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Jason Krump ’93

Ivan Price (Courtesy WSU Athletics)
Winter 2018

A sacrifice, forgotten not

World War I ended 100 years ago this November 11, where 116,516 Americans gave their lives. Forty-two of them had attended Washington State College and their names grace a plaque on the Veterans Memorial at the heart of the Pullman campus.

Ivan Price was one of the fallen.

Price graduated from Pullman High School in 1915. He played football, basketball, and track, and helped Pullman High to the state football and basketball championships his senior year.

That fall he entered WSC and played on the freshman basketball team. The following season, Price started as forward in all 26 games for a Crimson and Gray varsity … » More …

Winter 2016

Surreal Rio

By making it to the Olympics, there comes the realization that you are one of a special few.

 

It was at the Closing Ceremony, among thousands of her fellow athletes and cheering spectators inside Maracanã Stadium, when the realization of her achievement after years of rigorous practice hit Lisa Roman ’12.

“When you’re there with all the athletes, you realize, ‘Wow, I am an Olympian.’”

 

Roman, who rowed for Washington State from 2010 to 2012, was a member of Team Canada’s women’s eight boat that finished fifth at the Olympics in Rio.

Speaking from London, Ontario, the site of the Canadian National Training … » More …

Olympian and WSU Hall of Famer Lee Orr
Summer 2016

Racing into history

The Olympic moment of WSU Hall of Famer Lee Orr

As rain fell in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 1936, Lee Orr, a Washington State College student not yet 20 years old, didn’t realize the magnitude of the events surrounding him.

“I was pretty young and didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

It had been over seven decades since Orr raced against Jesse Owens at the ’36 Olympic Games when, in 2008, the soft-spoken Orr recalled his Olympic experience in Germany.

A year after the interview, Orr passed away; however, the story he told lives in sports lore.

Owens’s four gold medals and his … » More …

Jason Gesser
Winter 2014

The right color back on

Ask Jason Gesser ’02 about the finest decision he’s made and his answer is as pinpoint as each of the 70 career touchdown passes he threw at Washington State.

“Coming to Washington State was the perfect and best decision I made in my life,” he says. “Besides marrying my wife,” Gesser is quick to add, with a laugh. He married his college girlfriend Kali Surplus ’02, a former WSU volleyball player, and the couple has three children.

In his new role as the assistant director of development with the Cougar Athletic Fund, the fundraising arm of the Washington State University Athletic Department, his … » More …

Fall 2013

Composing Cougar soccer

A music business graduate from Birmingham-Southern College, Keidane (Kih-Dawn-EE) McAlpine had designs on moving to Atlanta to work in the music industry.

He soon realized his disposition and the music business were discordant. “I’m not mean enough for that,” he says with a laugh.

Fortunately, McAlpine’s time at college had created other, more harmonious, opportunities.

“The doors that kept opening were the soccer doors,” says McAlpine, who is now the Washington State women’s soccer coach.

After his college playing days, BSC women’s coach, Lorrin Etka-Shepherd, offered him a position.

“She said I got a parttime job if I want it,” he remembers. “Next thing … » More …

Bob Robertson
Winter 2012

That voice

It’s 8:00 a.m., Saturday, September 8, when Bob Robertson arrives at Martin Stadium. Four hours from now, kickoff between the Washington State Cougars and Eastern Washington University will occur in the first game at the newly renovated stadium.

And when kickoff does happen, Robertson’s signature voice will carry the action to Cougar football fans for the 510th time.

It’s a voice Cougars everywhere connect with Washington State football—even when at a rival school.

“I must say when it worked, and when I was in Portland and the Cougars were playing, I’d get Bob Robertson on the radio,” says Washington State Director of Athletics Bill Moos … » More …