The Most Awesome and Incredible Game of 2007: The Apple Cup

Needless to say, for any collegiate sports fans in the state of Washington, you know what I am talking about. This year in Husky Stadium there was an explosion of amazing sportsmanship and epic feats of skill. I was in the Cougar Marching Band, field level at the west end of the stadium, and in the front row with all the other trombones; how's that for great seating?

Cougars will be celebrating and bragging for at least another year while purple and gold clothing will basically become a substitute for black sackcloth. The respective enjoying and mourning will be tremendous. Of course, in true tradition, those who lost will come up with excuses: we were doing bad anyway, the refs made bad calls, wait until next year, we're still a better school anyway. But in the end, there was not much to defend all those arguments. The Cougars won the game against the Huskies in their own packed stadium even when the Huskies scored on the first kickoff return. And they had Jake Locker!

I will refrain from my tirade for now; we have a whole year to do this, why waste it in one sitting? It really only goes to show that you can't call the Apple Cup. It is unpredictable, improbable, astronomical, in all its proportions. We Cougars admittedly do know a few things about being too sure that we will win. There have been games that were definitely "Couged" in the last 50 seconds of clock time. But in the Apple Cup the book is thrown out the window, probability is erased, sports predictors are baffled, everything is for grabs. It can be Couged or Huskied, won and lost all in the same moment, everyone has home field advantage. This is our legacy, the legacy of the state of Washington, the tournament of the Northwestern realm, steeped in tradition and competition, the pride and glory of collegiate sports in our minds: this is the Apple Cup.