Apple Cup | Seed of a rivalry

You wonder what the players who suited up for the first edition of what has become our state's greatest football tradition would think about it all now.

Would they be able to comprehend artificial turf and TV timeouts and replay reviews and helmets with facemasks?

On Nov. 29, 1900, when teams from the University of Washington and what is now Washington State University met on a football field for the first time, the game hardly resembled the one that will be played Saturday at Husky Stadium — when the two schools will meet for the 100th time.

"It was more like rugby," said UW coach Tyrone Willingham, who has researched the old days a bit in his three-plus decades in the game.

Indeed, the forward pass was essentially nonexistent, with teams moving the ball almost solely via punishing runs. Touchdowns were worth five points (the same as drop kicks and what were then called place kicks, now known as field goals). While there were 11 players to a side, same as today, teams basically had seven linemen and four backs. There was no real need for wide receivers.

And Cougars and Huskies?

The teams were known then as the Aggies and the Sun Dodgers. The former was a take on WSU's official name at the time, Washington Agriculture College. Each school's current nicknames were still a couple of decades away — Cougars was adopted in 1919, Huskies in 1922.

Each school had played football for a few years — UW since 1889 and WSU beginning in 1894 — before finally meeting each other.

Each played mostly local athletic clubs or high schools its first few years, though WSU played Idaho for its first-ever game and UW played Stanford as early as 1893.

But the turn of the century also marked something of a turning point for football at both schools as each picked that year to pay a football coach for the first time.

UW hired J. Sayre Dodge at $500 for the season (with no bowl-game bonus, we presume). WSU, meanwhile, hired William L. "Wild Bill" Allen, said to be a former player at Michigan, though the book "The Crimson and the Gray," — a history of WSU athletics published in 1989 — posits that he may never have played there at all and was known in large part for "his profuse use of expletives more emphatic than ornamental."

Beefing up their programs, then, also meant beefing up their schedules, and it was decided that the two schools should finally meet, with the game set for Thanksgiving Day at Denny Field, UW's only on-campus site, located in the north section of campus near 45th Street, today occupied by a grass field and sports courts for use by students.

"When it wasn't a quagmire, it was a rock pile," is how the field was described in the book "100 Years of Husky Football."

It was apparently the former on the day of the game, as the account in The Seattle Daily Times called it "a muddy gridiron."

And if there had been point spreads in those days, WSU would likely have been heavily favored. WSU entered the game 4-0, having not allowed a point nor allowed an opponent to get closer than the 25-yard line. UW was 1-1-1. Among its losses was a 12-6 defeat to Idaho in Spokane at which Allen, the WSU coach, scouted in person.

Members of the Idaho side charged later that Allen, who had been a high-school coach in Seattle the year before, was helping UW during that game, according to "The Crimson and the Gray," a charge that Allen denied and that would obviously be unthinkable today.

Allen, however, saw enough of Washington that he reportedly declared WSU would beat UW 30-0. Making matters worse for UW, its captain, the left tackle, fell ill immediately upon returning from the Idaho game.

The Times account took pains to point out that the game began "at 1:30 promptly," and it started out as Allen predicted. WSU dominated early and scored in the first half on a run by quarterback Charles Goodsell but missed "the goal kick" to take a 5-0 lead at halftime.

Washington, however, scored in the 21st minute of the second half, on a touchdown by A.P. Calhoun, according to the Times account, but again the goal kick was missed, and the game remained tied.

It would stay that way, despite accounts that indicate WSU got the better of it, twice driving inside the 5-yard line.

"The Crimson and the Gray" reports that the WSU school newspaper blamed the officials for what it said was a bad call on a lost fumble by the Aggies.

The Times account confirms WSU moved the ball up the field throughout the second half but that each time it got close, "the stone wall of opposition that was erected against them checked their progress."

So it ended there, a 5-5 tie, with the Times headline, "They Waged An Equal War," on the front page the next day, next to one reading, "They Fell To An Awful Death" (an account of a tragedy at the California-Stanford game).

The Times wrote that the game was for the state championship and that the result "leaves the honor undivided and undecided." (Washington would finally claim the honor the next season with a 10-0 win in Pullman, with new coaches on the sidelines for both teams.)

The Times, however, came away impressed with the tie, stating that the game was "the hardest battle ever seen on a local field."

It also reported that 5,000 fans witnessed the game (both schools today record the attendance as 1,500), and that they "kept alive the atmosphere of the gridiron with their cheering, yelling and horn blowing enthusiasm."

Hard feelings were apparently kept to a minimum.

"The Glory of Washington" reports that both teams sat in boxes to take in a play that night as guests of the Grand Opera House, and the Times reported, "The game throughout was a clean and manly exhibition of sport."

Washington, though, had little time for reflection. The team boarded a bus the next day for Eugene, where the Sun Dodgers were beaten by Oregon 43-0 in their first-ever game in that rivalry.

Thus began a UW-WSU tradition that reaches its century mark this season. The teams from UW and WSU have played almost annually since then, and every year since 1945, having skipped a few years in the first decade and during the two World Wars.

"You think about 100 years ago, none of us were alive, the schools didn't look the same, the state didn't look the same," said UW quarterback Carl Bonnell. "But still, that rivalry between the schools is there."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com