Some Cougs motor their RVs over Snoqualmie Pass or drive them down from Spokane. Others fly in from Sea-Tac, grab their rigs out of a nearby storage lot, and head for campus.
No matter the route or method, as the saying goes, We always find our way back home.
Every Pullman football game is a homecoming. Perhaps no one knows that better than the die-hard Coug fans who come to campus with their motorhomes or other decked-out Coug mobiles for weekends packed with pomp, circumstance, and lots of fun.
Fun is meeting new fans and catching up with old classmates and other alumni and friends. Fun is sharing favorite tailgate recipes. Playing Cougar cornhole. Watching the marching band make its rounds before kickoff. Cheering for players as they arrive at the stadium.
And, of course, going to the game itself is fun. High-fiving and taking photos with Butch T. Cougar. Taking in the half-time show. Shouting along with Glenn Johnson, “The Voice of the Cougs” for 47 years this year, as he announces, “Aaaaaaaaaand that’s another Cougar first down!”
And forever rooting for the home team.
South Beasley Lot
South Beasley Lot, aka RV Lot One, holds Washington State University’s premier motorhome sites. For many Coug tailgaters, this spot, located directly across Stadium Way from the football field, is most desirable because of its proximity to the starting line.
No matter the lot—top-tier or tucked-away—“everyone’s a friend when you tailgate,” says William “Will” McGaughey (’24 Const. Mgmt.), showing off his Coug mobile: a 2006 Wilderness by Fleetwood. “This was my grad present. My parents bought a new one and gave me their old one. They bought it from a WSU alum who used it when his kids went to school here. They picked it up the day they dropped me off in August 2019.”
McGaughey helped organize the Alpha Gamma Rho alumni tailgate for the 2025 Homecoming game. On the grill: burgers. “The active members can take back anything we don’t eat,” says McGaughey, president and advisor of his fraternity’s alumni board. “I live in Pullman so I am very close with the active members, and I have got to know them very well.”
An alum donated the spot in the prime RV lot and, McGaughey says, “We plan on having another alumni tailgate for the homecoming football game this year.”
Last year, his uncle and aunt were tailgating next door. On the menu at their RV, a 2025 Alliance Delta: a game-day hashbrown omelet, their go-to steak tacos, and four cases of beer.
Karen (Jentges) (’93 Comm.) and Bruce McGaughey (’93 Comm.), of Issaquah, met in a classroom in the basement of Murrow Hall during summer semester heading into senior year. The best part of Coug tailgating? “Community,” she says. “Camaraderie,” he says.
“It’s the liveliness,” she continues. “It’s the mixing of current students and alumni. It’s parents and their kids. Parents get to come back and relive little glimpses of their college years, the best years, the easy years.”
That’s their attitude toward tailgating, too. “We like to keep it easy,” she says, noting 2026 marks their fourth year of tailgating at their alma mater, where Gracie, the second of their three kids, is now a junior. Youngest Ian is a freshman this fall. Tailgating reminds Bruce “how special it is here. It feels really good to be here.”
Says Karen, “We are excited about the 2026 football season and more tailgating! Go Cougs!”
Continuing down the string of RVs is Donny Dalton, who flew from Arizona to watch his son, No. 92 Darrion Dalton, a red-shirt senior and transfer from San Diego State University, play in the homecoming game. He ended up appearing in all 13 games during the 2025 season and starting in the final eight.
Proud dad Donny played football at the University of Minnesota for two seasons: 1996 and 1997. Brother Donovan played football from 2018 to 2022 at the University of Hawaii and the University of Oregon. They’re both here in a rented RV to support their son and sibling.
On the grill: chicken wings, drumsticks, and ribs rubbed with a secret blend of spices. No, Dalton won’t share his recipe.
Winding around toward the front of the lot, where the toniest of parking lot parties take place, find Ron Claudon (’82 Busi.), owner of Valley RV in Kent and Valley GMC in Auburn, winner of the 2025 Biff Brotherton Cougar Spirit Award, and the “mayor” of RV Lot One. He and wife Lorianne (Betts) (’85 Apparel, Merch., Des. & Tex.)—they walked together at the 1982 graduation—have been season ticket holders and Cougar Athletic Fund members for four decades.
Since 2010, Valley RV has sponsored the premier lot, basically turning the couple into its hosts. Their rig, a 2022 Jayco Seneca, “ends up being a stop-off place,” says Claudon, who was on the Cougar football team in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Injuries stunted his career on the playing field. Tailgating “is special to me,” he says. “It’s a way to stay in touch with teammates, fraternity brothers, and classmates, especially for those like me who don’t do Facebook or social media.”
The three Claudon kids—Jaclynn (’09 MEd), 2004 freshman tight-end walk-on Bryant (x’06), and Nicole (x’15), who was involved with Alpha Omicron Pi—are Cougs, too. And their kids—nine Claudon grandkids in all—also get decked out in crimson-and-gray gear for tailgates.
“When our kids were attending WSU, it was a time to connect with them and their friends. Now their friends are all coming back to tailgate and, instead of just drinking beer, they are also changing diapers in the motorhome,” Claudon says. “Lorianne and I cherish those friendships along the Coug RV family.”
Green Lot 1 Near Fine Arts Building
Technically, this isn’t an RV lot. But it’s a favorite, somewhat “obscure” spot for “The Tailgater,” an old WSU delivery truck purchased from WSU Surplus circa 2009 and now painted crimson and gray. “It’s basically our tailgate storage facility,” says Sadie (Reinbold) Boone (’04 Hum. Dev.), who aims to attend all home games with her husband, Daniel Brady Boone (’05 History) and about 30 of their closest friends, plus their kids.
Most are alumni. Some live in Pullman. Others come from Seattle, Bellingham, and Portland, Oregon. They set up themed potlucks—a taco bar, for example—via group texts. Even though it’s a fairly big group, “We don’t do the big lots,” Boone says, noting this one is lined with grassy areas for the children to run around and play on. The back of The Tailgater also doubles as a stage for the kids to practice dance routines and Cougar cheers.
Spring Street Lot
From the far-flung RV Lot Six, located on the west side of campus near Reaney Park and Brelsford WSU Visitor Center, it’s a quick walk downtown. That’s one reason Ward (’90 Mech. Eng.) and Lin Kellogg (’89 Gen. Stud., Hum.) of Loon Lake like this spot. “We like it because it’s easy,” she says, passing around homemade chocolate chip cookies while tailgating with a group of about a dozen friends and family members who have been meeting up here for some 20 years. “Last night,” she admits, “we were up till 2.”
Soon, her husband is waxing nostalgic about coming to college 40 years ago. “I remember the first time I drove here, me and my pickup and this little trunk of clothes. It was a beautiful summer evening. I saw the Coug sign on the side of that building on Highway 26. It was so beautiful. It really was,” he says, reiterating, “This is it. This is home.”
Eileen and John Lawrence of Othello have been tailgating in RV Lot Six “probably 10 years.” Before that, they had been hanging out in RV Lot Two, behind the indoor practice facility. But, she says, “It started getting really rowdy up there.”
Neither went to WSU. But they’ve been Coug fans since “maybe ’69. The only time we would miss a game is if one of us was sick.
“I think it’s the people we met through tailgating. We know just about everybody in this lot. That’s what’s nice. We watch the kids grow up here.”
First Down on the Farm
Former student Kirk and wife Mellissa (Ferguson) Dugger (’00 Ag. Tech.) host Coug campers on their Palouse farm nearly 7 miles north of Pullman, providing free shuttle service to and from campus as well as live music on the “farm stage” and no-host food and drink vendors. Weather-permitting, they also offer family-friendly movies on an inflatable movie screen.
The couple started First Down on the Farm in 2019. She came up with the idea. He came up with the name. The rewards, she says, “have been huge. In meeting so many great people and watching strangers arrive and leave with new friends—quite often requesting to park with them in the future—we’ve grown a big Coug family out here on the farm.
“Each year we’re in business we come up with new ways to improve and grow but our mission has always been the same: provide Cougs with an affordable and convenient place to camp in a family-friendly environment. At the same time, we find a lot of joy in sharing farm life with those who might otherwise have minimal exposure to agriculture. We enjoy sharing information on the greater Palouse region, showcasing local eateries and points of interest for our guests, and just in general fostering Cougar spirit!”
Want to share your Coug tailgate traditions? Contact Washington State Magazine at wsm@wsu.edu.