To start - if any were curious, my Grandad was from West Bend, WI. That's where my love of the Green Bay Packers comes from. The Packers will always be my #1. Forever.

However I've resided my whole life here in Memphis, Tennessee. My Grandad (who past away about 18 years ago) had two teams: The Packers and the Cubs. I didn't pick up on the Cubs thing (because by the time I got interested in any baseball team I had so much dislike of anything Chicago thanks to the Bears.) Now adays I do respect the Cubs. Still not a fan.

So I absolutely get where his love of the Packers came from. A Wisconsin team beginning in 1919, perfect. Doing my research, I guess Milwaukee didn't get its first MLB team until the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. The Cubs existed way before that, obviously. Being that he is of the World War II military generation, I've heard the Cubs would give tickets to many of the returning soldiers, so I could see him influenced by that. If not the fact Milwaukee and Chicago are a "hop, skip, and a jump" away from each other. So he could have followed the Cubs as a kid in the 1930s... and kept growing into the fandom. I wish I could ask him today.

So that makes me wonder... how does the fandom map of Wisconsin look like, Wisconsinites? I mean, I WOULD think that the main teams in Wisconsin are, well, the Packers, Brewers, and Bucks. However just thinking of my Grandad, are there a large portion of Cubs fans located in Wisconsin... just with the Cubs tradition passed down with family? Or did the majority of those families convert? Is there a small following of Atlanta Braves fans located in Milwaukee that never gave up?

What about the Bucks? They came just about the same time as the Bulls, so I don't see any issue there.

And heck, what about Hockey? I can see it split between the Blackhawks and the Wild, but what do I know?

I would think the Badgers take over Wisconsin.

If any of you are curious, Memphis has a VERY interesting fandom mix, especially with the NFL. But don't get me started how much I hate SEC college football fans here and going about loving my not-SEC Memphis Tigers. Heck, even the growth of the Grizzlies is interesting. I might post about it later. But for now I'm curious about my question!

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Sorry I am not from WI. Got my love of the Packers when I lived in the Twin Cities back in '65. Even though the vickies were around by then, GB was still king then.

Quiet a few franchises gave servicemen tickets. That was nice. But it went beyond servicemen. My father in law drove charter buses to games for most of the Chicago franchises. The Cubs and Bears would let them in the stadium to watch part of the games for free. Bears even gave the drivers something to eat. (Hot dog and coffee typically) Naturally the drivers all left about the 4th Q to get the buses warmed up.

I'm sure your granddad listened to the CUbs games on WGN radio. WGN and KMOX out of St Lou ruled the airwaves for most of the Midwest back in the 40s and 50s. Cincy had a pretty big following back then too but I don't recall their flagship station.

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That makes sense. How many of your friends switched from the Packers to the Vikings once they came around?

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I can't say. I was 7. We moved back to IL after living there for only 1 year.

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I was born in Milwaukee in 1957. My first baseball games were at County Stadium to watch the Milwaukee Braves. When they left in 1965, for a few years the Chicago White Sox played some home games at county stadium, and my Dad got free front row tickets from his work down the 1st base line.
I watched football on tv with my dad and brother, and in 1965 it finally made sense to me and I became a lifetime Packer fan. I watched the "ice bowl" on tv with them.
I made scrap books from the Milwaukee Journal clippings from the 1st and second years they won the Super Bowls.
I still have them today.

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That is pretty cool.

So what baseball team are you into now?

It's not completely on topic, but it always amazes me how a team like the Jaguars managed to build a pretty decent following. I mean, the main portion of their fans must've been football fans before 1996 and a big portion of those fans were most likely fans of teams like the Bucs, Fins and Falcons. I can't imagine that, if the NFL would expand into the Netherlands, I'd give up the Packers for whatever team settled in Amsterdam.

I figure that's a minor reason for the Amsterdam Admirals (and the NFL Europe) failing the first time.

I guess you could call me a Milwaukee Brewer fan. Although the only game I have been to in years was the one I got to sing the national anthem at in August of 2010.
(I think Kevin has a link of the video of it on the site, it's on YouTube)
I went to a lot of Brewer games back in the late 1970s and 80swith my girlfriend/wife.

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So does Milwaukee have this weird Brewers-Cubs-White Sox-Braves fandom going on?

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Being so close to Chicago, I think a lot of people became white sox or cubs fans when the Braves left Milwaukee. That caused a lot of their "future" fan base to be influenced by that (men being mad at the Braves leaving, and raising their kids as Chicago fans) that still goes on today.
That's just my opinion, of course. Maybe someone else could add something to this discussion.

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I grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which is on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota. La Crosse has an awesome little second-run cinema called The Rivoli, which broadcasts all Packers vs. Vikings games on the big screen. Tickets are free, but they're hard to get because they sell out so fast. The joke in La Crosse is that if you're standing outside The Rivoli, you can never tell which team just scored, because the screaming and cheering is just as loud either way. It makes sense, though: La Crosse is significantly closer to the Twin Cities than Green Bay, and it's also a college town, so there are plenty of Minnesota transplants living there.

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