Up here on South Hill in Puyallup, there are two high schools. Rogers opened in the late 1960s. Emerald Ridge opened in 2000. Of course the rivalry between the two high schools is intense, and every football season they play against each other for the unofficial title of “King of the Hill.”
My kids went to the newer Emerald Ridge. When Sarah was getting ready to go to her first King of the Hill football game, I warned her not to go over to the Rogers Rams' side of the field even though she had lots of friends at Rogers. She gave me a vague, non-committal answer. Dressed up in her Emerald Ridge Jaguar fur coat and matching Fedora, I dropped the smiling freshman Jaguar off.
When I picked her up, she wasn’t smiling. I figured we'd lost the game. But her glum expression was because she didn’t heed my warning. Somehow she sneaked around the police stationed between the rival stands to find her Ram friend Christina. She got booed and had stuff thrown at her. She did find Christina, which was lucky because the Ram mascot spotted Jaguar Sarah, and tried to pick her up and carry her off the field. Christina linked arms with Sarah, and the mascot couldn’t pick them both up.
Sarah was surprised, hurt, and a little outraged that several of her other Rogers friends didn’t come to her rescue. “I went to elementary school and junior high school with them! They saw what was going on and looked the other way! When Christina came on the Emerald Ridge side, nobody went after her!”
When I dropped her off her sophomore year, I couldn’t resist asking if she was planning on going over to the Rogers side of the field. She glared and then gave me a very definite, “NO!”
In our newspaper, The News Tribune out of Tacoma, there’s a feature called “Around the World.” People travel around the world and snap a picture of themselves at famous landmarks holding a copy of The News Tribune. I always like checking out these photos.
Last month, there was a picture of a guy dressed in a Seattle Seahawks jersey standing with his newspaper in front of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin before the Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers game. The caption read: “Brett Favre threw 3 interceptions and broke his ankle in the Minnesota loss to Green Bay. I was representing our 1st place Seahawks and was hazed throughout the game!! So much fun!!!”
I saved that picture to show John and Johnny. I watched them carefully as they read the caption. Both of them had the same reaction. They each got a little bemused smile at the end.
I focused on those last two sentences—“hazed throughout the game!! So much fun!!!” My question to the males in my family, “Why would it be fun to make yourself a target and get hazed throughout the game? What, is that a guy thing?”
“Yeah it is.” More smiles.
“I don’t get it.”
Shrugs. "It’s a guy-thing!” Full-on grinning.
This Saturday, December 4, is The Apple Cup. For those of you who don’t live in Washington, it’s the biggest football rivalry in the state. The Washington State Cougars play the University of Washington Huskies. Bets are made between the college Presidents. I have a standing bet with a Husky family who are friends and neighbors (see last year’s Apple Cup blog). Some families straddle the Cougar/Husky split. Newscasters broadcast wearing crimson (WSU) or purple (UW).
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| My Coug Out profile pic, WSU pumpkin carved for Halloween. |
This year on Facebook there’s something called, “Coug Out Facebook.” To participate, you change your profile picture to the WSU logo, or to a picture showing your Cougar spirit. Johnny told me that one of his friends created it, and sent it to 16 of his friends thinking that was as far as it would go. There are now 22,315 participants. Johnny’s girlfriend Sarah is also one of the creators. Daughter Sarah got into a Facebook insult battle because someone posted something saying that even Huskies bleed crimson and she clicked that she liked it. UW must have something similar going on because I’m seeing the Husky logo popping up as some profile pics.
The two universities alternate between playing The Apple Cup in freezing, possibly snowy WSU’s Martin Stadium in Pullman, or in UW’s probably rainy Husky Stadium in Seattle. This year it will be played at WSU in Pullman. Q13 Fox News showed snow plows and 150 workers feverishly removing 20” of snow from Martin Stadium this morning. My two Cougars are reporting that it’s been bone chilling cold this week with temperatures dipping into single digits. They took their ski coats, gloves and boots with them when they left after Thanksgiving. That’s what they’ll wear to the game.
On this side of the state, John and another WSU employee have come up with a brilliant plan to spectate The Apple Cup. John broke the news to me with that same little smile. “We're (that includes me) going to watch The Apple Cup at Harmon Brewing Company.”
Let’s be clear here. I love football, especially college football, even Cougar football despite several losing seasons in a row. I love a good, fierce rivalry. I went to LSU in the SEC. I understand, indeed embrace, college football rivalry. I also love the Harmon Brewing Company restaurant in downtown Tacoma. But, it is basically on the solid purple, University of Washington-Tacoma Husky campus.
We’ll be proudly (or sheepishly?) wearing our Crimson and Gray Cougar colors. I’m sure we’ll be warmer than our kids. In fact, I’m positive things will be very heated as we watch the game from inside Husky territory. I’m pretty sure that there won’t be a mascot who tries to carry me off. I hope that when the game’s over, we can claim like the guy in the newspaper, “So much fun!!!”
Go Cougs!!!!
If you’d like to see what the inside of snowy Martin Stadium looks like on Thursday, December 02, 2010, click on this link:
Laura Keolanui Stark can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. If no more blogs show up after The Apple Cup, please send some Cougars in to rescue us from Harmon Brewing Company in Tacoma.
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