Why I support QPR

I feel like a zombie
But at least they go out at night and get to eat something

Right, first beer is on me!

I have followed QPR since I was about 11 or 12 so about 45 years, I had supported other teams before that the likes of Leeds and Middlesborough come to mind. However back in the mid 70's I was asked by my dads auntie and uncle if I wanted a day out in London and I said yes, we were going to see my dad's uncle's brother. Anyway once up there hw started talking about football, it turned out he used to be a youth team manager at Brentford, and also had some role with QPR. When we were about to leave to go home he gave me an autograph book in which a lot of QPR players had signed. I was hooked from then on.

Another story that led to QPR from a very different path! These have been great to read.


I also notice DorsetR you joined this site on Day 1 when we moved over from QPRnet!

I was born in London and when I was a kid I lived in Surrey. While I was of primary school age, though I was footy daft I did not support any particular team, so my dad and I used to travel to matches to whichever West London team was at home that week - QPR, Fulham, Brentford and (very occasionally) Chelsea.

That all changed near the end of the 1974-75 season, and at the beginning of the 1975-76 season, when 2 things happened to make me an Rs supporter.

Firstly, in the last year of primary school (1974-75) my dad who was a university lecturer was given a QPR season ticket by a foreign student who had to return to his country, so he started going (and taking me) to QPR regularly. He stuck with QPR, and so from 75-76 he started buying a season ticket.
Secondly, I started at a secondary school in Hammersmith. A few of my new schoolmates were QPR supporters, and more to the point I played for the school footy team on Saturday mornings - our ground was on the corner of Wood Lane and Ducane Road, by Wormwood Scrubs/White City, and even for away matches we would meet and come back there. So my dad and I got into a routine - I would play footy for the school on Saturday mornings, walk down to the Bush to meet my dad for lunch (who would come up by car), then both go to the match - sometimes I would sit with him, sometimes stand with my friends.

That was it. I was hooked. And the rest is a long history of several golden eras punctuated by anticlimaxes (FA Cup, Milk Cup) and desperate times. It's the hope that kills you.

Celtic:
1 = the hoops.
2 = the Chelsea + Glasgow Rangers affiliation, two nasty clubs bonded by deep-seated right-wing xenophobic elements.