When the 1981 Cougars headed to Seattle for their annual Apple Cup battle with the Huskies, the game carried extra emphasis . . . a Rose Bowl berth to the winner was at stake.
However, done in by six turnovers (three fumbles, three interceptions) the Cougars saw their Rose Bowl dreams denied while Washington punched its ticket to Pasadena with a 23-10 win.
"The one thing I noticed was Washington had played in championship games before and Washington State hadn't," remembers Paul Sorensen, an All-American free safety on the '81 team. "You don't realize how huge a deal that is until you actually play in a game like that and understand how much effort you have to make above and beyond what you normally make.
"They were used to it and we were not," Sorensen continued. "That was the surprise; the intensity tempo and the level and the ferocity of that game went up about four notches. It was something I noticed and wished we could have a do over."
For Mike Walker, a defensive tackle on the 1981 squad, the memories of the 1981 Apple Cup were still fresh in his memory as the 1997 edition approached.
"I kept stressing to the defensive line: `Don't let this happen,'" Walker said. "I brought that up everyday. Those guys were on a mission to prevent that from happening again."
Unlike 1981 where a win guaranteed a Rose Bowl berth, the 1997 Cougars needed a little help from, ironically, UCLA.
Since opening the season with losses to WSU and Tennessee, the Bruins, now ranked seventh (AP) and ninth (ESPN/Coaches) in the country while WSU was 11th in both polls, had run off eight straight wins, the latest a 52-28 disposing of Washington. That loss erased any remaining Rose Bowl hopes for the Huskies.
Entering their Nov. 22 games, WSU and UCLA both had 6-1 conference records, as did Arizona State. For the Cougars to punch their ticket to Pasadena, they could finish in a two-way tie with UCLA or a three-way tie with UCLA and Arizona State. If WSU finished in a two-way tie with Arizona State, the Sun Devils would make a repeat trip to the Rose Bowl as a result of their win over the Cougars earlier in the month.
So if the Cougars beat Washington to improve to 7-1, they needed UCLA to defeat USC and improve its record to 7-1 as well, ensuring the tie. If UCLA lost and the Cougars won, then WSU would have to wait until Nov. 28, when Arizona State hosted Arizona, to find out its fate.
A WSU loss to Washington didn't eliminate the Cougars' Rose Bowl and Pac-10 title hopes, but they would need losses from both UCLA and Arizona State in order for that to be fulfilled.
But losing had become a rare occurrence for the '97 Cougars, and, as their win tally grew each week, so did the media spotlight on them. That spotlight would be even more glaring Apple Cup week.
"I remember showing up at the hotel and there were tons of media," Gleason said. "It was one of the first times I had been surrounding by that much media."
With the ever-increasing attention paid to his team, Mike Price preached to his players not to give the opposition bulletin board material.
In other words, be respectful of your opponents when talking with the media.
And when talking with reporters the Sunday of Apple Cup week, Chris Jackson used the word "respect" several times, but not quite in the context that Price was hoping.
"Last year they didn't show us any respect," Jackson was quoted in several newspapers. "So I don't have an ounce of respect for them. They have some good players but I don't respect them as players or people."
Other Jackson observations included: "I'll be damned if I'm going to let the Huskies get in my way of going to the Rose Bowl," and "we've seen teams that don't have as good an offense as we do put up 40 points on them so we're looking forward to studying them pretty well and going out to put 40, 50 points on them."
