Apple Cup band incident shows true meaning of football

Growing up in the Spokane area, chances are good you’ll be a Cougar fan. When you add in a WSU alumni parent, that chance increases tenfold.

I was no exception. My family rooted for the Cougs for decades, wearing our crimson and gray with pride. Even during my teenage years when football was sidelined due to other interests, when asked, I always aligned myself with Washington State.

This got tougher when I moved out of the area. I lived north of Seattle for years, a stone’s throw away from the heart of Husky Country, where Dubs was the admittedly adorable mascot and purple and gold bedecked everything in sight all year around.

And while I do love me some purple — you just have to sneak a peek at my hair to know that — I could never fully get behind the University of Washington team. It felt like a betrayal of my roots. Even when my in-laws got together to watch a game and root for the Huskies, I couldn’t quite get there. It just wasn’t in me.

I caught an endless amount of flak for my loyalties from Western Washingtonians, ranging from good-natured ribbing to outright horror. But I’ve never felt more honored to support my family’s team than after last week’s Apple Cup.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or avoiding sports news all together, you’ve probably heard that on Nov. 22, a UW bus carrying members of the Husky band flipped en route to Pullman, sending 47 people to the hospital. The group understandably decided not to continue to the Apple Cup, and their loss was certainly felt. (Not that it hindered the Husky’s performance on the field any. Darn it.)

But the beautiful thing to come out of such a harrowing occurrence was the conduct displayed by WSU and the graciousness of UW, when despite a legendary rivalry, the Cougar band spent a day frantically learning a song they never thought they’d have to play — the UW fight song, “Bow Down to Washington.”

“The Huskies are missing their band, and that’s an important part of the gameday experience,” Washington State band director Troy Bennefield told several local news outlets. “We want to honor the camaraderie and their dedication and show our sportsmanship.”

I found that post-game, I didn’t much care about the 28-15 Husky win, or the $10 bet I’d lost to my Seattle-supporting father-in-law.

Instead of fighting like cats and dogs, the two teams came together in the aftermath of disaster, and proved that while our loyalties may run deep, our humanity runs deeper. The sportsmanship displayed that day made me proud to follow football, and prouder to be a Cougar fan.

(Don’t worry guys. We’ll get ‘em next year.)

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.