Michael Utley, former student and 1989 All-American offensive guard, injures his spinal cord and is paralyzed during a Detroit Lions football game. Utley establishes the Mike Utley Foundation to help those with spinal cord injuries and Utley became known for the “thumbs up” he flashed fans after being carried off the field when he was injured in 1991. In 2008 the NFL established a scholarship at WSU in Utley’s name for students studying sports medicine.
1993 Flyer for Mike Utley Foundation and appearance at WSU Homecoming
The WSU Cougars defeat the University of Houston Cougars, 24-22, at the Eagle Aloha Bowl in Honolulu. The game was the second bowl appearance in the 1980s and the first bowl victory for WSU since the 1916 Rose Bowl.
WSU Athletics introduces new leadership to the Cougar family, including Jim Livengood, athletic director; Dennis Erickson, football coach; and Kelvin Sampson, men’s basketball coach.
Dan Lynch, WSU offensive lineman, appears on the Bob Hope Christmas Special with the AP All-American team. Lynch played for WSU from 1980-1984 and started all four years for the Cougars.
Eggart scores 16 against Portland State, bringing her to 1,906 points in her career, passing men’s basketballer Steve Puidokas’ record of 1,894. She would finish her career with 1,967.
Henry Rono sets multiple world records while running for the Cougars. Rono won the NCAA Cross Country Championship three times, in 1976, 1977, and 1979, as well as the NCAA Steeplechase in 1978 and 1979, and the NCAA Indoor champion in the 3000 meters in 1977.
The high point of Rono’s running career was in 1978. In the span of 81 days, he broke four world records in the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters, 3000 meter steeplechase, and 3,000 meters. Rono would never go on to the Olympics because Kenya, his country, boycotted the games in 1976 and 1980.
Steve Puidokas, a six-foot-eleven point guard, sets the Cougar men’s career basketball points record. Puidokas other career records would include scoring average (18.6 points per game), field goals, and rebounds (9.7 per game). He was the second-team all-conference for four straight seasons. Puidokas is the first WSU basketball player to have his number (55) retired.
Hugh Campbell, WSU record-breaking football pass receiver, is voted MVP of the East-West Shrine game after setting a new record after catching 10 passes. The East-West Shrine game, sponsored by the Shriners, has been played annually since 1925 and teams are drawn from the two geographic regions east and west, including Canada. Campbell played wide receiver from 1958 to 1962 and during that time he appeared in the Hula Bowl, the College All-Star game, the Coaches All-America game and the aforementioned Shrine Bowl, and while at WSU he was awarded the 1961 W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast. After playing for WSU, Campbell went on to play for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and coach several Canadian and US college and professional football teams.
Weldon B. “Hoot” Gibson graduates with a B.A. in Economics. Gibson attended WSC with the help of his Uncle, Arthur “Buck” Bailey, and was a member of the football team and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After graduating from WSC, Gibson studied at the Stanford Graduate School of Business receiving an MBA in 1940 and a Ph.D. in 1950. Gibson was a long-time executive at the Stanford Research Institute from 1947 until 1988. He earned the Legion of Merit in 1946, Commander of the British Empire in 1947, and the Washington State University Distinguished Alumni Award for his role in creating the Washington State University Foundation.
The football stadium at Rogers Field gets a complete renovation. The new horseshoe-shaped structure is named for former Washington State Governor, John R. Rogers. The wood bleachers supported by concrete pilings seat 23,500 fans.
During spring break of 1970, a fire destroyed the wood stands. The Cougars were forced to play off-campus for two years while the university built Martin Stadium.
Mel Hein and Glen “Turk” Edwards receive the honor after anchoring the Cougar defensive line and leading the team to a 9-0 regular season record and a spot in the 1931 Rose Bowl against Alabama.
Hein goes on to play 15 seasons for the New York Giants (1931-45) and never misses a down due to injury. He is the first player and only offensive lineman to win the NFL MVP award (1938), and he helps the Giants win the championship that season.
In 1963, Hein is selected as part of the inaugural class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
After college, Edwards plays 9 seasons in the NFL for the Braves/Redskins beginning in 1932, winning All-NFL honors from major media outlets every year of his career except his last one. Following the end of his playing career, he continues with the Redskins as an assistant coach from 1941 to 1945 and then as the head coach from 1946 to 1948. After 17 consecutive seasons with the Redskins, Edwards then retires from professional football. He is selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.
Foster begins a 21-year tenure at the college as graduate manager and later, athletic director. He plays a pivotal role in the construction of almost every major sports facility on campus, including Bohler Gymnasium, Hollingbery Fieldhouse, and the original university golf course, and oversees enlargement of the football stadium.
Known as “Froggy” because of his drooping upper eyelids, Foster also hires (with Doc Bohler) the famous coaches who make up WSC’s “Golden Age” of athletics: Babe Hollingbery, Buck Bailey, Jack Friel, and others. He also helps pioneer sports broadcasting on KWSU, and introduces Dads’ Day to the WSU calendar of annual activities.
The WSU Cougars head to the 84th Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years. Sadly, the Cougars lose to Michigan, 21-16, a sad end to an otherwise great season. The Cougars were predicted to finish seventh in the Pac-10, but won the conference title and posted a 10-1 record. In February, football coach Mike Price signed an eight-year contract extension through December 31, 2005.
Chuck “Bobo” Brayton won his 1,000th game as Cougar head baseball coach in a 14-6 victory against Eastern Washington at WSU’s Bailey Field. The field was renamed Bailey-Brayton after Bobo retired in 1994, having accumulated 1,162 career wins at WSU. Brayton’s predecessor, Buck Bailey, coached the Cougars from 1927-1962, and Brayton followed from 1963-1994. The two combined to coach the Cougars for over 60 years.
Coach Jim Walden leads WSU Cougar football against Brigham Young University in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. In the WSU Cougars first bowl game in 51 years, they narrowly lose with a score of 36-38.
The home of WSU Baseball, Bailey Field, opens after relocating. The field was previously at the site of today’s Mooberry Field. In 1984, the field was one of the first NCAA fields to be lit for night games. In 2013, WSU installed an artificial turf mound, the only such mound among west coast schools.
The 1950 Cougar Baseball team finished second in the fourth College World Series and the first to be held in what would become its permanent home, Omaha, Nebraska. The Cougs finished the season with a 32-6 record. They defeated Tufts, Alabama, and Rutgers in the World Series, but fell to Texas in their final two games. The 1950 team was the first of four Cougar baseball teams (as of 2015) to represent WSU at the College World Series.
The men’s boxing team are national champions. WSC sent four boxers to the championship and all four reached the finals. Ed McKinnen and Roy “Pooch” Petragallo won national titles to give the Cougars the national championship. Longtime boxing coach Issac “Ike” Deeter coached the 1937 team.
Legendary coach and athletic director J. Fred “Doc” Bohler leads the Crimson and Gray to a 25-1 record during the 1916-17 season, the best record in school history. The team features the core of Bohler’s outstanding 1915-16 squad: Roy Bohler (captain and brother of the coach), Ed Copeland, Bob Moss, Ivan Price, and Al Sorenson. The team’s accomplishment is even more remarkable considering it plays 18 of 26 games on the road.
In 1917, college basketball doesn’t yet have a formal way to determine a national champion at the end of the season. A panel of experts chosen by the Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936 in part to retroactively select national champions in football and basketball for seasons in which a formal champion wasn’t determined, didn’t forget WSC. In 1943, the foundation declares Bohler’s team 1917 national champions.
The previously undefeated Cougars fall to Alabama, 24-0, a game attended by an estimated 60,000 fans on a drizzly New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
Pacific Coast Conference champions thanks to a dominating defense, the WSC defensive line is anchored by All-American Mel Hein and Glenn “Turk” Edwards, considered two of the greatest Cougars ever.
As a psychological ploy, Washington State dresses for the game in red helmets, jerseys, pants, socks, and shoes.
Orin Ercel “Babe” Hollingbery begins a 17-year stint as head coach of the Cougar football team and earns legendary status in the process. He compiles a career win-loss record of 93–53–14, the most wins by any coach in Cougar football history. Under Hollingbery, Washington State goes undefeated at home from 1926 to 1935. He guides the team to the 1931 Rose Bowl against Alabama.
Hollingbery coaches some of the greatest names in Washington State history, including Turk Edwards, Mel Hein, Mel Dressel, Dale Gentry, Ed Goddard, Harold Ahlskog, Elmer Schwartz, Bob Kennedy, Nick Suseoff, Bill Sewell, John Bley, and Herbert “Butch” Meeker.
Hollingbery remains at WSC until World War II, when WSC temporarily ceases playing football.
Hollingbery Fieldhouse, built in 1929, and is renamed for the coach in 1963. In 1979, the College Football Hall of Fame selects him for membership.
Five-foot-five, 150-pound quarterback Herbert “Butch” Meeker becomes an instant Cougar legend after leading his 1-3-1 team to a stunning 17-12 win over a good USC team in Los Angeles—Washington State’s first-ever win over the Trojans. The team returns to Pullman and is treated to a hero’s welcome, with students let out of class to go to the Union Pacific depot to greet the players’ train.
Meeker repeats his football magic multiple times from 1925 to 1927, earning him the title of “the fightingest little football player ever to don a Cougar uniform.”
After Washington Governor Roland Hartley presents the college with its first live cougar mascot at halftime of a game in 1927, it is quickly named Butch in Meeker’s honor.
A crowd of 10,000 in Pasadena watches as undefeated Washington State shuts out Brown in the second Rose Bowl game ever played. Coach William “Lone Star” Dietz and his Cougar squad serve as extras in the football film “Tom Brown of Harvard” each morning and then hit the practice field in the afternoon during the two weeks leading up to the bowl game. Each player receives $100 for the 14 mornings of movie work.
The college inaugurates the sport by defeating the University of Idaho, 10-0. The team doesn’t employ a paid coach until 1900, but advisers in the first couple years include newspaperman William Goodyear, agriculturalist William J. Spillman, and young athlete Fred Waite.
1894 team, reproduced in a 1934 40th Reunion Banquet brochure. Item held at WSU’s MASC, Collection WSU 31Pullman Herald, November 1894.
