One-of-a-kind Washington State University football car fetches $8,000 at auction, Flatstick Pub owner places winning bid

The car’s covered in dust, doesn’t run and has four bald tires barely clinging to its wheels. But it still managed to fetch $8,000 at a Friday auction .

The large Washington State University Cougar football helmet affixed to the cart’s front likely had a lot to do with that ticket price, as well as the national interest in the auction held among the wheat fields in Pullman Friday.

On July 10, the WSU Surplus Stores made a social media post about a slate of offerings at an upcoming public sale, including old laptops, used standing desks and the Palouse-Frankenstein of a vehicle – with an asking price of $800.

Interest in the car grew rapidly, spurring the surplus store to pull it from the July 11 sale and save it for a later auction, which was held in person and via email Friday.

News of the impending auction spread quickly among the Cougar faithful Thursday night, as well as more than a few prominent college football social media accounts, including @RedditCFB and @SickosCommittee on the platform X.

“Time to get that helmet car you’ve always dreamt about,” the @RedditCFB post reads.

The one-of-a-kind vehicle may not be able to run, but that didn’t stop folks from formulating their plans for the car well before the auction went live.

Tagging friends and family in the comments of the surplus department’s post, fans and alumni envisioned it parked in front of their Coug-owned businesses, hauling equipment on a worksite and as the premier tailgate transportation – rivaled only by former WSU quarterback Gardner Minshew’s old prison bus he sold for $25,000 in 2022.

Not to be outdone, the university’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences floated its own “fun uses.”

“The WSU Creamery could deliver cheese, the WSU Bee Program could transport colonies around, the turf grass program could attach a mower and use it at the Grass Breeding and Ecology Farm,” the college’s social media post reads, in part.

Those wheatfield dreamers can rest now that the auction has closed. Self-identified lifelong Cougar fan Andy Largent, co-owner and founder of the Flatstick Pub franchise with his brother Sam Largent, placed the winning bid with just minutes to go.

“I haven’t even put my eyes on it in person yet,” Largent said.

The Spokane-raised brothers founded the indoor mini-golf and games chain in Kirkland, Wash., in 2014, and it’s since expanded to six locations in Redmond, Spokane, Bellingham and Seattle. Andy Largent attended Washington State University for two years before finishing at Whitworth University, while his brothers Sam and Brian Largent, also assisting with the venture, are alumni.

The Largents are known to be ardent supporters of the university and its athletics, frequently hosting alumni watch parties at its locations, working with the university in various capacities as business owners, and offering customers caseloads of the Ol’ Crimson Legendary Lager, an American lager from Pike Brewing Company that, through a portion of its sales, helps fund the Cougar Collective – the Name, Image and Likeness organization for WSU student athletes.

Largent said he hasn’t decided just yet what’s in store for the helmet car’s future. He’s thought about transforming it into a hole for one of the courses, parking it out front of the pubs for WSU events and using it in partnership fundraisers and campaigns with the Cougar Collective, the athletics department and the broader university.

Regardless of where it ends up, Largent said he will ensure it’s out in the public for fellow fans to enjoy. First, he’ll need to see how much work it needs.

He’ll have the opportunity to check out his new ride for the first time on Saturday while he’s in Pullman for the gridiron matchup with San Diego State University.

“I’m interested in getting out there and hearing what people have to say,” Largent said. “The ideas are flowing; I was up most of last night.”

From the Kingdome to the Palouse

For such an eye-catching set of wheels, it’s a mystery in itself with sparse details on the helmet car’s history with the university .

Brian Syms, who gave the vehicle its crimson and grey paint job back in the early ‘90s, said the lack of information on the car may be simply because the university didn’t use it very much.

As far as Syms understands, the ride was a gift to the university by the Seattle Seahawks, orchestrated by former longtime WSU Athletics employee Ernie Housel.

“He’s one of those guys that knows everybody in the world, who then knows everybody else in the world,” Syms said. “He knew everybody.”

Housel was listed as a special assistant to the athletic director, but Syms said he was more of a fundraiser extraordinaire. Housel was in Seattle with some Seahawks officials trying to secure a cash donation over some beers when the officials offered up their old injury cart used to wheel players off the field, Syms said.

“He says, ‘Well, that’d be cool, so yes,’ ” Syms said.

Wazzu may be the only university to own the exact make and model of the helmet car/injury cart auctioned off Friday. A search through internet archives yielded some results featuring the same body, helmet design and open back, but those vehicles still belong to the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos, mainly as promotional items.

The cars were used to wheel injured players off the field at a time when that task was approached with a modicum of whimsy, rather than the function-driven high-tech injury carts of today. The steering column, headlights and other parts he can no longer recall came from an old Ford Grenada, Syms said. The body was custom-made.

“The back’s really long, because that’s where you would put the stretcher,” Syms said. “And then there’s doors on the side that flip up, and that’s where the medical gear would go.”

The car didn’t run and had a fading Seahawks paint job when it arrived at Syms’ longtime Pullman business Brian’s Body Shop on the back of a flatbed truck.

While he sold the shop and retired in 2017, he had a well-established relationship with the athletic department and frequently took on projects for them, including the paint job on the well-loved companion to the helmet car, a large trailer that carries a similarly sized Cougar football helmet still used to this day.

Syms said they took the rig apart, fixed it up and slapped some new golf cart batteries to power it before he transformed the exterior into the Coug-mobile. The intricate line work and Cougar logo seen on the car Friday are his handiwork from decades ago.

Syms chuckled as he reflected on the transformation, and his own adventures behind the wheel. The university used it mainly in parades and for special events, and placed it in the care of his shop when it was not in use.

“That was a long, long time ago,” Syms said. “I thought they got rid of it years ago. I was shocked when it came up for sale.”

One August now years removed, Syms got to drive the helmet in the Lentil Festival parade. It was a white-knuckled experience, he said.

“I was afraid of running over somebody,” Syms said. “It’s hard to see around the sides of that thing.”

“I mean, it really is cool, but it was hard to drive,” he added.