IslandExile

Debt paid.
Brilliant. Well done everyone ?

Gerry Daly scored the first live goal I ever saw in professional football, and I shook hands with Franny Lee once when I was still wearing shorts. 

I can only go back to 1968 and my son  and grandson also come with me now.

Before the second world war, my Dad was big friends with Bertie Mee, who went on to manage Arsenal to the double in '71.
Anyhow, my Dad (actually a Forest fan) used to rib me that he used to do something I'd never done as a Rams fan - go to watch Derby reserves away. Mee never played for the first team for Derby, moving to Mansfield then guesting for Southampton during the war before injury ended his playing career.
Winter '68, instead of supporting whoever won the cup in any given year, I decided to settle on one club - and chose that from my birthplace....Derby. Good timing, eh?

My Great grandad was supposedly a Ram but died during WW1 so I have to take others words for that. It’s been conditioned into every sibling down my fathers side since though. Funny he started out at Royce’s, several of his sons including my Grandad did, who then had both his sons start as apprentice’s too. Just about all the male lines became Rams fans (Somehow I part broke the link, I didn’t fancy a career at Royce’s ?).
The only real old story of players I know, was Derek Hines who started out a Ram but ended up playing for Leicester was a mate of my Grandad; he largely had the hump with my family though because in those days, Derby were always the better team and was constantly goaded by us.
My sons are now 5th generation Rams and when they hopefully get around to kids, I’ll be doing my bit to ensure the burden continues!

The Memsahib would kill me if I didn't mention that two of her great-uncles played for The Rams, and that one of them (Walter Roulstone) was the first player ever to play 100 league games for Derby.
Seeing as he was almost ever-present during Derby's first few seasons in the Football League (the first league in world football), it's possible that he was the first person in the world to play 100 league games for anyone.

I was born in 1952 and I first watched the Rams in 1958, albeit the Rams Reserves, whose Central League fixtures were played on Saturday afternoons in those days. First team home fixtures alternated with the reserves but I didn't get to watch to first team until my  dad considered it safe for me to do so.  My first 1st team game was the last game of the 61/2 season.  My Dad thought it would be fine for time then as I was 10 and able to cope with the bigger crowds then (which varied anywhere between 8.000 and about 13,000 compared to the 1,000 or so at reserve games.)  Our opponents were Brighton and Hove Albion who were already relegated. The Rams won 2-0.
In 1960, my Dad got a job with DCFC which consisted of manning the players gate at the Osmaston end of the ground next door to the ticket office. On non-matchdays he would assist the groundsman on the upkeep of the billiard table smooth surface (!!) of the BBG and also the training ground pitch.  He would also drive the players and staff minibus between the BBG and the training ground on Sinfin Lane which was next to a large estate type pub - was it called The County?
On matchdays I was a like a pig in poo then as there were many famous players passing through the players gate.  Even when the reserves played there were lots of well known players returning from injury and I could get their autographs very easily indeed.  They rarely refused to sign their pictures, often culled from Charles Buchan's Football Monthly and stuck haphazardly in a scrapbook.  God knows what that scrapbook would be worth now, if I could only find it.
Wonderful memories of those times when Harry Storer and Tim Ward managed the Rams before the advent of Brian Clough & Peter Taylor.
Bill.....
 
 

It might not be the earliest connection, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the best.
My mum and granny both worked in the kitchens at the Midland hotel during and for a few years after the Second World War.
Stuart McMillan had Derby's players holed up there in the days preceding the 1946 FA Cup Final, under strict curfew. A few of the players were friends of the family and got the ladies to turn a blind eye while they sneaked out of the hotel the back way (through the kitchen), so that they could improve team morale by having a couple (purely for medicinal purposes) in the Brunny.
Naturally, if we had lost, there is no way I would be telling you this (likewise, there's no way I would ever have been told the story either), so the teambuilding exercise paid off handsomely and went down in family folklore.

Before the second world war, my Dad was big friends with Bertie Mee, who went on to manage Arsenal to the double in '71.
Anyhow, my Dad (actually a Forest fan) used to rib me that he used to do something I'd never done as a Rams fan - go to watch Derby reserves away. Mee never played for the first team for Derby, moving to Mansfield then guesting for Southampton during the war before injury ended his playing career.
Winter '68, instead of supporting whoever won the cup in any given year, I decided to settle on one club - and chose that from my birthplace....Derby. Good timing, eh?

Before the second world war, my Dad was big friends with Bertie Mee, who went on to manage Arsenal to the double in '71.
Anyhow, my Dad (actually a Forest fan) used to rib me that he used to do something I'd never done as a Rams fan - go to watch Derby reserves away. Mee never played for the first team for Derby, moving to Mansfield then guesting for Southampton during the war before injury ended his playing career.
Winter '68, instead of supporting whoever won the cup in any given year, I decided to settle on one club - and chose that from my birthplace....Derby. Good timing, eh?

I can only go back as far as the early Brian Clough years and my dad was never interested in football but now my son and grandson come to the games with me, so long after I’ve gone maybe he will be talking about grandad saw Derby when they were champions of England twice.

According to family history my Grandad played in a local cup final at the baseball ground in the 1920s, unfortunately he was gone before it became important enough for me to ask, neither my dad nor my uncle were alive when it happened and had no further details!! 

Before the second world war, my Dad was big friends with Bertie Mee, who went on to manage Arsenal to the double in '71.
Anyhow, my Dad (actually a Forest fan) used to rib me that he used to do something I'd never done as a Rams fan - go to watch Derby reserves away. Mee never played for the first team for Derby, moving to Mansfield then guesting for Southampton during the war before injury ended his playing career.
Winter '68, instead of supporting whoever won the cup in any given year, I decided to settle on one club - and chose that from my birthplace....Derby. Good timing, eh?

Debt paid.
Brilliant. Well done everyone ?

Before the second world war, my Dad was big friends with Bertie Mee, who went on to manage Arsenal to the double in '71.
Anyhow, my Dad (actually a Forest fan) used to rib me that he used to do something I'd never done as a Rams fan - go to watch Derby reserves away. Mee never played for the first team for Derby, moving to Mansfield then guesting for Southampton during the war before injury ended his playing career.
Winter '68, instead of supporting whoever won the cup in any given year, I decided to settle on one club - and chose that from my birthplace....Derby. Good timing, eh?

There are many on this board, who like me are fascinated by the history of this great club, I was struck by Turk Thrust’s recent post saying that his grandfather followed the rams during the Victorian era, Also Brailsford Ram who recalls the 1971-72 champions in LeedsCity Ram's thread and warns that soon there will be few alive to tell the tale.
Born 25 miles from Derby, I started watching the rams in the late 70s. I have no older relatives who followed the club and unfortunately no interesting stories were handed down. My earliest link to the rams is the 1946 cup final when as a kid, I was delighted to discover that the elderly gentleman who ran our village youth club had seen our famous victory.  I remember constantly asking him about the day and if he had any souvenirs such as a programme (I was an avid collector at the time).
I’m sure there are many who can go back further, and even if you are less mature than me, you may remember stories passed down from a (great) grandparent. Be interesting to hear how far back we can go.

My grandfather told a story about being hit by a shot from Hughie Gallacher, which puts it 1934-1936. That's the earliest I've heard i person, but a great-grandfather was said to have gone to at least one of the cup finals around the turn of the century, so I can date my family supporting the Rams back 120 years. Not too shabby.

Grandfather was at the cup final. Mother still has his ticket framed on the wall. 

Lord Mayor's show London 1946. Dad not back yet from WW2. Mum (Derbyshire Lass living in London) lifts me up ànd tells me (Aged 6) "That is your team". I was born in Bolsover and will never forget the Cloughie era when I was a season ticket holder.

One of my Grandads, as a youth, saw Steve Bloomer play during his second spell at Derby. Later in the 1930s as a railway employee, he used his travel perks to attend away games when the likes of Bowers, Barker, Crooks and Hughie Gallagher were playing. I'm sure it was his endless stories of those days that got me hooked. 

Can't believe Rooney hasn't yet instructed Davies to volley the ball back to Roos who then executes a perfect scorpion kick to Jagielka who then performs a rabona to Shinnie and starts the attacking move off.
 
 

A draw!!!! What planet are you from???
Oh, but thanks for all the other stuff.

Debt paid.
Brilliant. Well done everyone ?

Debt paid.
Brilliant. Well done everyone ?

Debt paid.
Brilliant. Well done everyone ?