Thank you very much for the comments and the recs on part 1 of my journey.  Now for part 2:

As a new Charger fan I though I better learn as much as I can about this new team I decided to support.  Bear in mind that there was no internet in those days so what better way to learn about the team than a trip to the newsagent.  I bought my first preseason preview magazine with my hard earned paper run money.  The year was 1989.  Now how good are these Chargers?

Well needless to say things didn't start so well.  They were just coming off a 6-10 season and as far as the experts were concerned things weren't going to get any better.  At QB was Jim McMahon, yes Darth Vader himself.  Behind him was a young guy, perhaps the QB of the future, Billy Joe Tolliver.  Considering that my favorite player at the time was Randall Cunningham, these two seemed to be a significant step down.  Maybe I had been a bit too hasty in my decision to jump on the Chargers wagon.  I mean if you are on the superbowl train you don't get off at Billy Joe Tolliver Station.

Well if there's one thing you need to learn about me it is that I am a very loyal person.  I made a decision and I was determined to stick with it.  I did latch onto a couple of favorite players early on.  After reading as many mags as I could about the the Chargers I decided that I really liked Anthony Miller.  Most football gurus had Miller in the top 10-15 receivers in the league at that time.  Some even ranked him higher and he was noted for being fearless across the middle.  The other player I took a liking too was Leslie O'Neal who was playing OLB at the time before moving to DE a few years later.  He was putting up phenomenal sacks numbers each year.

Also making his debut that year was Marion Butts.  I really think that is one of the best names for a bruising RB (along with Natrone Means).  Gil Byrd was picking off passes regularly as well, but the fact was that this team, while having a few good players was just not that good.  I was unable to watch much of the team because coverage of the NFL was very limited in Australia at the time.  Reading was the best way to find out what was happening.

Onward passed another year and maybe these Chargers were about to break out, well they did have a few impact players. Maybe 1990 will be the year?

Another season another 6-10 record.  Billy Joe Tolliver was handed the rains.  Butts went for over 1200 yards.  Miller caught 63 passes.  A guy by the name of Seau started out, maybe you remember him. O'Neal got 13.5 sacks and Byrd picked off 7 passes.  But only 6-10 for the third straight season.

Will this team ever improve?  Can this guy Dan Henning actually coach?  Well the answer to both of those questions in 1991 was: NO!  A 4-12 season followed.  John Friesz was QB for the year and he was worse than Tolliver.  Butts tried hard as did Bernstein and Ronnie Harmon but we were terrible.  Miller was down on production as was O'Neal.  But this Seau kid looks alright 129 tackles and 7 sacks.

The highlight for me was week 2 against San Fransisco. Why? I watched my first ever San Diego game.  Even though we lost quite comprehensively I was still excited.  But by the end of the season I was thinking that in the 3 years I had been a Chargers fan their record was 16-32.  Surely this has to get better soon?  Maybe part 3 will cover what happens next.

Over the last couple of years I have made comments here on the site and have often thought about writing a fan post.  But what should I write about?  Well, now that we are on the doorstep of a new season, it got me thinking about when I first started following the Chargers and what a roller-coaster ride it has been since then.  I am planning to write a few posts about my journey as a Chargers fan in Australia.

So, how does a young Australian lad in high school become a Chargers fan?  A sport not well supported in Australia.  A sport often made fun of because of the wearing of pads and helmets.  A sport often misunderstood as a game that stops to much and is played in 10 second bursts.  Admitting that you like American Football at high school here is almost an invitation to get bashed.  Here you come out of the closet for two things and one of them is your love of Gridiron.  Things have mellowed over time but the general feeling remains the same.

Well the year was 1989 and once a week on the Government (non-commercial) television channel there was a highlights package of the NFL.  I used to watch this each week.  I was already interested in basketball and played this regularly so why not another 'American' sport.  After a few weeks of watching I decided that my favorite player was Randall Cunningham, he seems to be a highlight reel waiting to happen, so logically I thought I would be an Eagles fan.  No one at my school had even heard of Cunningham or the Philadelphia Eagles.  I started asking a few of my friends about the NFL and the only names that were mentioned were Montana and Rice.  People had heard of the New York Giants, the 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys (more because of chick called Debbie).

One day our Physical Education (Gym) teacher suggested we play a game of Gridiron.  He had lived in the US as an exchange teacher for a year.  None of my classmates knew the positions or the rules of the game.  He tried to teach us but most struggled.  I had watched enough television by this stage to understand the basics of the game.  I quite enjoyed playing the game for the first time and caught a TD pass from the teacher who was playing QB.  He was impressed that I was interested in the game and after class gave me a stick-pin that he had brought back from the US.  Guess which team was on the pin?  That's right, the San Diego Chargers.  On it was the horses head with the lightning bolt through it.  From that time on I decided that this team would be my team.  A team I had never even heard of before.  Were they a good team? I wouldn't know.  Who were their players?  No idea, but from then on I was a Chargers fan.  Goodbye Eagles (even though I still liked Randall).

I thought to myself I better actually learn the game properly and find out about this new team of mine.  Hopefully this new team of mine is a great team.  So I went to the newsagent to buy myself my first ever Pro Football Weekly Season Preview magazine for the 1989/90 season.  So what did I learn about the Chargers?  Well that might be a good place to start for my next post.