For Bob Range and his family, West Ham United’s presence at the 2025 Premier League Summer Series is the perfect reason for a unique reunion.
Range emigrated from Canning Town in the heart of East London to the East Coast of the United States when his job with Bank of America relocated in 1977, taking his wife Carole and two young sons Stewart and Robert with him.
Forty-eight years on, the four have been joined in the West Ham family by Robert’s wife Michelle and their twin sons Colin and Ryan, both 20, and daughter Kiersten, 17, Stewart’s wife Patricia, her sister Anne Scully and her sons Tommy and William Fialko, both 13.
Bob and Carole now live happily in retirement in the sunnier climes of Ocala, Florida, while Robert and his family live in Reno, Nevada, Patricia lives in Weehawken on the Hudson River in eastern New Jersey, and Anne, Tommy and William are 20 miles west of there in Millburn.
This week, however, they are all together, and all wearing the iconic Claret and Blue of West Ham United.
On Thursday, they met Alphonse Areola, Niclas Füllkrug and Tomáš Souček at the American Dream Mall, across the street from MetLife Stadium, where they will watch their beloved Hammers face Manchester United in the Summer Series on Saturday evening.
In between, they joined the NYC Hammers Supporters’ Club at Smithfield Hall in New York City for a fan party with their fellow fans, then next week they will fly to Chicago to watch West Ham face Everton at Soldier Field in their second Summer Series fixture on Wednesday.
For the family, and for 76-year-old Bob in particular, it is a truly special time, and one all 12 members of the family will relish and enjoy.
Bob, you are the reason all of you are decked out in Claret and Blue, and you definitely sound like an East Londoner, so what’s the story?
Bob: “I was born in Canning Town, a mile from the Boleyn Ground, so my Dad took me to my first game when I was nine in 1958 and I’ve been a Hammer ever since. It was a great year as we won the Second Division and my hero was the striker who scored all the goals, John Dick. He played up front in my first game which was Rotherham at home, we beat them 8-0 and he scored a hat-trick!”
After growing up on John Dick, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, what brought you to the United States?
Bob: “I came over in 1977 with my wife and boys, who were aged five and three, as I was transferred with the bank that I was working with. We lived in New York and New Jersey. Then we moved out for a few years, out to Reno, where my son and his wife had already moved to.
“We were and are still Hammers and now their kids are too, and Stewart and Patricia are much bigger fans than we are - they have a room at home kitted out in West Ham and follow the team around. They were down in Jacksonville and Tampa last summer, they’ve been over to London, went to the Boleyn Ground for the final game there and Mark Noble’s Testimonial in 2016.
“It’s incredible that West Ham are back again for the second year in a row and we are so happy to all be together to go to the game here in New Jersey and the game in Chicago, too.”
Stewart, while your Dad still has his East London accent, you don’t sound like him!
Stewart: “No, no, I sounded like my Dad until I was 13 or so, probably, and I lost my accent! But unlike, I guess, American kids, I didn't learn basketball or American football - it was all just what they call soccer. My Dad was my soccer coach, so I was just brought up on soccer, but it was really hard to follow West Ham back then. We used to get VCR tapes transferred and mailed over to us because there were no live games on TV. It was impossible, then we got pay-per-view, but you still had to go to a bar to watch.
“Now, it’s so much more accessible, it’s easy to watch the games on NBC. It’s fantastic and I feel we see more games here than the people in London. We don’t miss anything.”
Your Dad’s first live game was an 8-0 win, but generally it hasn’t gone that well down the years!
Stewart: “Dad had a lot of things to celebrate back then, an embarrassment of riches. Because we couldn’t watch live games when I was growing up, I didn’t have the same experience watching the likes of Tony Cottee. It was more the mid-2000s with the relegation and promotion and then the Scotty Parker era when we really got into it.”
And now in 2025 West Ham have come to New Jersey and you’re all together in Claret and Blue!
Stewart: “Oh, it's incredible. I mean, last year we went to everything in Florida, and now this year we’ve dragged absolutely everybody in to get it all done. Dad passed his support onto us and we had no choice and now, after our Conference League success, it’s been much easier to persuade our kids to really stick with it!”
Talking of the kids, Colin, you’re the third generation of Hammers in your family!
Colin: “We did have a choice, but I’ve always been a Hammer. My twin brother [Ryan] grew up as a bit of a Man United fan, but we were able to convert him, that's why he's here today!
“It's always been in the family. Soccer's been a part of our lives for as long as I've known. We've been playing, my father's been coaching us and we were on so many Little League teams, named ‘Hammers’ or ‘West Ham’. We were always the ‘Little Hammers’! We wore Claret and Blue jerseys, too.”
It must be great being here together?
Colin: “I mean, it's great being with the entire family. I mean, we're from West Coast, so it was a long trip out here, but it is 110% worth it. Well, we're in Nevada, super close to California, but there are some other Hammers floating around and we’ve met a few out in Reno.”
Has it become easier to be a Hammer in the States since we won the UEFA Europa Conference League?
Colin: “Oh, no. I wore it when we weren’t so good too! I told everyone: ‘Hey, my Dad is from West Ham’. This is my team and I supported them through the thick and the thin. You’ve just got to stick with it!”