WSU at 125: 125 facts from WSU's 125 years

1. WSU was established in 1890
2. WSU's original name was Washington State Agricultural College and School of Sciences
3. The name changed to State College of Washington in 1905
4. The name changed once, and for all, to Washington State University in 1959
5. The first varsity football game was played in 1894
6. WSC beat Idaho 10-0
7. WSU and Idaho would go on to play each other 90 more times
8. WSU has won 71 of these meetings
9. The last meeting probably had the most entertaining ending...

   

   
   
10. WSU and Idaho also have the longest basketball rivalry (non-Ivy League category) in the nation
11. The teams have met on the court 270 times since 1906, with WSU winning 162 of those
12. Another big rivalry game is something called the Apple Cup
13. That football game has been played 107 times
14. WSU has won 32 a bunch of those meetings
15. The first Apple Cup was played in 1900
16. It was played in Seattle
17. That game ended in a 5-5 tie
18. Those kind of scores happened a lot back then
19. It seems kind of weird now that those kind of scores happened a lot back then
20. The next meeting was played in 1901
21. It was played in Pullman
22. WSU shutout UW 10-0
23. That game was played at Rogers Field
24. Rogers Field was the first home stadium for WSU
25. It was also called Soldier Field before 1902
26. The first game was played at Rogers Field in 1895
27. WSU beat Idaho 10-4
28. 10-4 is also a very weird football score that was normal back then
29. Rogers Field was constructed entirely out of wood because, honestly, what's the worst thing that could happen to a wood stadium?
30. It held 23,500 people
31. In 1969 Idaho started playing home games at Rogers Field
32. In 1970 it was severely damaged by fire
33. To answer my previous question, severe fire damage is the worst thing that could happen to a wood stadium
34. The fires was suspected to be started by arson
35. WSU chose to play their home games in Spokane
36. Meanwhile, Idaho chose to continue to play their games in Pullman in a mostly destroyed Rogers Field
37. WSU played all of their home games at Joe Albi Stadium until 1972
38. On September 30, 1972, WSU opened Martin Stadium with a 19-point loss to Utah
39. Deone Bucannon graduated from Washington State University
40. Deone Bucannon can hit people really hard 

    

41. Little known fact: WSU's mascot is the Cougars
42. The school officially adopted the mascot in 1919
43. Before then, the official mascot was "Squirt," a terrier dog
44. Also in the early day, the school's official colors were pink and blue.
45. After adopting the nickname Cougars, the school used a stuffed cougar as their mascot
46. That was replaced by live cougar cub in 1927
47. The cub was given to the school by then Governor, Rowland Hartley
48. The original name for the cub was going to be "Governor Hartley"
49. Thankfully, the Governor declined to have it named after him
50. The cub was then named Butch
51. It was named after WSU's star QB Herbert "Butch" Meeker
52. Meeker was only 5'5" and 150 pounds
53. The Chinook yearbook had nothing but nice things to say about Meeker in his playing days
    "The fightingest little football player ever to don a Cougar uniform," - Chinook Yearbook on Meeker
    
    
54. WSU would continue to have live cougar mascots until 1978
55. WSU has played in 11 bowl games
56. The last one was the New Mexico Bowl in 2013
57. The last one was the Holiday Bowl in 2003
58. WSU beat Texas in the 2003 Holiday Bowl 28-20
59. The first bowl game WSU played in was the 1916 Rose Bowl
60. This was the 2nd ever Rose Bowl played
61. The first Rose Bowl was played in 1902 and Michigan beat Stanford 49-0
62. Because of the blow out, according to Wikipedia, the Rose Festival organizers soured on the idea of football, opting instead for "chariot races and ostrich races"
63. Ostrich races sound the best thing ever
64. WSU won the 1916 Rose Bowl 14-0 over Brown
65. Footage from that Rose Bowl can be found on YouTube
66. WSU players acted as extras in the movie "Tom Brown of Harvard" before practice everyday leading up to the game
67. The film was released in 1918
68. They were paid $100 for their acting work
69. The NCAA barely existed/wasn't nearly as strict/had better things to think about
70. The BCS and the College Football Playoff actually didn't exist
71. WSU finished the 1916 season undefeated
72. WSU was one of 3 teams that claim a national championship for the 1915-16 season
73. The Washington State Senate recently recognized their national championship claim
74. As far as I'm concerned, that's all we need for that to be legit
75. The next couple years, 1916 and 1917, WSU basketball had a stellar season of their own
76. Cougar basketball finished the '16-'17 season with a 25-1 record
77. Their only loss came on the road in a 20-28 loss to California
78. 20-28 would seem like a low score but, (1) it wasn't back then and (2) it's actually a high scoring game if you're used to watching Bennett-Ball
79. The team was crowned national champions by the Helms Foundation
80. Head coach Fred Bohler would coach at WSU for 18 seasons
81. His overall record was 226-177
82. Bohler even served as the head baseball coach for 4 seasons
83. WSU dedicated Bohler gym to him in 1928
84. Bohler was replaced as basketball coach by Karl Schlademan
85. Schlademan acted as both track and basketball coach for 3 seasons
86. I'm only using Schlademan to get to the next guy
87. Schlademan was replaced by Jack Friel as head basketball coach in 1928
88. Friel would remain in the position for 30 years
89. Friel went 495-377 as head coach
90. He led WSU to 4 Pacific Coast Conference titles
91. WSU appeared in the 8 team 1941 NCAA tournament
92. WSU would get to the championship game of the 1941 tournament and lose 39-34 to Wisconsin
93. After leaving WSU, Friel would go on to be the first commissioner of the Big Sky conference
94. The first office of the Big Sky conference was in Pullman
95. It remained in the home town of a college that wasn't in the conference for 8 years before moving to Boise
96. WSU dedicated the home basketball court in Beasley Coliseum to Friel
97. I used to love hearing Glenn Johnson say "it's time to Friel the heat" before basketball games
98. Beasley Coliseum holds 11,671 people.
99. It opened in 1973, and you can totally tell. I mean... Just look at those seat colors...



100. Those orange seats in Beasley are old and weird (picture courtesy WSU Athletic Communications)
101. The first event in Beasley was an NBA preseason game between the Sonics and Blazers
102. The game in Beasley was the first Sonics win for new coach Bill Russell
103. Spencer Haywood checked in with 26 points and 12 rebounds
104. 8,136 people were on hand for the game
105. Beasley also hosted the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA Tournament in 1975, 1982, 1985
106. It would be funny to hear Kentucky or Duke (or Gonzaga) complain no-a-days about having to travel and stay in Pullman for a whole weekend. We should put the tournament there next year just to hear people complain
107. That was a pretty good Gonzaga burn
108. Deone Bucannon was a safety for the Washington State University football team
109. Deone Bucannon did this once 

     

110. That was a good hit
111. I just really wanted an excuse to post this again
112. Outside of the football and basketball teams from earlier, WSU claims only 2 NCAA national championships
113. WSU won the 1937 title in boxing
114. The 1977 WSU track and field team edged out UTEP by only 1/2 of a point to claim the national championship
115. Future Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat was 3 when WSU claimed that title (bonus fact: I'm very good at transitions)
116. Lagat moved from Kenya and began attending WSU in 1996
117. Lagat was named Pac-10 athlete of the year in 1999
118. He left school in 2000 to compete in the Sydney Olympics where he won bronze in the 1500m
119. He returned to school and graduted int 2001 with a degree in Management Information Systems
120. My college roommate majored in management information systems and I still don't really have a clue what it is
121. My college roommate is nothing like Bernard Lagat. Like at all...
122. WSU, as a school, will have been around for 125 years as of March 28, 2015
123. WSU, as a football program, has been around for 122 years, with a record of 500-526-48
124. Fact: WSU will continue to exist forever and ever
125. Even bigger fact: WSU will continue to be the greatest place on Earth forever and ever

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