![Jayden de Laura, then WSU quarterback, waves the WSU flag in a crowd after 2021 Apple Cup victory](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2022/01/2022spring-cup-runneth-1-198x198.jpg)
Football
![Jayden de Laura, then WSU quarterback, waves the WSU flag in a crowd after 2021 Apple Cup victory](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2022/01/2022spring-cup-runneth-1-198x198.jpg)
![Cardboard cutouts of WSU football fans in the stands during 2020 home football game](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2021/08/2021fall-cutouts-stands-thumbs-198x198.jpg)
Stand-in fans at the 2020 home football game
Watch a slideshow of stand-in fans and the Cougs in action during 2020’s singular home football game versus Oregon.
Please note that Pac-12 radio highlights of the game will play with this slideshow if you allow your browser to auto-play sound.
![Cougar snarling](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/11/2020winter-butch-brawl-effect-thumb-198x198.jpg)
The Butch Brawl
The plan seemed simple enough: launch Kenyon “Ken” Bement into the air at just the right moment so the Cougs could reclaim their cougar.
University of Washington fans had stolen it more than a decade earlier. And Bement and his friends on the Yell Squad decided enough was enough. It was time to bring the stuffed cougar mascot back home to Pullman.
They spread the word through the student section of the stands at Husky Stadium during the rainy, muddy Apple Cup on November 12, 1932. And almost everything went according to plan.
“The basic idea is to pick up Ken—he’s the smallest of the cheerleaders—and, as the Huskies parade by at halftime with the stuffed cougar, he’s going to go up … » More …
![Butchmen spelled out by crowd for WSU football game](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/10/2020winter-more-butchmen-thumb-198x198.jpg)
Butchmen memories
They got Butch where the cougar needed to be: on the field for football games.
Some forty years after Washington State University ended the tradition of a live cougar mascot and the Butchmen disbanded, alumni share memories of the spirit group.
Al Kirkpatrick
“Our job was to get the cougar to the football games and then, after we would score a touchdown or field goal, we would take him around the track,” recalls retired Colfax dentist Al Kirkpatrick (’75 Zool.), a member of the Butchmen for three years.
One time, he and his fellow Butchmen simply couldn’t get the cougar out of his cage and into its trailer. “We were the ones … » More …
![Glenn Johnson speaks into microphone](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/07/2020fall-sidelines-the-voice-thumb-198x198.jpg)
“The Voice”
![Cougar superhero illustration](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/07/2020fall-superheroes.1280-1-198x198.jpg)
Rolovich pays it forward
![WSU's Butch Cougar in a crowd](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/07/2020fall-sidelines-cougar-confidential-thumb-198x198.jpg)
Cougar confidential
![Icon of football coach Nick Rolovich with WSU hat](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/04/2020summer-new-coach-thumb-198x198.gif)
New coach, new era
![Nick Rolovich claps at his introduction as the new football coach at WSU](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2020/04/2020summer-rolovich-players-thumb-198x198.jpg)
Nick Rolovich gets creative with scholarship awards
In the ever-revolving carousel of college football, a team’s head coach is often the most permanent fixture of a program.
Whether engendering support with their winning records or quotable moments during press conferences, college coaches must become well known if they hope to maintain a supportive fan base and attract the next generation of standouts on the field.
WSU Head Football Coach Nick Rolovich has spent the past four months acquainting himself with Coug fans; in-person at spur of the moment fan meetups or with his deft use of social media. His love … » More …
![Talk Back](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2015/11/2015winter-talkback.png)
TalkBack for Winter 2018
Instrumental journey
The article written by Wenda Reed on the life of Gladys Jennings was excellent. I graduated in ’92, and had Gladys as an advisor in the Food Science & Human Nutrition Department. I transferred to WSU from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in the fall of ’89, and Gladys was instrumental in that process. After phone conversations and mailings, the transition from U of A to WSU was seamless. She would guide me in my course choices while in Alaska, and told me that these courses would directly transfer. She was instrumental in the success I had as a student at … » More …