…and I did.
Big thick red shirt. Weighed a ton when it ■■■■■■ down.
I have absolutely no connection with Walsall whatsoever but owe my allegiance to my elder brother who went to Shire Oak Grammar School in Brownhills. We lived in Clayhanger in the late 50’s early 60’s so I suppose it was my nearest league club although at the time I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in football until the '66 World Cup. My brothers first game was away to Swansea in 1967 with some of his Walsall supporting mates and his continued interest finally persuaded me to go to my first game in 1973 v Rotherham and I was hooked. No defining moment but just an ongoing brainwash from my brother, my four sons had no choice and with a little bit of persuasion we managed to indoctrinate a fair amount of their friends in Rugeley some of whom still follow the Saddlers and post on here. 
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Well done on the recruitment!
It didn’t stop at their friends, I hold my works do every year at Walsall and have done so for the last 13 years when I’ve often sponsored the last game before Christmas. All my employees are required to attend although I suppose the free meal and drinks may have some bearing on their attendance! It’s become such a tradition that even their friends want to come and we regularly have up to forty in our party.
I might add that in those 13 years of works do’s Walsall have never lost and it has become a regular topic of conversation whenever I ring up to book.
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You need to have a works do every home game. Then we might have a ‘Fortress Bescot’.
Could be expensive, though.
Oh I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day 
in the words of Roy Wood and Wizzard. 
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I come from a family of West Brom fans, my Dad and Grandad both born in Sandwell, were lifelong season ticket holders until they past away.
Despite this my Dad always encouraged me to support my home town team and being born in the Manor swayed me to Walsall. The first live game I went to though was West Brom vs Hull.
The defining moment though would be when Kyle Lightbourne visited my primary school in 1994. As a 9 year old meeting a pro footballer for a year group Q&A session made me commit to Walsall. I always take an interest to see what we’re doing as a club in the community because it’s the community work that swayed me.
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So did we @Cully, we lived in bridge street opposite the old club, my nan and grandad rented the house from old mrs Fellows next door, and a little further down there was an old lady down there called lizzy, and she used to put her caged parrot in the front garden in the summer, then we moved to 17 Dingle rd next door to Acka Jeffries on one side, and the caravan site on the other, I used to knock about with Garry and Dave Mason, also Roger and Lesley Hall, any names ring a bell?
Sorry, non of those names rings any bells. We lived in ‘Caddick House’ at the end of Church Street past Howdles Farm. There was a cottage at the end of our drive by the entrance gates, lived in by the Cravens, the sons name was Derek but was at least 10 years older than me. A mineral line serving the pit at Walsall Wood ran alongside the house and gardens and at the rear of the orchard was the caravan site which housed some traditional gipsies including horse drawn caravans. My mother ran a riding school and kept the horses/ponies in the fields and paddock between High Street and the house gardens; you may have occasionally seen her around the village with a pony and trap which she would use to go shopping in Brownhills. I was 3 years old in 1958 when we moved to Clayhanger and left in 1965.and can only remember a couple of names from my time there, Terry Edwards who lived just past Edmund Howdles shop in the High Street and Jaqueline Fierro who I bumped into again in the sixth form at Cannock Grammar. Couple of other memories; Miss Winston, the head teacher at the infants school who had a large moustache and going to the offy at the George and Dragon to buy pop and a packet of crisps complete with little blue bags of salt. .
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my grandparents Sid and Hilda brookes and my dad bob lived there in the 40’s, i was born and lived there from 1961 until about 1973, do you remember deamons shop at the bottom of church street and clayhanger lane? Howdles farm was our playground, and regularly got thrown out of the barn by old man howdle lol, miss Winston was the bane of my life, dragging me by my ears to the school gate to throw me at my mother to tell her how bad i had been ha ha, and used the George and dragon as an offy and i drank in there with howard Stokes as a 15 year old, Dereck Craven still lives in Clayhanger as well,