Loyal to the Cougs
A cadre of Washington State University sports fans regularly checks in at the Bookie. Not with their bookie. That would be illegal. These longtime Cougar supporters check in at the WSU bookstore at 410 E. Trent Ave. every weekday morning from 10 to 11 to drink coffee and discuss the ins and outs of the various teams in Pullman. The bookstore has a table staked out in a corner, and each weekday morning the group assembles, downs a large portion of Cougar-blend coffee from cups emblazoned with the Cougar logo, and talks about all things Cougar.
And about 10:30 every morning, the dice cup is passed around and the gambling begins. Win, and the coffee’s free. Lose, and you pay double.
It’s a tradition that has its roots in Pullman at the beginning of the Mike Price era.
“This group really has its foundation with the Coffee Group, which meets down at the Bookie in Pullman,” coordinator Russ Fahland said. “It goes back years and years and was started by a guy named Seth Marshall, and he was a nosy bastard.
“When Mike Price was appointed head football coach, he called him up and said, ‘Mike, I want to take you to lunch and talk to you about what you have planned and what you’re looking forward to with the team. I’ll pay for lunch.’ “
That meeting grew in numbers. Every year, Price would meet with Marshall and a group of die-hard fans to discuss the upcoming season.
When Marshall divorced and moved out of the area, he turned the tradition over to Fahland and John Weekes, who have carried it over to the Bill Doba era at WSU.
“We decided to expand it and open things up to other members of the Coffee Club,” Fahland said. “We’ve had as many as 75 or 80 that go down just before the team arrives.
“And we’ve expanded things to meet with coaches other than football; we meet with baseball guys and the volleyball guys and the basketball guys, and they all came in and gave us a pitch.
“They’re all selling. They want us to come down and watch their games and support their teams, not just football.
“Fundamentally, we’re just supportive people, and we want to feel like we’re close to the program.”
The meeting this year was on Aug. 3, the week prior to the start of fall practice for the Cougar football program
“We had a nice meeting,” Fahland said. “It was a nice presentation this year.
“We talked to the volleyball coach, the soccer coach and both of the basketball coaches. Then we went to the Hilltop and had lunch with Bill Doba, Mike Levenseller and Rob Akey.
“It was probably a little redundant for Bill Doba. He’d just gotten back from the Pac 10 meetings, but he gave us an overview of what he’s expecting.”
Mostly, Fahland said, the group comes away from Pullman with a sense of appreciation for the men and women directing athletics at Washington State.
“We’re really proud of our coaching staff, beginning with the football staff,” he said. “We’re really proud of the kind of people that we have in place down there – good solid people that we like and respect. That makes it easy to be optimistic.”
Now that the football season has begun, the regular meetings will grow in size.
Where maybe a dozen stalwarts dropped by during the summer, the number figures to swell now that there’s actually something to talk about.
“There’s always room for more and always enough coffee to go around,” Fahland said.
“And you don’t have to be a Cougar alum to drop by.
“You just have to care about Cougar sports.”