Some emotional, some hilarious, others heart-warming – Your best Sheffield Wednesday dad stories on Father’s Day

Some are lovely, some are a bit heart-breaking, and some are a bit hilarious… Grab a cuppa and take a look through some of these Wednesday dad stories.

Laura Lawrence (@YICETOR)

My dad gave me his 1993 FA Cup semi-final ticket against Sheffield United and listened to the match on the coach in Wembley car park.

David Cooke (@Hirsty9)

“One abiding memory is the 93 semi and my dad (a physics professor at London Uni) standing on his seat chanting ‘Tricky Trev’s Barmy Arm’” at end of the game with me hanging on to him to stop him falling. Season ticket holders together for years until he passed; that was the high point.”

Aron Tennant (@AronTennant)

“On Boxing Day a few years ago… After the match, my dad, some friends and I went to the pub and didn’t realise the snow outside was getting very thick. It ended with us getting stranded in Hillsborough with no way home - ended up walking to my student house at the time.

“It was in Crookes in a couple feet of snow, both wearing brogues. A 40-minute journey took four hours and we were slipping around like Bambi all the way. Think we had a little cry at one point. My mate ended up sleeping in his car boot that night too but that’s another story altogether.”

Sally Claire (@Klujypop)

“My dad’s not a Wednesdayite but he is to blame... Took me with him on a work trip to Sheffield when I was seven, and asked if I ‘wanted to see the football stadium’. Went to Hillsborough and begged a groundsman to let us in… He gave us an impromptu tour, let me sit in the dressing room and dugout.

“I announced ‘they can be my team, then’. Dad got me a shirt that Christmas, and the rest is history. When I got into Sheffield Uni, he bought me my first season ticket. He’s a legend, my dad.”

Stephen Mellor (@SGMellorwriter)

“My dad died of a heart attack outside the ground after a tense midweek cup match in 1994… We used to go to the matches together. I now sit in his seat and have done ever since. I treasure a pic of him with Roland Nielsen.”

Kat (@kmowl44)

“He came home from work and surprised me by telling me he was taking me to see Wednesday v Everton - my first match at Hillsborough. We lost 5-1, but I loved it and afterwards he took me to the shop and bought me photos of the players to put on my wall. Many season tickets later...”

Ryan Wilson (@Ryan_Wilson_100)

“My dad always got frustrated that Efan Ekoku never passed the ball and was always shouting from the Kop at him about it. The final time he did it, he stood up and called him a ‘wazzock’ just as Ekoku curled a 20 yarder into the net… Cue everyone around us chanting wazzock at dad.”

Matt Ward (@MattTheOwl)

“My dad took me to my first Wednesday game in '93,it just so happened to be the FA Cup final. It was a draw and the replay was midweek. He let me watch it on TV but when it went to extra time he made me go to bed as it was past my bed time (I was seven). I've still never forgiven him!”

Carl Thompson (@Carl_Crossfire)

“When we got relegated in 1990 my dad said he was never going to another game... He then went to every game home and away the next season except the League Cup final - he gave me and a friend the tickets and said he'd been to Wembley in 66!! Love and miss him... Legend.”

Mat Bell (@Belly_Eighty5)

“Taking me to the Hillsborough club before games, letting me take the head off all the pints. Bitter, I recall, Stones or Tetleys no doubt. The long walks to the ground, felt like miles! And always, always on his shoulders as we scored to save any crushing on the standing Kop!

“I remember that era by smell. The smell of smoke and ale in the pub, the smell of hot dogs on Penistone Road, and the smell of the toilets on the Kop. Jesus they were rough! But always missed first five minutes all blokes needing a slash! Ha…”

Oliver Hargreave (@OliverHargreave)

“Dad left the 91' cup final at full time and before the trophy lift to 'beat the traffic'…”

Ian Wiles (@ianxwiles)

“He told me we didn't have a ticket for the semifinal for weeks leading up to it. Woke me up at 5am on the day. "Wake up lad we're off to Wembley!”

Martin Smith (@poker4leisure)

“2005 Play-Off final. Coach parked about a mile from the ground and he struggled and huffed and puffed the walk to the ground. Got inside and he realised there was a bar on the concourse... Left the rest of us trailing in his wake as he marched up the (four flights?) of stairs!”

Steve (@Steal1867)

“After supporting Wednesday for 50 years, dad went to the 4-0 home defeat against West Brom in 2009 and then called me to say it was ‘the worst performance I have ever seen from a Wednesday team’.

“A few weeks later Laws left, and I called my dad to tell him. We had a little chat about the state of the club, where we should go next etc. About seven hours later he had a heart attack and passed away. Would maybe never have spoken to him on that day if it wasn’t for Wednesday. Bloody typical Wednesday fashion, last game you ever go to is the worst you ever see...”

Pete Davis (@PeteyDavis)

“I was eight and came back from school with a beauty of a Liverpool shirt from my best friend, the old gold pin stripe. My dad saw it, and the next day I got an SWFC shirt. We'd never really spoken much about football before that day, ‘That's for you’, he said. ‘You are a Sheffield Wednesday fan’ – that was that.”

Gaz Robinson (@GazRobinson1)

“My dad named me after whoever scored the game after I was born… Gary Bannister scored!! Imre Varadi or Siggi Jonsson would have been interesting had they scored!”

Carl Ross (@CarlRos19985500)

“My earliest memory is being told by my dad that if I ever support Man United or Leeds United I would be chucked out of the house, I think I was four at the time. Also remember him taking me to my first game at Hillsborough with my cousin, I think it was a nil-nil draw with QPR.”

Paul Beadling (@PBeadling)

“My dad had our Play-Off tickets lifted out of his back pocket in Cardiff, and we only noticed when we went to enter a pub who wanted proof of tickets for entry… This was 45 minutes before kick off! Luckily managed to bag two tickets from there ticket office sat in front of each other.”

Izzy Nicholson (@IzzyNicholson)

“My dad has two girls and was determined that if we watched football we would support SWFC (even though we lived 10 mins outside of Liverpool). It worked with me, unfortunately the first game he took my sister to was a friendly in the US & she was more interested in the hot dogs.

“I’m still convinced he planned our summer holiday in the US to visit family to coincide with Wednesday on their pre-season out there.”

Daniel Kirk (@DKirk1981)

“My dad took me to my first game at Hillsborough. We won Manchester United 3-2 with two late goals from Jemson. When he was 14/15 he saved all his paper round money and him and his mates would get the train from Chesterfield to the match and home.

“He would wait at the players entrance, and said players would often come out and hand fans tickets for the game. One player even brought pieces of his birthday cake out. Imagine that today!”

Andy Teal

“The story about my dad goes back to us winning the FA Cup in 1935. He and his mates were booked on a coach with match tickets and set off after finishing a night shift on the Saturday morning . Got all the way to Wembley Way to find there were no tickets!!! He had to sit on Wembley way and listen to them winning the Cup.

“Cut forward to 1966, I was 18 and my brother was 12. We had season tickets in the North Stand since the stand opened, while my dad continued to pay on the gate and stand on the Leppings Lane end. We all went to every round away, and I managed to get two top level seats at the final and bookings on a coach with our season tickets.

“My Dad had made arrangements to work the Saturday morning and for me to take my brother. However, I had made arrangements with his boss behind his back for him not to work and told him on the Friday teatime he would be going instead of me. He broke down in tears at the table, the only time I ever saw him cry.

“Forward to 1991, my brother and I were going to the final and I spoke with my mum who asked how much the tickets were, ‘Why do you ask?’, said I. She said your Dad’s paying for them!!! He died in 1974!

“The end of the story - after he’d come home, he’d opened a Halifax account and kept putting money in it up to his retirement in 1969. There was enough money in the account to pay for the 1991 final for both of us, and I was able to go to all the four matches at Wembley against United and Arsenal. You cannot imagine how emotional those matches were for me and my brother, the next one will be even more so as my brother died in 2004.”

Happy Father’s Day, Wednesdayites.