For over three decades, Sean Fewell has been rising early on America’s East Coast to tune in and watch his beloved West Ham United on television.
At first, he did so alone. Then, in 2001, he met a small but devoted likeminded group of Hammers and started watching games in a New York City pub.
From there grew the NYC Hammers, now one of West Ham’s biggest and most active Official Supporters’ Clubs anywhere on the planet, with around 50 members and an established base at the Big Apple’s Smithfield Hall sports bar in the heart of Manhattan.
This week, after years and years of the Irons’ games being beamed to him across the Atlantic Ocean, his Hammers will visit the Tri-State area for the first time since 1971, when they faced the great Pelé’s Santos at Downing Stadium on Randalls Island in New York’s East River, drawing 2-2.
Prior to that, the Londoners visited Downing Stadium in the summer of 1963 as part of the International Soccer League and faced Kilmarnock (3-3), Deportivo Oro of Mexico (3-1), Valenciennes of France (3-1) and Recife of Brazil (1-1), before defeating Górnik Zabrze of Poland 2-1 on aggregate to lift the International Soccer League trophy.
The following summer, as reigning champions - and FA Cup holders - West Ham returned to New York for the second leg of the American Challenge Cup against Czechoslovakian club Dukla Prague and drew 1-1, but had lost the first leg 1-0 in Chicago to go down 2-1 on aggregate.
Regardless, West Ham are unbeaten in seven matches played in New York and, while that record will remain intact as they face Manchester United across the Hudson River in New Jersey in the Premier League Summer Series on Saturday, NYC Hammers Co-Chair Fewell and his fellow members will flock to the MetLife Stadium to cheer on their heroes in Claret and Blue.
“I’m Sean Fewell and I live in New York City!” he began. “I’ve followed West Ham since the 1990s because at that time I found West Ham and it's a proper East End club that I always just felt at home with whenever I went.
“I'm more about for the community there and it’s always just had a diehard following and that's why I started the supporters’ club in 2001 and when I found a place that was fantastic that was showing the games (Smithfield Hall), so I was able to get everyone together and group up and be able to see the games.
“The first time I went to that place, it was all a Manchester United bar, and the reason I went there is that I knew the game would be shown live because it was Manchester United versus West Ham United, and it's the one we ended up winning 1-0 thanks to Jermaine Defoe’s goal!
“Being a Hammer is a kind of independence in life just out of being something that you wouldn't expect here in New York City, and that's more what I like for my identity. For me, West Ham has been a way to find different people who I have something in common with, so it’s more fundamental to me than anything else. It’s a team I really feel for, and it gives me a lot of passion and an identity that I connect with.
“It’s a connection with a group of people I feel a part of and it’s great.”
Fewell is looking forward to connecting with a far larger group than normal when West Ham arrive this week, not just at MetLife Stadium on Saturday, but at a NYC Hammers party at Smithfield Hall on Friday evening, when they will be joined by supporters from across the country and beyond.
“At the start, we didn’t get all the games televised here back in the 90s, so I would only find out the scores in the newspaper on a Sunday and it wouldn’t explain much else of what happened,” he recalled.
“When the group formed, we had a community and were able to share information and we’d talk about games and the signings. Other clubs had their own supporters’ groups but we didn’t, and they started trying to pull me in, so in the end we rolled up like a ball of wool and got together and formed our own group.
“Now we get together and really concentrate on every game and sing ‘Bubbles’ and chant like if we were at the game. Now, we can do it at a real game at the Meadowlands against Man United.
“West Ham is a family Club and we’re part of that family. I live my whole life around it and as part of this community and it’s great. I love it and I can’t imagine my life without the Hammers!”
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