Marshawn Lynch Charity Raffle & 2019 Pick ‘Em Winner

With the 2020 season beginning to churn and the Seahawks starting strong, our group was presented the opportunity to raise some cash for our charities and give something INCREDIBLE to one of our members.

Through a UK Packers fan, our president Sean Wilson was gifted a SIGNED Marshawn Lynch jersey, which we then put up as a charity raffle item.

Over a few weeks and a lot of money chipped in from our brilliant members, the draw was done on our recent Week 1 Zoom WatchAlong and long-time member Neil Horsburgh’s name came through the randomiser.

The biggest of congrats to Neil on his win, the jersey was received earlier this week.

Elsewhere, Seamus Doody, the winner our 2019 Members Pick Em received his prize earlier this off-season.

Seamus won a signed mini-helmet from Bradley McDougald.

Congrats to Seamus & Neil, keep an eye on all our socials for more information on what’s next!

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UK 12’s To Support #96Check

Our group and committee is delighted to announce our support and push in line with Seahawks icon Walter Jones’ three-year initiative ’96Check’.

The program is rooted in what Walt says his former team mate, the late Cortez Kennedy, would do to him and other teammates occasionally- reaching out to check on his old players.

After Tez’s death, Walt took this on and this year, with the current climate perhaps making it more imperative, our UK chapter is seeking to support it next month.

The 96 check has happened in the US on September 9th, but with our calendar ways, we are llooking to push this through on June 9th 2020.

Check in. Reach Out. 96Check.

Thanks to Walter Jones for allowing us to do this. Follow all our socials for information on how to get involved with this.

UK Seahawks Committee

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The 2019 UK Seahawker Of The Year Named

This past weekend, we as a committee were able and delighted to announce the recipient of the latest UK Seahawker of the Year.

The announcement- made at our fourth annual UK Seahawker National Meet Up in Newcastle- came to the surprise of few who have seen the work this person has put in to the betterment of the group.

The 2019 recipient was Gordon Currie.

Gordon is a long-standing member of the UK Seahawkers and for most of that has been our go-to person for any visual artwork that is required. A graphic design don, Currie has done so much work for the chapter and those in it through the goodness of himself and also his ability which is unmatched in our small group of 12’s.

Currie designs gameday ‘Beat the…’ every week which go semi-viral on Facebook during the season, created a special London video and has contributed towards our logos for events, national meet ups and our Chapter affiliated Podcast.

We are sure the decision is as popular for one of our original regional reps, as hard working a member as you can find. No frills, no ego, just a good bloke with a proper talent.

Congrats Gordon!

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The 2019 UK Seahawkers National Meet

It’s that time of the year again, while we all await the beginning of the 2019 season and a wave of Draft chat, Free Agency signees and signings, we as a chapter move to get us all in one room and celebrate…something.

So with that we can formally and properly announce the 2019 National Meet, the FOURTH annual such meet. After the first in Manchester in 2016, Nottingham in 2017, Bristol in 2018 we head back north for the 2019 meet.

Newcastle to be exact.

The 18th May is English F.A Cup final day and for the 3rd year running we also run our meet too.

It is at Osborne’s in the city and all the info is on the poster below. More will be announced between now and May 18th. Here’s a few things we can announce.

  • Charity Raffle and Auctions benefiting our ‘Chapter Charities’
  • Ticket Price is PYOW (Pay Your Own Way) as it was in Glasgow and Birmingham local meets recently. So come, pay what you want and to the charity(ies) you wish to support on the day. Your donation is welcomed and very appreciated.
  • We have a room capacity of around 150, so act fast!

As we say, more will come but, get ready and come along to party on the Tyne!

GO HAWKS!

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Setting The Table For 2019

With the 2018 NFL Season now over and the 2019 Memberships run well underway, we thought it best to catch you all up with happenings with the UK chapter, recent events news and what’s next in 2019 off the back off of an AMAZING 2018.

We will begin with catching you all up with figures from the unprecedented success that was the London Weekend back in October 2018.

London 2018
As anyone who went to any of the events, or the game itself, you know how huge a success the weekend was. Not only for ourselves but the teams and the representatives we have come into contact with have lauded the success and fun which was had by all.

One part of that was the 600+ of you who attended the Saturday night festivities in Leadenhall. Your money was plunged behind the bar readily for a night which was unreal to witness.

We were joined by personalities like Blitz from the Seahawks, the Radio commentary team of Steve Raible and Dave Wyman, 710 ESPN’s Jessamyn McIntyre and The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar. It was a great night and with the auction and Hilinski Hope merchandise on offer we raised an incredible amount of money.

Our chosen charities have been funded with £10,000 off of the back of the weekend in London. It’s a truly incredible figure and from all of us on the committee we thank those who dug deep into their pockets.

That weekend will forever live in the memories for those who were there. We can only hope it happens again one day soon.

The Chapter Charities & Committee Members

As we moved on past London- which was tough to do eh!?- we can announced that as dictated in our notes from the 2018 AGM the charities will have ‘two year tenures’ and thus will continue thru 2019.

Those charities are: Hillinski’s Hope, Archie’s Smile, SSAFA and the Paul Allen Charitable Foundation.

The same is to be said for our Committee make-up too. President Sean Wilson stays atop the committee and we are all delighted he is the face and voice of our group as we move into new grounds in 2019. The regional ‘heads’ also stay the same with the obvious encouragement of other members around the country and Ireland to chip in and bring ideas to the table. This is an open book and after 2018, we are always looking for new avenues and people to take the initiative.

Congrats to all committee members ahead of a hectic 2019.

2019 Membership

As the calendar ticked over to 2019 work had already begun on the Member packages for the 2019 year. Those have recently begun to be sent out to early-joiners and we thank everyone who has done that so far and we urge you all to click on the ‘How To Join’ tab on the top of the page to get your hands on yours gifts for 2019.

The 4th Annual National Meet

Off the back of London and all the good feeling that brought to this chapter, we have also recently arranged and announced the 2019 National Meet. After previous meets taking place in Manchester, Nottingham and Bristol; this year we are moving on a little further north and taking our talents (of partying excessively) to the banks of the River Tyne and to Newcastle.

On Saturday May 18th 2019, we are hosting our fourth National Meet. Details are below and a snazzy poster will soon be posted for the details concisely put on there.

Over the past three we have welcomed in 100’s of guests, new and old friends from both sides of the channel and Atlantic to our shindigs. This year is shaping up to be even better and bigger.

There will be the usual drinking and merriment as well as a raffle and auction with some already very cool gifts donated by some of Seattle sports biggest names.

Keep checking this site, the Facebook page and over on Twitter @SeahawkersUK for all the information.

Until next time…

GO HAWKS!

The UK Seahawkers Committee

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The Written History Of The UK Seahawkers

With 12’s from all corners descending on this tiny isle next month, we will continue to build towards it as we take centre stage for the Seahawks as the defacto-hosts of the team and every single fan who lands in London in October.

As part of that, over the summer one of our long-time members Andy Robinson (1.0) from the North West of England undertook the unenviable task of remembering, collating and writing up the history of this chapter from it’s small-fry beginnings in the early part of this millenia to what next month will host a 600+ strong guestlist for the biggest party the UK Seahawkers has ever thrown.

Andy has allowed us to share this on the site, after it was initially circulated via members email.

So here we are:

Team History

The Seattle Seahawks were formed on 4th June 1974 and played their first regular season game on 12th September 1976. It is safe to say that both events failed to make a ripple in the UK where the NFL was still virtually unknown apart from occasional highlights shown on the Saturday sports shows, Grandstand or the World of Sports. 

It was not until Channel 4 started showing weekly highlights in 1982 that interest in the NFL went from next to nothing to something of a craze almost overnight. 

For those not old enough to recall, Channel 4 was a new channel in 1982 (yes before 1982 the UK only had 3 TV channels!) and it had a brief to show more minority sports and pastimes. Despite having no real roots in the UK, the NFL show, with its snorting, colourful, helmeted figure 4 as a lead in, was a huge success. These days we are used to the immediacy of the action but back then the show was on a Sunday teatime and featured highlights from the previous week. The only live game was the Super Bowl but, such was the popularity of the sport, that by 1986 it reached a peak of 4 million viewers despite the start time of 11.30pm which is actually larger than the present day’s viewing figures. 

From these Channel 4 highlights people were selecting teams to support for all sorts of reasons and some of us gravitated towards a team in the Pacific North West. Steve Largent, Jim Zorn, Dave Krieg, Curt Warner, Kenny Easley, the Raiderbusters, all have been cited as reasons for the early fans to start a support of a team nearly 5,000 miles away. 

Humble Beginnings

As far as organised support goes the story really begins with Pamela and Mike Sheppard who had developed a love for the game and the team whilst working in Seattle in the early 1980’s. They were actually in attendance at the 1983 season AFC Championship game when the Seahawks lost to the LA Raiders at the Rosebowl. Their presence had attracted the attention of the Seattle press and they were featured in the Tacoma News Tribune and pictured in the crowd waving a Union Jack.  

The Sheppard’s also ran the first UK fan club from their home in Cornwall which had about reached a peak of 50 members at that time.  

This was taken over in approximately 1989 by Nick Drage who produced a newsletter called Hawkeye on an Atari ST word-processor which he sellotaped to A4 paper and had printed. Nick recalls that he stopped producing it in 1992 and although there was a promise from someone to take it over it never materialised and we entered something of a lull in terms of organisation. 

1990’s

The 1990’s were difficult years to be a Seahawks fan let alone one in the UK. Sky Sports used to broadcast one live game per week, it was a rarity for the Seahawks to be shown and if we were it was often for a defeat. It seems strange now but at that time Sky didn’t even produce score updates from the other games. Every week the first job on a Monday morning was to check the result on Ceefax the TV based information service.  The alternative was the US Armed Forces radio service which had live commentary but the medium wave channel was notoriously difficult to get a good reception to. 

The start of the present organisation dates to around the time of Matt Hasselbeck and his “we want the ball” and “we’re gonna score” comment at the overtime coin toss in the Seahawks wild card play-off game in Green Bay in the 2003 season. The Seahawks were massive underdogs but it had been a brilliant game which resulted in us forcing overtime. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Matt ended up throwing an interception returned for a TD and the end of the game. 

It has been said by many of us at this time that we really thought we were the only Seahawks fans in the UK but the day after the game I was to find out that this wasn’t true. There was an appeal on the Seahawk Sal message board for UK Seahawks fans to get in touch and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Becoming a Chapter

The message had been posted by Matt Cheesman and he was not only a Seahawks fan but was looking to set up a UK Chapter of the Seahawkers booster club. We had to get a certain number of people to agree to be members and pay the subscription before they would consider us as an associate chapter hence the reason for the appeal by Matt.  Thankfully we did that with the establishment of a Yahoo mail group which remained active through the off season.  

In June 2004 we were granted associate satellite booster club status and the organisation was off and running. Matt Cheesman was the first President, Mark Storr was VP, Andy Robinson was treasurer and Dave Bailey was appointed in charge of membership. 

The next 2 seasons proved to be extraordinary as the Seahawks continued to improve as a team and we saw a great community develop mainly online but also with occasional meet ups at member’s houses.  

A UK website was launched in August 2004 at http://www.seahawksfans.co.uk and became so popular that we quickly had to upgrade to a larger home at http://www.hawksnest.co.uk.  This was in the days before the current saturation coverage and for 3 years we produced our own content with articles, game previews and reports.  We also had a message board and chat room which were always very lively during a game where we typically listened into the radio commentary of Steve Raible and Warren Moon though with our upturn in fortunes we were also being shown more regularly live on Sky Sports which was required for the meet ups. 

The Original Meet

The first organised meet up of UK members took place on 10th October 2004 at the house of Mark Storr at Pershore in Worcestershire and we think had 5 people in attendance to watch the awful overtime loss to the Rams. The next meeting was on 18th September 2005 at the house of Phil Hansen in Cheshire and an increase in attendance with 7 of us.  The game even had a happier ending as we narrowly edged past the Falcons with a nail biting 21-18 win.  

Bigger and better things were ahead though as the Seahawks made it to Super Bowl XL and the largest meet to date with an event organised by Andy Steele. Approximately 20 members congregated at The Apple Tree pub at Quorn in Leicestershire to watch the game which was to end in disappointment. Also at this time, Sky Sports used to have a feature called Fanzone where a fan of each team would commentate on the game and you could access this interactively if you wished. Paula A’Bear carried out the duties for us in fine style.  

Dean Galione had been a notable UK visitor to Seattle in 2005, attending the Redskins play-off game in Seattle, returning to London then flying back to Seattle for the Panthers Championship game the week after! Not only that but he ended up on the front of the UK NFL magazine First Down with a Union Jack and the headline A Brit of Alright.  

2007 saw the first regular season NFL game in the UK as Wembley hosted the Dolphins and the Giants on October 28th and of course the UK Seahawks were there again in force. We also had our first overseas visitor as Heidi Lehnemann Stigsen attended from Denmark and she even met Eli Manning at the airport on the way home.  

By this time the website was used primarily to act as a link to the booster club, we no longer produced our own content other than news and updates for members. For this reason, a Facebook group was created in 2007 to provide a further link to website and club.  

In 2007 Mark Storr took over from Matt Cheesman as President and in 2008 Chris A’Bear took over from him serving until 2014. Paula and Chris had travelled to Seattle for a game in pre – booster club days and were in attendance at the inaugural game at the new Seahawks Stadium, a loss to the Cardinals on 15th September 2002.  

 

The Seahawks themselves were entering a difficult period yet we remained active with a membership of around 50. We also had different types of events planned, with a barbeque at Watlington Cricket Club in Oxfordshire in 2007 and bowling in Nottingham in 2009. Pub meets were in Tonbridge Wells and it was a steady period, with membership remaining constant for a number of years but that was about to change with a certain Ian Robert Smith.  

Ol’ Smudge & Motherland

Ian was a member from the start but hadn’t been strongly involved in the website or the booster club, in fact he originally didn’t want to join the committee at all but he joined me in running the Facebook group which was chugging along. With an infectious enthusiasm for the Seahawks Ian set about recruiting new members with a passionate zeal we had been lacking, and he also began to organise trips to the Emerald City. 

For most of us a trip to Seattle to see the Seahawks was nothing more than a pipedream but Ian was instrumental, through the Seahawkblue website, in organising trips for members. It was then known as The Motherland when all exiled fans would choose a particular game in September or October to go to. Ian started going in 2008 with we think 6 others from the UK and by 2015 he was leading trips, organised with his own special brand of military precision, for over 30 UK Seahawkers.   

It was a fantastic achievement and so successful that ‘once in a lifetime’ trips were to become annual events for many, so much so that we now have fans at most games at home and on the road. 

Ian eventually took over from Chris as President in 2014 and carried on with his relentless recruitment drive. He did immeasurable good for the NFL and Seahawks fans in the UK. Tragically Ian died suddenly in January 2016 but he will always be remembered as a friend to all and a driving force of UK Seahawks fans. 

Back pedalling slightly, it came to pass that on 2nd February 2014 the Seahawks won Super Bowl XXXLVIII at MetLife Stadium East Rutherford, New Jersey to much late night rejoicing on this side of the Atlantic but you guessed it, we had UK fans there as Dean Galione, Scott Whitelaw and likely others that at this time remain un – named but loud and proud.  

Present Day Evolution

Building on the legacy of Ian, Sean Wilson took over the role of President and the group has gone from strength to strength with over 350 signed up members of the booster club and over 2,200 members of the Facebook group which has become the major means of communication. Not only that but we also have a highly regarded podcast (The Pedestrian Podcast) hosted by Stuart Court and Adam Nathan with regular guests from all corners. It is always intelligent, insightful, entertaining and a credit to the guys that produce it. Stuart also runs our twitter account over @SeahawkersUK

Other members began to contribute their own free time, none perhaps moreso than Gordon Currie. We are lucky to call on a graphic designer of a rare talent who won a competition to design the new banner for the whole of the Seahawkers booster organisation a couple of years ago. 

On the very day that I write this, the history of the UK Seattle Seahawks fans has achieved an almost perfect pinnacle with the announcement that on October 14th 2018 the Seahawks will play a regular season game in London for the first time ever.  

So UK 12’s there we have it. From an Atari word processor to websites, meet ups, invasions of Seattle, podcasts, designing the banner and now the Seahawks are coming to us. I think everyone who has been involved, in even the smallest way, over the years can be very proud of the progression of the UK Seattle Seahawks fans and the respected booster club that we have become. 


A HUGE thanks to Andy who sourced all this off of his own back and did a brilliant job with that.

If you want to read Andy’s original work then you can on the link here– it includes some BELTING pictures too.

Follow this site, the Facebook page and Twitter account for all the London-related information as it is announced. It’s going to be quite a weekend.

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UK 12’s & Hilinski’s Hope Link Up For October

With the London game and the visit of our own Seahawks, us as a chapter continue to lay the groundwork for the week and weekends events, a part of that will be supporting or chosen charities and- with something which began last year- a worthy cause in the mix too.

This year we are delighted to say alongside efforts to raise money for Archie’s Smile and SSAFA, we will be fundraising for a charity with roots in Washington State.

Earlier this year the Washington State University football team and the wider sports world was rocked by the tragic news of QB Tyler Hilinski’s suicide. On the back of that SportsIllustrated did a piece on the family of Tyler and their quest to remember their son and his legacy with a foundation- Hilinksi’s Hope.

The foundation supports student-athletes with mental health issues on all campuses across the US.

With that we will have wristbands (in 3 colours- including a special one for this weekend) and #HilinskisHope t-shirts and hoodies on offer via raffles, auctions and flat-sale with ALL proceeds going to the foundation as we look to support a worthy cause back in the motherland state.

As a chapter we are honoured and so appreciative of the help and blessing from the Hilinski family in setting all of this up.

For more information on Tyler’s story you can read the Sports Illustrated long-form read here:

And for the Foundations twitter and all the things they do and hope to do here:

Thanks to the family and we hope you UK and all 12’s coming to London dig deep to support all of our charities in our fund raising efforts in October.

GO HAWKS!

 

hilinskihope

 

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The 2018 UK Seahawkers National Meet Takes Over Bristol

On the 19th May the 3rd annual UK Seahawkers meets saw 60-70 UK 12’s converge on Bristol’s riverbank and share beers, laughs and raise a TON of money for three charities through raffles, sweepstakes and a dance-infused auction.

First up were a few awards and nods to those who have helped the chapter in it’s history-both long-term and recent.

The Chapter is in the 2nd year of handing out ‘Lifetime Memberships’, this year we awarded one to another of our ‘originals’, Dave Bailey. Dave was absent due to the busy cricket season so (as a Palace Fan) asked Tom Harris (a Brighton fan- look it up) to pick the certificate on his behalf, smartly played Mr Bailey!

Next up was the FIRST winner of the UK Seahawker of the year, that award went to the Chapters membership secretaty Michael Herring. As is the case with these things, Mike was also absent and asked Events sec Terry Peppard to take the award on his behalf. Massive congrats to Mike who has worked incredibly hard over the past few months to make sure everyone of our growing number get their ‘membership packs’.

Lastly on the award front was the handing over of the German Seahawkers Ring of Honor award being handed over to the family of Ian Robert Smith- as detailed on this site and facebook a few months ago. Again with the family absent due to the sailing season, Terry Peppard was up again to collect the award on the family’s behalf.

Then after items like a SB48 Seat cushion, 2018 annuals, a special Steve Largent Funko handed over by one of our chapter members Gaz Allcock- and much more, we moved onto the auction.

Here is a run down of who won what.

Signed Bobby Wagner plaque – Serena Newton
Seahawks watch – Martin Flynn
Walter Jones signed shirt – Terry Peppard
Ricardo Lockette shirt – Cameron Welsh
Official SB48 seat pad – Seamus Doody
Richard Sherman jersey – Alan Kennedy
Seahawks stormtrooper helmet – Mark Jackson
Bristol Meet GC print – Tom Harris
Steve Largent GC print – Seamus Doody
Signed Seajack Seattle sports royalty – Gordon Currie
Signed Seattle Superman plaque – Seamus Doody

Seamus did well eh!

Massive thanks to those of you who sent over pictures of your won items to us, here’s a selection:

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Tom’s One of One Print (made especially for Bristol) on the left!

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Terry’s Walter Jones Shirt added to his collection

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Serena with here Bobby Wagner plaque

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Seamus set-up with his print

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Alan with his Sherman jersey

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Gordon representing Seattle All OVER!

With all of that, the chapter raised the total of £1860.40!!!

Amazing work  by everyone on the night for digging deep, that money with go to our two charities SSAFA and Archie’s Smile. Some of that will also be sent to the Marcus Trufant Foundation who sent over some merch to be in the raffle, which all went down very well! Thanks Marcus!

To wrap up is our as-ever-resident paparazzi Andy Pilkington-Steel who was great on the night to bring his camera and document the night, here are some of those:

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The Night Before: Announcing The First of the 2018 London Game Festivities

The wait is almost halfway-over. October 14th 2018, the Seahawks will play in London for the VERY FIRST TIME!

To commemorate that, the committee have been working hard to organise an event/meet for the night before the game against the Raiders at the new White Hart Lane.

We can now announce the details of the meet and how you can get your hands on a ticket.

IF You are a 2018 UK Seahawkers PAID member then you should have received an email with the link to purchase your tickets. That initial pre-sale will continue for the next few weeks to give our members something back for their fees.

Then over the coming weeks we will stagger releases for our US booster club friends and also those in Germany. Once those three quotas are offered and fulfilled, they will be on general sale to non-member Seahawk fans from over the globe.

Tickets are priced at £25.

Keep an eye on here, our Twitter (@SeahawkersUK) and the Facebook page (UK Seattle Seahawks Fans) for more information on dates for the other sale dates and news on guests and things that we will put together for the night.

 

london meet

 

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German Seahawkers Honour Ian Robert Smith

This past weekend saw our German friends, the German Seahawkers, hold their 2017 meet in Frankfurt. Amongst it all, they unveiled their new addition, their ‘Ring of Honour’.

Following the team’s ‘Ring of Honour’ which includes everyone from Kenny Easley to Steve Largent, our German Seahawker chapter gave the first notice of induction to our late President and key part of our- and their- history.

Here’s the video German Seahawkers president Max Lange shared over the weekend, announcing the first inductee; Ian Robert Smith.

 

From us UK Seahawkers, to Max and all German Seahawkers, thank you!

This is an amazing way to honour Ian and the contributions he made and it is universially an unequivocally appreciated from our chapter, committee and members who knew Ian for this amazing and awesome gesture.

Falken Gehen!

GO HAWKS!

 

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