Sports fans are familiar with the instinct to become a bit of a pack rat with treasured items gleaned over the years, whether it’s programs, ticket stubs, merchandise, or even little scraps from game day (like the confetti from championship cannons). Over the years, Steph Yang and I have amassed our own collections of women’s soccer odds and ends, both as fans and as journalists.
We each have boxes of old credentials with so, so many lanyards, jerseys, and scarves, but we tried to go a little outside the box (pun intended). It felt like a perfect time for us to do this little trip down memory lane, especially as Steph departs The Athletic at the end of the year. Our careers have intersected in many ways over the years, not just here but also covering the Boston Breakers for several years, so it was a fun exercise in digging through the bins and rediscovering some gems.
Here are our (current) five most cherished memorabilia items. — Meg Linehan
Boston Breakers WPS era noisemaker — Steph
The team must have handed these out at its inaugural game or something, when they were playing at Harvard Stadium. Of course, you got two of them to bang together, but I sensibly only kept one deflated stick to remember being a fan. It definitely sounded louder in the big concrete bowl of…
