Interactive Graphic: Ol’ Crimson’s 15-year journey to Pullman

It’s happening. It’s actually happening. My phone blew up Saturday night with variations of “THIS IS NOT A DRILL” after Kirk Herbstriet let the college football world know that the city GameDay would next be rolling into was none other than, Pullman, USA. After 15 years and 216 consecutive appearances, Ol’ Crimson will be on display in its home. I honestly thought this day would never come — the logistics were too hard, the Cougs were always having to compete with a potentially more convenient Central or Eastern time zone game. Yet, here we are, and I couldn’t be more excited.

The below chart owes a big thanks to olcrimson.org. That’s the booster site for Ol’ Crimson and without them, the Washington State Cougars being woven into the fabric of college football’s marquee show doesn’t happen. Every logo has a link back to their site with photos of that episode of ESPN’s College GameDay where available.

Over the last 15 seasons, Ol’ Crimson has traveled to 34 states, 72 cities and given me and many other Cougs a sense of belonging in college football, especially during those years where our beloved team was rather terrible. Regardless of how I felt the outcome of a game would be, I always looked forward to seeing our flag wave behind the GameDay crew.

Ol’ Crimson has spent the majority of its time in the SEC, having flown at 61 match-ups where an SEC team played host. Growing up in Washington and still living here, I haven’t gotten to experience many other game day atmospheres, and thinking of the entire ESPN crew getting introduced to our town, to Pullman, puts an enormous smile on my face.

If you hover over a logo it will highlight all the other times that school hosted GameDay; same goes for the conference logos at the bottom. Each logo has some information on the game and a link to the Ol’ Crimson site to check out photos from that day.

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If you’re curious to explore the cities that Ol’ Crimson has visited the most, the below graphic shows every city that has hosted the flag at least 5 times. GameDay seemed to start or end every season in Atlanta for a while and then it’s a walk through college football blue bloods with Ohio State, USC and Alabama all tied at 10, although GameDay hasn’t been to USC since 2013.

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I can’t wait to find out where the set will be. I’ve exchanged no less than 50 sign ideas with friends over text message in the last 24 hours (I think I’m going with Death. Taxes. Ol’ Crimson.). The vibe in Pullman is going to be insane, a truly unique college football experience.

Thank you to everyone who has waved the flag and who has kept this tradition going (one of my favorite moments as a Coug was waving the flag in Red Square at UW back in 2013). Hopefully we don’t have to wait 216 more times before Lee Corso is putting on head gear in Pullman. Go Cougs!