http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/moore/article/Jim-Moore-Apple-Cup-memories-10633175.php
Jim Moore: Snow Bowl, 151 rum and more Apple Cup memories
Published 12:19 pm, Wednesday, November 23, 2016
With a Pac-12 North title up for grabs, the 2016 Apple Cup promises to be a memorable affair.
With a Pac-12 North title up for grabs, the 2016 Apple Cup promises to be a memorable affair.
Since the Huskies have won 38 more Apple Cups than the Cougs, when I look back at the history of the rivalry it's frequently a trip down bad memory lane with many games I'm still trying to forget. But there were certainly some Washington State highlights too.
Growing up in Redmond, I had a troubled childhood. I say this because I rooted for Sonny Sixkiller and the Huskies. I blame it on being a dumb kid who didn't see the crimson-and-gray light until I went to WSU in the fall of 1974.
(Confession: I still love Sixkiller, the best under 6-foot quarterback in Seattle until Russell Wilson arrived in 2012)
RELATED: Apple Cup stakes have rarely been this high
I've watched 40-plus years of Apple Cups as a Coug fan and thought about doing that lazy columnist thing of writing about my Top 20 Apple Cup Games, but then it occurred to me that we've won only 12 times since '74.
So I'm just going to run through a haphazard gamut of Apple Cup recollections in unfiltered fashion:
1975: The night before the game, I drove home after closing down the Billiard Den in Moscow, Idaho, the bar of choice back then for the guys on the second floor of Gannon Hall.
The Go 2 Guy also writes for 710Sports.com and kitsapsun.com. Reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter as @cougsgo. He appears weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on "Danny, Dave and Moore" on 710 ESPN Seattle radio.
I sat with my buddies Robert Landick and Chris Perry in the east end zone, and we got drenched because it rained the whole game. But we didn't care because the Cougs led 27-14 late in the fourth quarter.
Then we threw a pass over the middle, and Al Burleson turned it into a pick six. We proceed to go three-and-out, and Warren Moon hucked a terrible pass that ricocheted off one of our defensive backs and into the hands of Spider Gaines, who took it the rest of the way for a 28-27 Husky victory.
Robert and Chris laughed because they were drunk. I was sober and unamused. I bought a Cougar pennant on my way out of Husky Stadium and went home to bed, putting a pillow over my head.
I was supposed to go to my girlfriend's sister's wedding that night, but I was so bummed out that I bagged it and didn't call my girlfriend to tell her I wouldn't be there. She called me the next morning to tell me I wasn't her boyfriend anymore.
If the Cougars had won, would that have changed the course of my life? Would Mary Neumayer and I gone on to get married and live happily ever after? Or should I thank Moon for throwing that pass? Mary just as easily could've been Mrs. Wrong.
1981: I was working at the Anchorage Daily News and flew down for the game because it was a big one. If we won, we'd be going to the Rose Bowl, and that's all any Coug ever wanted -- to go the Rose Bowl once in your lifetime.
The night before the game in a shocking development, I drank too much and threw up in some bushes outside The Pumphouse in Bellevue.
We didn't have tickets to the game but got in by posing as vendors who were lined up to sell concessions. We walked in, signed in and looked for free, untaken seats -- of which there weren't many to be found.
The Cougs lost 23-10, and the thing I remember most is Paul Skansi making a nice touchdown reception before the half for Washington. Skansi rates a very distant second in my book of favorite Gig Harbor Husky receivers behind Joe Jarzynka.
Adding to our disappointment, the Huskies needed help from the USC-UCLA game to make it to the Rose Bowl themselves. They got it, but we played in the Holiday Bowl and lost to Jim McMahon and BYU.
1982: I covered the game for the now-defunct Bellevue Journal-American and watched the first half from the press box. It was the first Apple Cup ever at Martin Stadium -- previous games in the series were played at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.
The Huskies were big favorites, but we were in the game at halftime. I couldn't take the no-cheering rules in the press box and excused myself to join some friends in the stands including Brad Taylor, who smuggled MacNaughton's into the game and gave me several third-quarter swigs.
We went on to win 24-20 after Chuck Nelson missed the first field goal of his career, kicking it wide right. Years later I played in a charity golf tournament in the Tri-Cities with Cougs who called their shots "Chuck Nelsons" every time they hit it right.
While the students tore down the goal posts and put them in the Palouse River, I went back to the press box and wrote my story under the influence, which wasn't very journalistically professional of me, but it sure was a hell of a lot of fun.
The next morning, I'll never forget the Spokesman-Review headline taking a shot at the supposedly Rose Bowl-bound Huskies: "A HANDFUL OF THORNS."
1992: The year of the Snow Bowl, maybe the best Apple Cup ever to a Coug. I planned to watch the game at an Apple Cup party held by my neighbor Brian McGinnis on the Sammamish Plateau.
But first I had to sell the two tickets that I had, and back then they had these chartered game-day flights called Coug Air. I went to the airport to sell them to anyone who was boarding a flight until fellow Coug Mark Magnussen told me that a seat was available on one of the planes.
I called my wife to tell her about my change of plans and off I went on the last plane that was allowed to land in Pullman that snowy day.
It gets a little foggy from there. I remember the craziness of the third quarter featuring Drew Bledsoe and Phillip Bobo sliding in the snow in the end zone. I knew we pulled off the upset, but I made the mistake of not eating while drinking 151 rum.
The next thing I know I'm crumpled up in a bathroom stall at the Moscow-Pullman Airport. I was too out of it to make my flight home. And then I looked up around midnight to see a Pullman police officer staring down at me on the floor.
"Need a room?" he asked.
I thought he was going to cuff me and haul me in, but he's offering me a room?
"One of the pilots didn't make it in so there's a room available at the Quality Inn," said the officer, who helped me up and gave me a ride to the hotel.
The next day I scrambled to get a flight home and found one, but had to take a bus to Lewiston. I finally got to Seattle Sunday night.
My poor wife, I put her through a lot and feel bad about it now. She looked at me that night and shouted: "I'm so sick of you and your (bleepin') Cougars."
The next morning I flew to Sacramento for a Sonics-Kings game and I can still remember how crappy I felt at Arco Arena two days after the Apple Cup. But hey, the Cougs won.
2002: Sat in the student section and watched as the students flung bottles on the field after we lost 29-26 in triple overtime. Officials called Matt Kegel's pass a lateral, the Huskies recovered it, and everyone was mad that we lost and ruined our national championship hopes. Yes, in 2002 the Cougars were in those national-title conversations that the Dawgs are in now.
Nate Robinson, who went on to have a terrific NBA career, had an interception in the game, and the other thing I remember is UW AD Barbara Hedges fearing for her life on the field. Tacoma News Tribune reporter Craig Hill suffered a concussion after he was hit in the head by a bottle.
It was a bizarre scene, had never seen anything like that before. At least the Cougs beat UCLA the following week to make it to the Rose Bowl.
2008: Pretty mundane story compared to the others. I watched the game from a friend's house with my then-4-year-old twin boys Mikey and Stevie. We all got down on the floor and prayed for Nico Grasu to hit the game-winning field goal in overtime, and he made it.
WSU entered the game 1-10 and Washington was 0-10. The Dawgs lost at Cal the following week to finish 0-12, capping the best Husky season ever and making Tyrone Willingham an honorary member of the Cougar Hall of Fame.
2012: We rallied from 18 points down in the fourth quarter and won in overtime after Toni Pole nearly rumbled and stumbled all the way after intercepting a pass by Keith Price. I remember everyone shouting "GO, GO, GO!!!!" to Pole as he lumbered toward the end zone, finally getting caught inside the 10-yard line by one of the Huskies' wide receivers.
Andrew Furney went on to nail the winning field goal in one of the more improbable Apple Cup wins by the Cougs.
2016: Watching with my wife and kids from the north side of Martin Stadium, I couldn't believe it when Jake Browning threw his third interception of the game, and this time Shalom Luani returned it for a touchdown to cement a 31-20 victory for Washington State, putting the Cougars in the Pac-12 championship game against Colorado.
We stormed the field and took celebratory selfies with Luke Falk and Gabe Marks. The following month we beat the Buffs and then we got revenge against Michigan in the Rose Bowl, completing the greatest season in Cougar football history.
And after hoping to play for the national championship, the Huskies finished their season with a loss to Kansas State in the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl.
The Go 2 Guy also writes for 710Sports.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo. He appears weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on "Danny, Dave and Moore" on 710 ESPN Seattle.
