. . . about our favorite teams. Most of us grew up supporting a team in a sport we connected with, and usually a 'home' team - the one closest to where we lived.
I'm from southern California, which plays host to several. Some were truly great: UCLA basketball under John Wooden in the '60s and '70s, USC football under John McKay, Los Angeles Dodgers baseball under Tommy Lasorda, LA Kings hockey in recent years, and of course, the Lakers, which might be the most successful professional sports franchise of all.
The team that inspired my devotion, though, didn't originally emanate from So Cal. It was, in fact, a rival from Nor Cal: the Oakland Raiders.
And when they moved to LA: ecstasy!
Our only NFL championship - the 1983 Los Angeles Raiders, winning Super Bowl XVIII in '84.
In their first two decades, the Raiders had the highest winning percentage of any team in any American professional sport. From 1963, when Al Davis took over the team, thru 1985, there were only two seasons with more losses than wins. I wasn't drawn to them because they were successful, but by how they played. It's hard to imagine any football team being intimidated, but the Raiders managed to make every opponent dread playing them, even if they never admitted it.