeck and Gerd Muller.”