Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity, or Cougarmania?

It could be called Cougarmania. Washington State had trouble filling its football stadium all season. Now, the Cougars are having trouble filling all the requests for Rose Bowl tickets.

School officials have received 350,000 requests for the 35,000 tickets allocated for Washington State’s first Rose Bowl appearance in 67 years.

The ticket requests for the Jan. 1 game against No. 1 ranked Michigan are far more than the 199,000 fans who attended the six home games in Pullman this season, only one of which was a sellout.

“Can we expand the [Rose Bowl] stadium at all?” Washington State Coach Mike Price joked. “Cougars are coming out of the woodwork.”

Trivia time: When did Washington State first play in the Rose Bowl game?

Anyone remember? Washington State’s last appearance in the Rose Bowl was 1931 when Herbert Hoover was president. The Cougars earned the bid with a 6-0 conference record, 9-0 overall, including a 7-6 upset of favored USC at Pullman witnessed by 22,000.

Red attire: During the 1930 season, one sportswriter called them the “Red Devils.” This inspired graduate manager Earl V. Foster to order a new set of uniforms for the Rose Bowl game.

The Cougars, who were to play unbeaten Alabama, were outfitted in red helmets, jerseys, pants, socks and even red shoes, according to Rube Samuelson’s book, “The Rose Bowl Game.”

Orange crush: Washington State players and staff made their headquarters at the famous Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

Because of injuries, Coach Orin E. “Babe” Hollingbery was forced to rely on several reserves for the Jan. 1 game. That concerned Hollingbery, who said:

“My reserves, overcome by Pasadena hospitality, were more anxious to pick oranges [on the hotel property] than concentrate upon learning their assignments. I couldn’t snap them out of it. They were all eyes--but not for football.”

Add oranges: The players picked so many oranges that hotel management was actually forced to wire on replacements to satisfy visitors during the holidays.

The result: Mel Hein, who would go on to become an NFL Hall of Fame center for the New York Giants, and tackle Glenn “Turk” Edwards were the outstanding players for the Cougars.

Alabama, coached by Wallace Wade, more than matched Washington State in personnel with All-American tackle Fred Sington, fullback Jimmy “Hurry” Cain, halfback Johnny Monk Campbell and Jimmy Moore, a passing end.

As for the game, Alabama scored 21 points in the second quarter and went on to win easily, 24-0.

Game analysis: Maxwell Stiles in the Los Angeles Examiner: “Washington State was like a trout in the rapids. The trout knew that he was in a lot of fast running water, but he didn’t know where it was coming from.”

Trivia answer: 1916, when the Cougars defeated Brown University, 14-0.

And finally: When the Cougars returned to Pullman, the red outfits were burned.