Thompson Knows Rotten Apples
The weather outside was frightful, and though Jack Thompson had promises to keep with the Tacoma Athletic Commission, the Washington State great suspected the Apple Cup luncheon at which he and Husky legend Sonny Sixkiller were to speak would be another casualty of the Siberian Sound’s first winter storm.
So Thompson placed a call to Tacoma for an update, momentarily forgetting that the Washington-Washington State rivalry is a conversation piece hot enough to withstand any kind of weather. Lunch was on, he was told, and so are you.
“Sure enough,” Thompson said upon arriving, surveying a room teeming with faithful Cats and Dawgs. “You guys are crazy.”
Where there’s a will there’s a way, unless the way is closed. Sixkiller, who was in Yakima early Tuesday, found himself stranded on the east side.
“The Cougar spirit is here,” pointed out master of ceremonies Bob Robertson, the longtime voice of WSU football. “Jack made it. Sonny got snowed in.”
As a high school quarterback at Evergreen during the early ‘70s, Thompson idolized Sixkiller.
“Sonny was my hero,” he said. “He started the trend for quarterbacks in the Northwest. Before he came along, everybody was running the Wishbone and the triple option. Watching Sonny was like watching Joe Namath, only he was wearing purple and gold.”
Interestingly, it was an Apple Cup game - in 1975 - that helped provide the foundation for his storybook career at Washington State.
The Cougars were protecting a 27-14 lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter when quarterback John Hopkins approached coach Jim Sweeney with the idea of a pass play at the UW 14-yard line. Sweeney nixed it.
But as the team was about to huddle up, Sweeney recanted. Bad move. The pass was picked off by defensive back Al Burleson inside the 10 and returned for the touchdown that made the score 27-21. The Huskies got the ball back and scored the winning touchdown.
Sweeney might not have survived his seventh losing season in eight years anyway, but the ill-fated pass he approved doomed whatever chance he had of remaining in Pullman.
Thompson picks up the story: “Mike Levenseller and I were good friends, and because we tired of sitting on the bench, we were making plans to transfer to UPS.
“Anyway, on the way back to school after the Thanksgiving break, we heard on the radio that Jim Sweeney had resigned. So we put our plans on hold. And when Jackie Sherrill came in and said he wanted to do some passing, we thought, ‘Let’s give it a whirl.”’
If Sherrill had designs on the air, they didn’t include Thompson. Unfazed, the sophomore invited himself into the coach’s office and proceeded to explain why he should start. Sherrill and his assistants got some yucks out of that one.
The hoots turned to howls early in the 1976 season, when Hopkins, facing a third-and-8 in the second quarter at Minnesota, removed himself for an emergency equipment change. Noticing second-team quarterback Wally Bennett chatting with a receiver on the sideline, Thompson said ‘What the hell.’ He put on his helmet and ran onto the field.
“Jackie Sherrill threw his clipboard down and broke it,” Thompson recalled. “But he didn’t want to exhaust a timeout.”
In the huddle, receiver Brian Kelly dared the intruder to throw a pass. And as the third-and-long play that had been called - a handoff to Dan Doornink - didn’t scream with logic, Thompson accepted the dare. Then he threw to Kelly for the first down.
“My butt was grass,” said Thompson, “and Jackie Sherrill was the lawnmower. He had to be restrained. And here I’m thinking, I guess I’m going to UPS after all.”
The room explodes with laughter. It is four days before the Apple Cup, and Jack Thompson is feeding the football fever with priceless memories. Let it snow.