GameDay dawns

For 15 straight years and 216 consecutive appearances, Washington State University fans flew the Cougar flag, Ol’ Crimson, on the set of College GameDay — a weekly ESPN show that travels to the best college football games in the nation — in hopes of luring the show to Pullman.

Early Saturday, hundreds of Ol’ Crimsons blanketed the view behind the GameDay set on Stadium Drive in front of Martin Stadium on the Washington State campus.

At long last, Cougar fans got their wish. The show was in town, finally, ahead of the Cougars’ Saturday game against the Oregon Ducks.

To those unfamiliar with College GameDay, it may seem ludicrous. Thousands of fans gathering in the wee hours of the morning just to stand around behind some talking heads? Some fans even brought sleeping bags and staked their spots early in the afternoon Friday in hopes of being in the front row for the show. Others were there at 2, 3 or 4 a.m. — hours before the 6 a.m. start on live television.

Thoughts of long lines at “American Idol” or “America’s Got Talent” auditions come to mind, except Saturday’s estimated 15,000 show-goers had no shot at instant fame. Instead, they came to see the sea of flags, elaborate signs (it’s a theme to hold up signs in view of the TV cameras) and crimson crowd. And they said the long night was worth it. Hearing the music blaring, the chanting of the fight song and the glaring show lights illuminating Stadium Drive was special.

“We were the first ones in line, and we were actually the beginning of the line at 1 p.m. yesterday afternoon,” said Joe Rosman, a Cougar senior in the front row with a handful of buddies. “I can’t even begin to describe (it). It surpassed every expectation that we had when we came in here.

“I’m just very thankful I was able to experience this as an undergrad, and I’m sure countless other guys are as well.”

The consensus? This wasn’t just another GameDay show, although crowds of crazy fans are the norm. Show no. 217 had a little something extra.

“In 25 years, when they write a book on GameDay, this is going to be a chapter,” one GameDay staffer told another.

“This is going to be an historic moment,” one fan commented when the flags came into view on the walk to the set.

The fans never wavered through the three-hour-long broadcast. For much of the time, the cast of Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and Desmond Howard highlighted other games around the country.

But every time they did a segment on WSU — and when the cameras turned back to the Cougar faithful who watched the live set as well as the TV shots on two huge screens — the crowd erupted.

The loudest cheers, though, came at the end. It is a GameDay tradition for 83-year-old Corso to pick which team he thinks will win the GameDay game by putting on the head of the corresponding mascot.

“It would take something special to pick against my beloved Ducks,” Corso said. “But ladies and gentlemen, this is a special place.”

With that, Corso stood up and donned the head of Butch the Cougar, and the real Butch mascot joined him on the stage to drape him in an Ol’ Crimson flag. If anything else was said, it was drowned out by the ecstatic crowd.

Fly it high

Fans got creative in the flag department.

By far, the most common was the classic red Cougar flag with the white logo. But some gray flags with red logos and grey-and-white striped flags also were visible.

PVC pipe seemed to be the most common flagpole style, but one fan held up his Ol’ Crimson with a collection of helium party balloons.

Washington State grad Tom Pounds, 60, is credited with starting the tradition of flying Ol’ Crimson at GameDay.

It wasn’t all WSU flags, though — Clemson, Iowa, the University of Central Florida and, of course, Oregon were also represented.

Signs of the times

It wouldn’t be College GameDay without countless signs littering the crowd.

Many poked fun at the Ducks.

“Quack is wack,” “It’s duck season” and “Oregon warms up to Nickelback,” were a few.

Silly signs also were a common theme, such as: “How do I fold a fitted sheet?” and “I’m not creative, I just wanted to hold a sign.”

Creative.

Some others took lighthearted jabs at WSU coach Mike Leach. A digitally edited picture of a half-naked Leach caught the attention of the ESPN cameras. Another said “Mike Leach blows (on his coffee),” and “I saw Mike Leach smile.” Not sure if that one is true.

I mustache you a question

It’s no secret that mustache-sporting transfer quarterback Gardner Minshew, nicknamed “the Mississippi Mustache,” has become a favorite among Coug fans. Minshew’s national-best 2,422 passing yards heading into the weekend speak to that.

It was hard to look around the crowd without spotting a real, or fake, mustache-wearing fan or sign.

There were plenty of mustachioed dads with kids, some even wearing flashy aviators like Minshew wore to a press conference after a WSU win over Eastern Washington University.

For those without the blessing of facial hair, absurdly large costume mustaches did just fine.

Maybe Minshew is onto something?

Halloween spirit

With fewer than two weeks until Halloween, some fans decided to dress up in costumes. A huge furry Chewbacca lookalike from the “Star Wars” movies stopped to take photos with fans.

Not a bad choice considering the costume probably helped him stay warm, too.

Another fan wore a full-body cougar onesie, and another zipped around the outskirts of the crowd with a ski helmet and ski goggles.

And it wasn’t just college students joining in the fun — Chewy and the cougar were middle-aged men.

Laughs and tears

The College GameDay crew is known for incorporating jokes and funny segments into their show.

A viral clip of a Cougar fan dumping popcorn all over his face has circulated social media for years. Dubbed “popcorn man,” ESPN did a segment about trying to find the mysterious fan by posting flyers all around Pullman. At the end of the segment, the whole cast leaned back and showered themselves with popcorn, to the delight of the crowd.

The gamut of emotions swung to the other side during a segment on Purdue fan and student Tyler Trent, who has twice beaten bone cancer and is battling it a third time. Trent was made an honorary Purdue team captain this season and is determined to get healthy enough to return to class, where he is a presidential scholar. Tears were shed by fans and ESPN cast members during the showing.

“Always find our way back home”

The Andy Grammer song “Back Home,” is regularly played and sung at WSU football games, and it was no different at GameDay.

The song was played several times throughout the day, but sometimes fans burst into song on their own.

After the show ended, it was a concert scene. The song rang through the crowd one more time, with the cheerleaders and fans in the front jumping in unison as they sang, “ ... And no matter where we go, we always find our way back home.”

A fitting end to a day not many Cougars will forget.

Stephan Wiebe is the sports editor at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. He can be reached at swiebe@dnews.com and (208) 883-4629.