BUCPOWER.COM

We are not alone
This website and the Bucs UK are not the only band of loyal British fans pledging their support for a team on the other side of the Atlantic. OK, so the others may not be so well known, but well over half the 32 NFL teams have had some form of UK-based organisation since Channel 4 first launched their coverage in the UK in 1982. Four others, apart from BUCPOWER.COM, have their own websites too. So if you are a Baltimore, Miami, New England and in a way, St.Louis fan, you can contact other British-based fans of your favourite team. And the likes of the Cowboys, Raiders and Redskins still produced printed magazines and are working on website versions on their clubs as we speak.

From my involvement in the Bucs UK since 1984 and a two-year stint as editor of Extra Point in the mid 1990s, I got to know many of the people listed in this article, kindred souls so to speak. I can vaguely remember some drunken nights at the Lord Moon on the Mall in London with Darren Conway of the Chicago organisation, and once won a bet with Ceri Dovey over the Giants losing to the Bucs that led to him being thrown in one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square!

But how they compare to our club and site? Have a look at the site links listed or grab a look at one of the magazines if you are in Sportspages one day. But whatever the standard, they are just as loyal in their support of their team as you and I.

Paul Stewart, June 2003

The other UK-based NFL fan websites
Dave Cressey has set up a UK-based Ravens fan club which has links to various Baltimore-based organisations and a UK-based website for the franchise was set up in 2002. A Dolphins booster club has been in existence for most of the past decade and they currently have an excellent website. They are not connected with the Dolfan organisation who mounted a fake letter-writing campaign to First Down some 18 months ago and which forced the Bucs UK to suitably retaliate with true stories instead of made up ones of trips to Florida! A Rams' fan club has been in existence for several years run by Dez Urban. His original website has now become part of the Rams' NFL Insiders' site. The most recent arrival is a Patriots site run by Ian Smirthwaite.

Those clubs still producing magazines
There have been two incarnations of a fanzine for the UK-based Cowboys club, the first wonderfully entitled Barry Switzer ate my hamster written by Dave Coulthard (no, not that one!), and then a second version edited by Paul Smith and Nick Bowler. The magazine is still being published and is available from Sportspages. Stu Harrison has been running a UK-based Raiders fan club in the mid 1990s after an original club set up in 1989 saw a lot of people lose their money in a fly-by-night charade. A Redskins' fan club was one of the first to be established in this country. Originally run by Nigel Shaw, it has passed through the hands of Nigel VIckerstaff and Richard Arundale in the format of a comprehensive fanzine Redskin Review and is currently edited by Simon Webster. He is currently working on the development of a website for the UK club.

The now dead but not forgotten clubs
There was an Falcons UK club in the early 1990s run by Nick Barnes and published an A4 magazine entitled Pigskins and Peachtrees. However it disappeared from sight around 1993 and a few disgruntled fans lost some money in the process. Nothing has been forthcoming in terms of a club since then. Darren Conway ran a Bears fan club for many years during the 1990s and was a frequent contributor to Extra Point. A website dedicated to the club was supposedly under construction but nothing has been heard of it in recent months. There was a Bengals' fan club in the early 1990s run by David Fennelly but nothing has been heard from it for a number of years. A UK-based Texans' fan site was set up during mid-2003 but seems to have disappeared. It is unknown if anything official has become of the site or club.

Gordon Dedman ran a UK-based Steelers' club for many years in the late 1980s and early 1990s but handed on to Tony Kamphaug around 1997. It is unknown if the club is still in existence at this time however. Pittsburgh do boast a serious celebrity fan in Sky's Nick Halling who has been known to sport a Steelers' tie on various occasions in the past. Graham Barford was a frequent contributor to EP in its early days and produced an excellent A4 publication entitled "East from Candlestick" for members of the UK 49ers club he ran. It is unknown if this organisation still exists however. Hawkeye was the name of the magazine from the UK-based Seahawks club, one of the earliest such organisations on this side of the Atlantic. Nick Drage was the early editor although James Bonetta took over when Nick had some health problems. It is unknown if this club is still in existence.

The rumoured-to-exist clubs
There was talk of a Cardinals fan club around 1996 run by a Janet Wyatt but nothing was ever officially seen or heard from such an organisation. Rob Ackland wrote about the original Browns for some of the early issues of Extra Point but nothing has been set up in terms of an official fan club for the franchise in the UK. There was talk of a Packers' club running in the mid 1990s organised by someone called Peter Jones, but the editorial team of Extra Point never saw any evidence of this. First Down editor Keith Webster is a long stading fan of the Lambeau-based team. There was talk of a Saints' fan club run by Al Metcalfe a few years ago and he wrote a piece for Delay of Game magazine about it, but this club disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. Simon Alcock is the leading Saints' fan this side of the Atlantic and is trying to get something started for his favourite team in the UK.

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been any kind of Bills' fan club in existence in this country. The Bills do however have a celebrity fan in this country as Sky's Kevin Cadle grew up in Buffalo and spent many weekends getting OJ Simpson's autograph outside Rich Stadium as a kid. The UK boasts one of the most well-known international Vikings fans in Geoff Reader but there has never been any kind of UK fan club for the team set up and although the likes of Alan Liles and Ceri Dovey wrote extensively for Extra Point as devoted Giants fans, there has never been a UK fan club for the team.

To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a UK fan club for the Eagles although First Down's deputy editor Ben "Poison Dwarf" Saunders is a devoted follower of the franchise. Around 1990, a Ben Saunders was trying to set up a UK-based Chargers fan club. It never took off but it is unknown if this is the same Ben Saunders. Anyone connected with Extra Point remembers all too well the "Jaguars Euro Boosters" supposedly run by a Norman White from the Northants area. The franchise knew nothing of this joker and we often ran stories recommending that people had nothing to do with him. Hence to the best of our knowledge, there has never been an official UK-based club for the Jaguars. Similarly, there has never been a fan club in this country for the Panthers, Broncos, Lions, Colts, Chiefs, Jets or the Titans.