The early, early, early days of the Carolina Panthers

Remembering the days when the Panthers were still just an expansion bid and one man's dream (Jerry Richardson) and shortly thereafter . . . . .









More Photos from the 1990's and Beyond in my FLICKR Album
















Panthers vs. Falcons (1st regular season game down in the ATL)




Panthers vs. Rams (First home game at CLEMSON)






Panthers vs. Jets at CLEMSON (11/96)





Remember when George Shinn (Hornets owner) had plans to bring a NFL & MLB team to Fort Mill to play at KNIGHTS STADIUM ? ? ?







Preliminary Sketch of then Carolinas Stadium being announced to the public (9/89). This was when Charlotte was competing against Concord, Gaston Co., and Fort Mill to be the home of the Panthers, if I remember correctly

 

sds, do NOT ever throw anything in your house away. this is good stuff you've got.

i remember my first job interview in charlotte. it was on a sunday the panthers were playing and my supervisor-to-be took me to a great steakhouse-type place (can't recall the name right now). what i was struck by was him CHEERING when the panthers made a good play (this was the AJ/willie green days, fall of '96).

i was still working at the tallahassee paper, where cheering for the home teams in the newsroom was frowned upon, so it was weird to see. i grew up an FSU fan, so NOT cheering for the noles on saturdays just felt WRONG. anyway, it was great that day.

needless to say, i accepted the job offer when it was extended to me and haven't stopped cheering for the panthers ever since.

and it was great to see everyone in the observer newsroom glued to the TV on sundays, cheering when the panthers scored. it was a neat experience to see a whole BIG city come together like that.

 

I still hate Shinn for dumping the Indians to go with the Marlins.

 

mathmajors: That was a dumb move (one of many) Shinn made . . . . Cleveland was a natural fit, considering that they were only 10 hours up I-77. Many players from the 1993-94 team played in the World Series in 1997 (Marlins vs. Indians).

Though it was a good idea to finally build the Knights a new stadium, the development of the area around the stadium never took off (outside of a few businesses that popped up). For whatever reason, the growth spurt never hit that area of York County. I thought I read somewhere that they expected an average attendance of 7000 folks a night eventually for the team, which I don't think they've ever reached. Plus not being able to sell beer on Sundays hurt their revenues also.

 

I had no idea attendence was so bad in Clemson.

 

LarryD: Going back to my high school days, I saved a lot of odds & ends stuff . . . . Considering that its been 20 years since I graduated high school, its been kinda cool thumbing thru the old photos of classmates and wondering what happened to them (the cheerleaders, the jocks, the nerds, etc.). I talked to an old classmate this past Sunday (he had moved right next to my parents house) and we spent most of the time throwing out names wondering what's happened to them.

Then looking back at the photos from the Great Canadian Road Trip that I made in Summer 1996, I started thinking about the part of the trip from Freeport, Maine to Montreal (my friend Sam wanted to go to the LL Bean store, which was a nice side trip). The drive thru the rural Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont country side during the cool summer months was so cool (I wish I had a digital camera then so I could take more photos).
We would cut throw classic post card New England towns, drive a little bit and bam, see a WALMART out in the middle of nowhere!!!!!!!! We got to the town in New Hampshire that had the MAN IN THE MOUNTAIN face, but it was getting dark so we couldn't check it out . . . . . . We finally hit I-93 and then I-91 around 9pm and headed north. We weere looking for a place to eat. Since there were no billboards in Vermont (State Law) we couldn't see what was available on the upcoming exits. Then a few mins. later off in the distance (at this point, it was pitch black). We saw a small town on the horizon and then as we got closer to the exit . . 'Hey, is that a McDonalds ahead ? ? ' Yep, we stopped at old reliable McD's about 30 mins. south of the Quebec border . . . .

If there's anyway to go back in time and do the trip again from start to finish, I would definetely do it on this one. Checked out Montreal & Toronto for the first time and man, I fell in love with Canada right away !!!!!! T.O. I would move to in a second (yeah, yeah I would have to get use to real brutal winters again, but I would get use to it !!!!!!!!)

Flashback to the 1990's and Beyond FLICKR Photo Album

 

That Jets game whipped ass. Sam Mills muthafuckas!!!!

 

Oh yeah, the INT for the TD . . First Panthers win, oh yeah I was there also !!!!!!!!

 

I was at the San Fran game that year at Clemson.

 

I remember the Christmas after the presale of PSLs. My step dad had gotten PSLs without telling Mom. Well, he was giving her gifts at Christmas that made all us kids wonder if that was the "big gift" that year. But Mom gets so caught up in Christmas that she can be a bit oblivious to "hints". Anyway, he had wrapped up this picture and written some note I can't remember and when we passed it around, we all knew what it meant but mother was clueless. It was hilarious and fun and of course when she put 2 and 2 together ultimately she was so excited. The plan was to let each of us attend games they couldn't go to, but we all wound up getting our own PSLs in 96 during the Saints game.

I know there was disagreement about the noise level in 96, but I clearly remember the upper level seemed to be vibrating and wondering if they'd built it strong enough that year. Maybe the sound doesn't travel down well, I don't know, and I've not been to other stadiums so I can't compare, but to me, that season was LOUD and enthusiastic.