apple cup

Maybe it's one of those misery-loves-company things, or that the weather wasn't its typical soggy and gray, but the Huskies and Cougars fans who arrived early in the day Saturday to set up their tailgate celebrations seemed to be getting along almost like they were rooting for the same team.

Cougskies? Huskgars?

"This game is about us, about Washington state," said Greg Corbett, a long-time Huskies fan who said he has been tailgating these games for the past 32 years. Corbett said the somewhat miserable performance of both teams this season is irrelevant when it comes to the Apple Cup.

"For this rivalry, the teams' records don't make any difference," he said. Corbett and his buddy, Gary LaVoy, had come early to stake out turf for the rest of their gang. Near the UW's Fluke Hall, away from and above the main village of RVs and picnic tents, they went about the business of setting up bowls of chips, coolers of beers, stoves, propane heaters and everything else needed to enjoy the game in style.

Down in the main parking lot north of the stadium, most of the early colors ran purple, of course. But smatterings of crimson could be found here and there.

"If the Cougs don't win, I'm not sure I can go back to work," said Karen, a WSU fan who (for reasons that will become clear) did not want to give her last name. She and her companion -- let's call him Jim, and let's call him a husband -- admitted to wrapping her employer's car with Cougars flags and banners and then covering it in plastic shrink wrap.

Yet here were these semi-anonymous shrink-wrappers eating and drinking with a gang of Huskies. What next? Peace in the Middle East? Why this friendly mingling of vicious competitors?

"They had the camper van," explained Jim, nodding toward a purple-clad van full of UW fans.

Another disturbing example of tolerance and friendship evidenced by these supposed arch rivals was marked by billows of smoke. Edwin Elefson was smoking and cooking a 260-lb pig inside a huge BBQ he had made from an abandoned propane tank. Elefson is a Cougars fan. But he was cooking for a crowd of some 150 people, mostly Huskies.

"When it's served up, that pig is gone in a half hour," Elefson noted. "It's marinated with love!"

"We bring these guys in to join us for the Apple Cup only," explained his friend, David Anderson, a UW fan. Anderson said he and his UW contingent have been celebrating the Apple Cup by tailgating with Elefson and his WSU cohorts since 2002. He went on to talk about another long-term friendship his bunch has had with Michigan fans after an amazingly generous tailgate event the Wolverines threw for the UW fans a few years ago.

For Anderson, tailgating is not so much about being rivals as it is about celebrating a football game from two different ends of the field.

"We're friendly with all opposition teams ... oh, except for the Ducks," Anderson said. Huskies, he noted, really don't much care for the University of Oregon fans. It's a long story.

Another Huskies fan, Kristian Ulriksen, was flying the flags of Norway and Ireland in addition to the purple. Born in Ballard, Kristian said he decided to fly his ethnic banner so his friends could find his van and picnic spot in the parking lot. The Irish flag represented his companion, Jody Mitchell, for whom the event is an entirely novel experience.

"This is my first Apple Cup," Mitchell said. She said she was from New England, where "college football is not so big" -- mostly because there's lots of small colleges, no big football powerhouses and nothing like the Apple Cup.

"This is amazing," said Mitchell. "I love tailgating. Next year, we plan to do it in an RV." ORLANDO -- Pizzuti Cos. and the city of Orlando are expected to ink a deal next week for an 11-story office building that would house the Orlando Fire Department's headquarters and Fire Station No. 1 on the first three floors.

Some details remain to be worked out, "but in the big picture of things, we've shaken hands," says Scott Hall, senior vice president at Columbus, Ohio-based Pizzuti.

The deal, which the Orlando City Council will consider at its Nov. 26 meeting, calls for Pizzuti to lease the air rights for $200,000 per year at the old Lynx bus station on the east side of the railroad tracks between West Central Boulevard and West Pine Street. The lease would be in effect for 75 years, with a 24-year option to renew.

Every five years, the rent would increase based on the Consumer Price Index. After 30 years, an independent anaylsis would determine if the rent rate matches the market conditions. The analysis then would be updated -every 20 years. Apple Cup
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University of Washington logo
Washington State logo

The Apple Cup is the annual college football game between the two largest universities in Washington and cross-state rivals the University of Washington (UW) Huskies and the Washington State University (WSU) Cougars. Traditionally, it was the final game of the regular season, played on the Saturday preceding Thanksgiving at Husky Stadium in Seattle during odd years, and WSU's Martin Stadium in Pullman during even years.

From 1950-80 (except for 1954), WSU hosted the game at Spokane's Joe Albi Stadium. The WSU Cougars won three of these fifteen games in Spokane (1958, 1968, 1972), and have won five of the thirteen played at Martin Stadium (1982, 1988, 1992, 1994, 2004).

Before 1962, the teams played for the "Governor's Trophy", but with Washington being famous for its apple crop, the game was renamed the "Apple Cup" in 1962, and the Apple Cup trophy has been awarded to the winning team ever since.

With the recent lengthening of the regular season schedule to 12 games, there was a movement to push the Apple Cup to the other side of Thanksgiving, which would allow a bye week sometime during the season. In the 2006 season, both teams played 12 straight weeks without a break, leaving the two teams noticeably fatigued. For the first time, the 2007 edition of the Apple Cup will be played two days after Thanksgiving. In 2007 each team will have a bye week in early October. Washington's final game will be the week following the Apple Cup, at Hawaii on December 1st.

Beginning with the 2007 Apple Cup (the 100th meeting between Washington and Washington State), the game will be sponsored by Boeing.[1]

The first rivalry game, played in 1900, resulted in a tie between UW and the Washington Agricultural College. Through 2006, there have been 99 games between the schools, with the Huskies holding a 64-29-6 (.676) advantage. UW's longest win streak has been eight games, achieved twice: (1959-66 and 1974-81). Although WSU has never won three consecutive Apple Cups, the Cougars have won consecutive Cups on seven separate occasions: (1929-30, 1953-54, 1957-58, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1982-83, and 2004-05). The upset win by the Huskies in Pullman in 2006 thwarted the Cougars' latest (and best) chance to achieve their first "three-peat" in the Apple Cup.[2]