CHARLOTTE — You never forget your first, even if you forget to keep the souvenirs.

But for the Carolina Panthers, making their organizational debut in the Hall of Fame Game in 1995 created a ton of memories and set the stage for an unforgettable first season.

With the current Panthers heading back to Canton, Ohio, this summer to play the Cardinals, it harkens back to the first game in franchise history, when they took the first steps in the team's football journey.

For some of them, that game was one of dozens of preseason games they played in long careers. But it also created indelible moments in time, when the Panthers were young and making their entrance into professional football.

Bob Christian has a lot of mementos from his football days. When you spend 12 years in the NFL, more than twice the time you ever dreamed possible, memories stack up.

But there's that one that haunts him, the one he didn't realize at the time was as significant as it was.

On July 29, 1995, Christian scored the first touchdown in Panthers franchise history, and just casually handed the ball back to the ref, not realizing how significant it was for him or the team. It happened in the 1995 Hall of Fame game, when the expansion Panthers faced their expansion cousins from Jacksonville in Canton, Ohio. The Panthers will play in the Hall of Fame Game again this year, coinciding with legendary linebacker Luke Kuechly's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"That was one of my biggest regrets of my career off of that play, too," Christian laughed. "I was never brought up to be a showboater, to try to draw attention when you do something good. So I just tossed the ball to the ref, and I went and celebrated with my team, you know, because we scored a touchdown, yay.

"And then, then I went to the sideline and I, you know, I got something to drink, sat down on the bench. I looked up at the scoreboard, and I saw a 7. I was like, Oh, that was the first one, and then I was like, where's the ball? But at that point, they had, shoot, switched all the balls out and everything. It was impossible to know, you know, which ball was the one, you know, I was like, damn it. I'm still to this day, I'm really upset at myself that I didn't keep that ball."

The 1995 season was full of firsts for the Panthers, from their offseason home at Winthrop University in Rock Hill to their home games at Clemson. But there was a palpable energy throughout the city as they prepared for their first season, and then exceeded every expectation, becoming the most successful expansion team ever. After losing their first five games, they rallied to finish 7-9, setting the stage for their 12-4 debut season in Bank of America Stadium in 1996 and a trip to the NFC Championship Game.

But it all started in Canton, where they put on pads and faced another team for the first time, and the fact that it was against another expansion team turned it into a measuring stick.

"Yeah, compared to other preseason games, that definitely, there was a lot at stake," Christian said. "We felt like it was unrealistic to say, hey, we want to win the Super Bowl in the first year, but we definitely, I think both teams for the first two years, we definitely had a competitive eye on Jacksonville. And we wanted to outdo them as the other expansion team. That was a must; that was the only must-win thing of the season. I think that we've all felt it. It wasn't outwardly-imposed, it was inwardly-imposed, that, that we had to, we had to finish ahead of Jacksonville, you know, we had to outdo them as, you know, we, we wanted to be the best of the franchise of the expansion teams, you know, and, and so that, that first game was a lot at stake cause we're playing them, so you know, it meant more than a typical first preseason game to all the guys on the team."

That might seem quaint now, but things were different in 1995. For one thing, Christian was a guy who came in the expansion draft, which meant his previous team left him unprotected. The Panthers had a lot of strays in those first years, but that included too-short linebackers like Sam Mills (a guy who was teaching wood shop in a New Jersey high school when he took his last chance to try out for the USFL, which eventually led him to the Hall of Fame.) But they were thrown together in a hurry, and that immediacy of every action just added importance to things that can seem mundane.

That kind of wide-eyed and pure enjoyment was typical in that first season. Christian had been around a bit, but there was still that moment before the game, when he was standing for the coin toss with Frank Reich and Mills, that he looked around and realized this was different, and this was new.

"I was out there with some legends," Christian said. "Definitely some good company to be in."

And that attitude carried throughout the year, as an entire region treated them like royalty, because it was all so new and fresh. And it began with that first game.

The Jaguars got on the board first that day, with Desmond Howard returning a punt 66 yards for a touchdown, and an early lead.

But then in the second quarter, Christian made his moment of history.

Now 57 years old and working as a pilot based out of Oklahoma, Christian laughed and said he didn't remember what the Panthers called the play, but it was one he repped on several teams.

"Basically, it was a little play-action off the power," he said, slipping easily back into football talk. "I'm kicking out to block the linebacker, so he's trying to squeeze me in, and then I just slipped him to the outside, and the poor cornerback has to decide whether he's going to cover the deep corner, or cover me.

"As long as we fooled them, as long as we made it look like the run first, we were good."

Quarterback Frank Reich lofted the ball into the right spot to give Christian a running start, and he plowed into the end zone for that first score, despite a facemask penalty that was (obviously) declined.

"I think I plowed over a couple of guys there, right before the goal line," Christian recalled. "At that point, I know like, if I get a head of steam, and I'm within 3 yards of the goal line now, nothing's going to stop me, except maybe a face mask.

"But yeah, it's a play I had run before, and it worked great."

It didn't take long for the Panthers to turn that momentum into an actual lead.

Later in the second quarter, Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell (times were different, starters played deeper into preseason games then) dropped back, but was pressured by a blitzing linebacker, Paul Butcher.

He sailed the pass, and rookie cornerback Tyrone Poole got into the air to retrieve it and raced 85 yards for the touchdown.

Poole was the second of the team's first-round picks that year (22nd overall), and the first from defense (quarterback Kerry Collins went fifth overall after they traded down).

"That year was full of firsts," Poole said.

And as the rookie on a defense full of veterans brought in by coach Dom Capers and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, he knew he had a standard to uphold.

"I think it was more of the design of the defense," Poole recalled. "On that particular play, I'm playing nickel, and I dropped back into my coverage. And it was a great pressure by Paul Butcher, I believe blitzed and made the throw hurried, and threw it right to me, and all I had to do was just jump up and make sure I didn't drop it like most defensive backs, right? So I made the catch, and I was able to use my speed and get to the sideline.

"And I still go back and listen to that play, listen to Al Michaels and Frank Gifford, they called the game, and they were like 'Carolina Panthers first round draft pick Tyrone Poole from Fort Valley State.' And that is the one thing that I remember from that game is that I was setting the tone not only for myself as a professional athlete, but all the other HBCU defensive backs and players that said, hey, if Tyrone can do it, then we can do it too."

Poole still takes that HBCU legacy seriously (he was named to the Black College Hall of Fame this year), and carried that experience into the moment.

For players who had been in the league like Christian, getting ready before the game in the gym of nearby McKinley High School (they did halftime in the smaller stadium locker room) might have been considered unusual. But for Poole, after playing in front of much smaller crowds at Fort Valley State, being in front of a packed house of 24,625 at what was then known as Fawcett Stadium, in a game called by the biggest broadcast crew in the business, that felt like the Super Bowl.

"For me to walk into that stadium, whether it was a high school or an NFL stadium, to me, that was a lot of people, right?" Poole said. "So, it was probably more of me just seeing a lot of fans. I may have played in front of 2,000 or 3,000 on a consistent basis, but to see all those people in the stadium, I was just overwhelmed. And I said hey, this is what NFL football is all about. So the locker room, I didn't really know the difference. It was a better locker room than what I was used to, I know that.

"But I was just glad to be a part of the inaugural season for the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. And myself, coming in as a rookie and thrown right into the fire. I mean, Sam Mills, God bless his spirit, seeing him and Carlton Bailey and Lamar Lathon and, you know, all these guys, Brett Maxie and Tim McKyer. I'm like, I'm just happy just to be on the same stage with these guys and Mark Brunell. To me, a dream come true. It really didn't matter whether we played in the street. I was just happy to have an NFL uniform on."