My Sharks History: That’ll Cheech You

[Editor’s Note]: This is the tenth in a series of user-submitted articles to Fear The Fin, detailing readers personal history following the San Jose Sharks. For archiving purposes this account has been republished. It was originally authored by That’ll Cheech You (an author on this website) on January 23, 2009; the initial Fanpost can be found here.

[Image Courtesy of CT Gray]

Well, I guess it’s about time for me to get into this too, huh?

I guess I should start out by saying that I’m a born and bred San Jose man. With the exception of college (Go Mustangs), I’ve never lived anywhere else than here in San Jose, city of dreams.

I have some pictures to prove that I was a Sharks “Fan” when I was younger. You know, parents buy you a shirt… you put it on… that sort of thing. My dad took me to some games when I was a kid, many of which I can’t remember (I’m only 23 now, so yeah). I do remember parts of Game 5 against the WIngs in the 1994 Playoffs (That’s right… I was there), but my reccolection of anything pre-1995 is a little wobbly.

I was always a baseball player by trade, but I also played hockey(different seasons, thank god) and absolutely loved the game. In 1996, I got my first Sharks jersey and I wore that thing everywhere. When I finally had to hang it up, it had at least 50 stains on it, most of which were unknown to me, but I know at least ten were chinese food, eight were blood, and one was a mark from a dirty-as-hell tennis ball that my brother shot at me while we were playing street hockey (that’s the last time I ever got a white jersey).

But anyways, on to the real reason I’m a Sharks fan. Around the same time I got the jersey (1996ish), my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 12 at the time (my brother was 7), and I took it really hard.  It seemed as if she went from healthy to sick in the blink of an eye; you don’t really know how to process that stuff at the age of 12. I became a little quiet at that point… I was always a little shy; this sort of sent me over the edge. I spent most of my time outside of sports/school with my family in the hospital (I swear this story gets happy soon, bear with me); she would sleep while I read hockey stats or did my homework. However, she was always up to watch the Sharks games with us. Our favorite moment of all, Owen Nolan’s called shot in the all-star game, sent us into such a crazy yelling mess that the nurse ran in to make sure everything was ok. Classic.

My mom spent the next six years in and out of the hospital (she was diagnosed with cancer 5 seperate times), but we always found a way to watch the games together. Owen Nolan was, and still remains, her favorite player. She even made it to a few games with the rest of us (and cheered like crazy for Nolan) while she was in the middle of chemo treatments. My mom is a trooper.

Thankfully, my mom is now fine; she’s been in remission for a good 6 years. She still watches every game, and my fiance and I go over to my parents place to watch at least two a month. My dad and I have since bought season tickets, and we all make it to as many games as we can.

So that’s my Sharks history. It’s a little sappy, I know, but the Sharks brought me closer to my mom (and the rest of my family) then I ever would have been without them.

P.S. My favorite part of the whole story is this: When we came home from the hospital (the last time) my dad suprised my mom with a new puppy. She named him Owen Nolan.