Transplanted Coug Fans Fight Uphill Battle Medical Student Hears ‘Washington Who?’
Reid Alisch might consider making a small investment in Rand McNally.
A pocket atlas would serve him well.
“People ask me where I’m from, and I tell them I lived in Seattle for eight years, but I’m from Pullman, home of Washington State University,” Alisch said. “That doesn’t help.”
Alisch, who is 27 years old, graduated from Pullman High School in 1989. He earned a biochemistry degree from the University of Washington in 1994 and spent the next three years working in Seattle.
His Pullman roots seemed irrelevant upon entering medical school at the University of Michigan this fall. But that changed when WSU earned a Jan. 1 date with the Wolverines in the Rose Bowl.
“I’ve spent a good part of the last two weeks explaining to people that there is a good football team out there, and it’s going to be a good game,” Alisch said.
Alisch, who grew up a Cougar but came to root for the Huskies as well, now must figure Michigan into the equation. That seemed easy enough when he moved to Ann Arbor in August.
“When I moved out here, my family said, ‘Cool, make sure you get us some sweat shirts,”’ Alisch said. “Like most people, they had no idea WSU would end up facing Michigan in the Rose Bowl. As die-hard WSU fans, they wouldn’t think of wearing maize and blue now.”
The Apple Cup presented another challenge.
Alisch was determined to watch the game because WSU was playing for its first Rose Bowl berth in 67 years. But his sports bar of choice was less than accommodating, showing UCLA-USC and Florida-Florida State on its big screens.
Most Michigan fans assumed their beloved Wolverines would end up playing UCLA. That left Alisch to watch the Apple Cup on one of the small screens.
“I kept saying, ‘Hey, if you guys want to see who you’re going to play, look over here,”’ Alisch said. “Everyone was like, ‘Washington who?’ They were sizing up UCLA. I’m like, ‘Whatever.”’
Keith Harrison faces another dilemma.
The first-year Michigan professor spent the last two years as an assistant professor at WSU. He taught several football players in Pullman, including standout defensive tackle Leon Bender.
This year Harrison teaches several Michigan players in his Race, Culture and Sport class. Linebacker Sam Sword and running back Chris Floyd are among his students.
“The Rose Bowl is going to be weird,” Harrison said. “I’ll be looking at Leon Bender, who I mentored. Do I not want him to tackle Chris Floyd, who I’m mentoring now?”
, DataTimes