Sports

Winter 2012

Bob Hanson ’82—When bowling was big

Bob Hanson was just 18 when he bowled his first 300 game.

He remembers that day in 1977 when he threw 12 consecutive strikes on lanes 9 and 10 at Tower Lanes in Tacoma. At the time he was the third bowler to ever record a 300 game in the history of the Tacoma Junior League. The achievement, which made the front page of the Tacoma News Tribune, was just one of many milestones in Hanson’s 47-year career. But nothing has topped being part of the WSU men’s 1982 national championship bowling team, he says. “When you win something with the team, it is an … » More …

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 …

Mike Leach coaching WSU football players in 2012

Fall 2012

A talk with Mike Leach about life, animals…and Cougar football

I understand how the interview with Washington State University’s new head football coach Mike Leach drifts from Cougar football to life in Pullman and pirates in Key West (I asked that one), but bulls in ancient Rome? The Tokyo fish market?

It starts out on track, as I meet with Leach at his office in Bohler Gym looking onto the practice field and the south side of Martin Stadium. As workers on scaffolds rush to complete the new addition to the stadium before fall, Leach points out proudly how the project is on time and under budget.

He grabs several posters of the proposed football … » More …

Spring 2012

Let him swim: The Tom Jager story

On a Friday evening in August 1989, Tom Jager is about to race in a 50-meter freestyle event at the U.S. National Championships in Los Angeles.

The race marks the return of Olympic gold medalist Matt Biondi, who dueled with Jager in the same event at the 1988 Olympic Games less than a year earlier.

The capacity crowd of 2,500 is settling in for what promises to be a memorable race when Jager is called for a false start and disqualified, though TV replays indicate otherwise.

Jager’s reaction is immortalized in a New York Times photo taped to his Gibb Pool office window. His arms … » More …

Winter 2007

History was made…The fight for equity for women’s athletics in Washington

Back in the late 1960s, when Jo Washburn was athletic director for women’s intramural sports at Washington State University, she had to stretch $1,200 to cover all the expenses of the volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, field hockey, skiing, and tennis teams.

Women’s athletics was a second-class affair. The athletes had to carpool to away games and sleep four to a hotel room to save money. They had to buy their own uniforms. They helped set up spectator seating for their meets. And they trained only when the facilities weren’t being used by the men’s teams. Few, if any, received athletic scholarships.

Meanwhile, their male counterparts traveled … » More …