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Sports and online virality go hand in hand. A large reason for this, of course, is the non-stop nature of the sports calendar; between the collegiate and professional ranks, there’s always a new noteworthy performance or meme-able moment to share.
However, this dynamic is not at play for one of the internet’s newest sports pages, 20 Years Ago Sports, which shares images, broadcasts, and “on this day” factoids of sports happenings from 2006. And yet, it’s still found a massive audience.
In just over two weeks, the X (formerly Twitter) account has gained more than 400,000 followers and earned effusive praise from all corners of the sports world. A typical 20 Years Ago Sports post—of which there have been several per day since mid-July—nets roughly 100,000 views. Old SportsCenter clips are proving especially popular: Its posts of “Top 10 Plays” segments from July 28, 2006, and July 30, 2006, have nearly 30 million and 2 million views, respectively, to date.
Now that August is here, users are starting to clamor for throwback football content. Front Office Sports caught up with the owner of the account, who wished to remain anonymous, to chat about its inception, plans for its future, and the connective power of sports nostalgia.
This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
Front Office Sports: Why did you start the 20 Years Ago Sports account?
20 Years Ago Sports: I opened the account in January of this year with the intent to use it as another place to talk sports, but I didn’t touch it for months. I actually just started posting these throwback clips on July 14, so it’s really brand new. I would always see posts of historical stuff saying like, ‘Imagine if Twitter was around when this was going on’, and so I was like, what if I just did that for sports?
FOS: You’ve gained nearly half a million followers in under a month. What has that been like?
20 Years Ago Sports: It’s been insane; I don’t even really believe it sometimes. There’s been people who have accused me of buying followers, so I just want to say I don’t even know how to buy followers.
In terms of actual growth, before I started actually posting in July, the account was at 700 followers, give or take. The first week or so, I got up to around 4,000. And then there was one day, I think it was last Thursday, where I got 50,000 followers in one day. The next few days after that, I got about 20,000 per day. This week, it just exploded again; it was roughly 130,000 on Sunday and 75,000 on Monday.
I’m surprised my phone hasn’t crashed yet. It’s really just been a dream situation.
FOS: Who’s been some of the biggest names to follow or interact with your account?
20 Years Ago Sports: I’m a big fan of Dan Katz (Big Cat) from Barstool, and he followed me today; that was super cool. One of the coolest things, though, was actually when I posted about the Saints a couple days ago, the team account ended up quoting the tweet. The Jaguars and the Texans then did the same thing a day later. Now I’m like, I’d love to get every NFL team to acknowledge me.
FOS: Why do you think the idea of sports nostalgia or throwback sports is resonating so much?
20 Years Ago Sports: Part of it is definitely reliving memories. I was looking at my analytics just now and over half my followers are between the ages of 25 and 40. For most people in that age range, 2006 was the meat of our childhood, like middle school or high school.
Of course, everyone always likes to say ‘things were better back in my day,’ but with how much sports have changed recently, especially college sports, there’s definitely some truth to that here. Plus, I think people just really like hearing names that they haven’t heard in a while.
FOS: You’re posting a lot. Is this your full-time job?
20 Years Ago Sports: No, and I don’t have a set structure or schedule for my posts. I’m just kind of doing it as I do it. I’m literally just a guy. It all happens in like 5 minutes. But I do try my best to verify everything.
FOS: Does any particular type of post perform the best?
20 Years Ago Sports: Anything football-related gets a ton of engagement. I posted one about the now-head coach of the Texans, DeMeco Ryans, entering his rookie year training camp in 2006 that blew up.
No matter what, people have been really funny playing along with my posts. They’ll try to ‘predict the future’ about a certain player or team that I post about, and they’ll either do it with 100% accuracy or be extremely dead wrong on purpose. It’s hilarious every time either way.
FOS: Have you heard from brands wanting to sponsor you?
20 Years Ago Sports: I’ve heard from a few, nothing crazy—mostly sports betting sites. I’m not going to deal with that though. I don’t have any intention to monetize this account.
FOS: How long are you going to keep posting, and do you think you’ll only post on X?
20 Years Ago Sports: As long as people keep liking it, I’m going to keep doing it. If people ever get tired of it, I’ll wind things down. But I hope to have a good couple-year run at least—2007 and 2027, and so on.
I’ve thought about moving the content to other platforms, but I’ve decided I’m just going to stick with X for now. I don’t think it would have the same effect elsewhere. X is the best place for this kind of stuff because it lets people discuss and chime in. I’ve loved all of the messages and replies I’ve gotten about people’s sports memories from all over the world.
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