Ironically, three months after defeating USC at Los Angeles for the first time since 1957, the Cougars now called the Trojans’ stadium home.
“Every day practice was open to the public and the kids practiced hard,” Price said. “The aura of being at the Coliseum was special.”
“We practiced at the Coliseum and our locker room for two weeks was USC’s locker room,” Ryan McShane said.
“Being at the Coliseum really worked out well for us,” Sports Information Director Rod Commons said. “It was a familiar place, and we had success there. We had a tremendous media turnout every day. Our practices were open and our coaches and kids were available.”
While the Coliseum served as a lineage to the erasing of an inglorious history for WSU, Price brought in a linkage to the past and created a bridge between Rose Bowl appearances.
Myron Davis, 89, a halfback on the 1931 Rose Bowl Team who lived in the region and one of only seven still living from that team, addressed the 1997 Cougars before their morning practice on Dec. 26.
In addition to making his players aware of the historic significance of the game, Price, as is his philosophy for all bowl games, made sure his players enjoyed the experience without sacrificing the preparation for the game.
“It was hard to put that into words, it feels like it went so fast,” McShane recalled. “We got treated like royalty and it was definitely an experience of a lifetime.”
“I remember having a great time with the team,” Steve Gleason said. “Coach Price was very cool letting us go out and enjoy ourselves. No one got into trouble, which is a testament to the maturity on the team.”
Gleason recalled one moment that particularly stood out for him.
“One of my best memories was on Christmas Day,” he said. “There were dozen of guys who weren’t from California so they didn’t have anywhere to go. We ended up talking about it and said ‘We got to do something.’ ”
“Here I am 20 years old and I haven’t been without my family on Christmas Day ever,” Gleason added. “We ended up getting a huge group of us and going to Disneyland for Christmas and it was just great. It got our minds off the fact that we were a long way from home for Christmas. That was one of my best memories from that trip.”
“It was our first time to a big bowl like that and Coach Price let us enjoy it,” Leaf said. “But he got us ready to play.”
While Price let the players enjoy this experience, he didn’t hesitate to enjoy the experience himself.
“I remember Mike’s comment when he went down for the pre-Rose Bowl press conference in Pasadena,” Commons said. “He said, ‘Hell froze over today.’ Because the standing joke around the Palouse was the Cougars will go to the Rose Bowl when hell freezes over.”
No one could confirm if hell froze over or not, but one thing was without debate. The combination of WSU’s first Rose Bowl appearance in nearly seven decades with Michigan, the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, made the Rose Bowl a must-see event.
Just two days after the Apple Cup, the WSU Athletic Department placed Rose Bowl tickets on sale, with priority given to season ticket holders and donors.
“For alumni and boosters, people who have supported the program for so long, you kind of hit the pot of gold,” said Commons. “There were people who said, ‘I don’t care if we win another football game, we’ve been to the Rose Bowl in my lifetime.’ The tickets that year were the most in-demand Rose Bowl ticket in history.”
WSU ticket allotment was just over 35,000, and by mid-afternoon, nearly that many calls had been made through the ticket office phone number, 1-800-GO-COUGS.
As the game drew nearer, tickets, which had a face value of $75, were going for 10 times that from scalpers.
Jack French, chief executive of the Tournament of Roses, was quoted as saying that the demand for game tickets was the strongest he had seen in 17 years.
“There was so much hype beforehand about WSU fans trying to get tickets,” Gleason said. “I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the fans from Washington State that had come down and shown up in greater numbers than Michigan.”
WSU fans’ passion for the game showed itself at a rally during Rose Bowl week.
“We walked off the bus and there were thousands of fans in this plaza,” Gleason said. “We had no idea what was going on because Coach Price surprised us. There were thousands of fans erupting as we walked in. It was very cool to have that kind of support.”
No doubt the majority of fans at the rally would be in the Rose Bowl Stadium, New Year’s Day to lend their support for WSU as it took on an 11-0 Michigan Wolverine, team.
Despite their No. 1 ranking, the Wolverines, who were making their 17th Rose Bowl appearance compared to the Cougars’ third, were not the only undefeated team in the nation, as No. 2 Nebraska also held that distinction. Playing an opponent ranked in the bottom portion of the top 10 may have elicited a disdain for the Cougars that wasn’t too hard to detect.
“They were upset; they wanted to play somebody better to win their national championship,” Bill Doba recalled. “That is the way they acted. They were afraid if they won they wouldn’t get the national championship.”
From the national polls to their Rose Bowl opponent, it was just another example of the lack of respect perceived by the Cougars. All it did was provide extra motivation leading into New Year’s Day.
“We were the story of the season, everybody knew what was going on with Washington State,” Leaf said, “They were undefeated, but it was our opportunity to knock off No. 1 team in the country.”
