October 14, 2005
Why is there always a Washington State flag on ESPN GameDay?
Just like clockwork, we get emails every week asking, "Why is there always a Washington State flag shown on ESPN's College GameDay?" The short answer is that it's the work of Tom Pounds.
"I don't know why I did it," says the first Cougar to wave a WSU flag on camera for an ESPN Gameday broadcast miles from where a WSU game was being played. "School spirit?"By driving 800 miles and displaying his school logo in the midst of a screaming, waving crowd and on television, Pounds started a national movement. Nobody asked him to. No one paid him. And close to no one knew about it.
...
Brent Schwartz, a student at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, was taken with the idea. Two weeks after Pounds's display, the younger Cougar fan drove 250 miles to wave the flag during the broadcast for a game in Madison, Wisconsin. That weekend, the Cougars were playing in Palo Alto.
...
From there it snowballed, as the flag that Pounds made was Fed-Ex-ed around the country for Gameday events. The banner didn't make it to every single broadcast in 2003, but by 2004, a cadre of volunteers was eager to drive hundreds of miles at their own expense to wave the flag in the background of every broadcast. It was all voluntary and all informal—a thankless duty, since the flag-wavers were never visible on camera. "When you consider the show is an hour and a half, with commercials, close-ups, and taped segments, the actual live time on the air with a crowd shot is actually only five minutes," says Pounds. "It's only then that you hoist the flag and you wave it like crazy."
Why did they do it? "You're trying to explain the unexplainable," says Bley. "There's just something that seems extremely unique about the experience at Washington State and Cougar football. Maybe it has something to do with the location [of the school], or a team that continues to confound. The fans get attracted to that, and they do extraordinary things."
Comments:
SC Crippler said:
posted on October 14, 2005 8:42 PM — 4.228.252.70 — link — abuse?
And it definitely beats idiot Clemson fans who can't draw enough to get a Gameday of their own so they all show up at the shows in Columbia and then stage boycotts of ESPN and infamous "email campaigns" at least twice a year, thinking that Gameday should be in Cowtown USA every single week.
posted on October 14, 2005 8:44 PM — link — abuse?Jeff Quinton said:
PacMan,
Spurrier's first game at S.C. this year. It was their Thursday night kickoff to the season and it was actually the full Gameday crew unlike most Thursdays. They even had Big & Rich there to unveil the new theme music for this season.Like a columnist said at the time, without Spurrier they wouldn't even think of that game.
SC Crippler said:
posted on October 14, 2005 8:46 PM — 4.228.252.70 — link — abuse?
Gameday wasn't in Columbia for the UCF game. That game was on a Thursday and was the first game of the year and Spurrier's first game at USC so ESPN televised it and had the whole crew in town to talk about Spurrier and the upcoming season. It was similar to a Gameday but it was on a Thursday.
posted on October 14, 2005 8:49 PM — link — abuse?
Crippler,
I've seen more S.C. fan led boycotts when I lived in Columbia than anywhere else. I don't think too many Clemson fans care about Gameday or winning the attendance championship games every year. Winning games is all that matters. Granted, things haven't been as good as hoped for in that regard recently, but they're are never any problems winning against the Gamecocks.Even when your team's fans do fill the stadium up, it's usually a stream of taillights in the 3rd quarter (or sooner on the last trip) streaming out of the fairgrounds as Clemson whips them and the fans head out to make sure they get a table without waiting in the Vista.
posted on October 14, 2005 8:52 PM — link — abuse?
Crippler,
If it walks like a duck it's a duck. It was a Gameday special for the first game of the year and every S.C. fan I know at the time was hyping it as that. The entire crew was there, Big & Rich was there. It wasn't just a normal Thursday night game (although more of the Gameday crew has gone to Thursday games in the past regularly - just not anymore.)SC Crippler said:
posted on October 14, 2005 9:03 PM — 4.228.252.70 — link — abuse?
You know a very different Clemson than I do, apparently. There are weekly boycotts against this sportswriter and that sportswriter on the Clemson boards and Clemson fans were responsible for getting Clemson into two bowls recently with emails and faxes (Humanitarian and Tangerine). As for attendance, if Clemson is not concerned with it, then why have they always had 81,000 even every single game, until this year when it was revealed by the Clemson AD that the stadium never actually held that many people in the first place and it was rarely full the past few years.
As for Clemson wanting Gameday, so far this year, Clemson fans online have already had two email campaigns that they should have had Gameday for games against Texas A&M and Miami.
I agree winning games is all that matters to Clemson, which is why they can't seem to figure out what to do with the lameduck coach they've got. Bowden loses to Wake (two years ago not this year) and fans scream that he must be fired but he beats FSU and he's great. Then, he loses to Duke and fans want him gone again, but he beats Miami and gets a HUGE extension after nothing but mediocre seasons. Now, he loses to Wake again and fans want him fired again but they can't because of the extension. Last night, he beats NCSU and he's a god again.As for USC's record against clemson or fans, I can't really say anything. We don't beat clemson for some reason and the fans do leave early when the game is in doubt. However, you can be sure that the house is full when the game starts and that we actually can fit 84,000 in the stadium and feel no need to lie about it, like our farming neighbors to the northwest.
SC Crippler said:
posted on October 14, 2005 9:07 PM — 4.228.252.70 — link — abuse?
I will give you that it was a much bigger Thursday night show than ESPN has ever done before but remember, that was ESPN's 50 in 50 SC day. That, coupled with Spurriers return to college football was why the show was bigger. The 50 in 50 show was another example of a clemson email campaign against ESPN for not showing enough clemson clips but focussing on Spurrier too much. In fact, one delusional clemson person figured out a why to rig the voting for the SC 50 in 50 question to make sure that the clemson choice was selected.
And every clemson fan I know still complains about the fact that ESPN was in Columbia for that first game. Of course, they were only there because of Spurrier but Spurrier is USC's head coach (a point that still kills Clemson fans) so the attention SOS gets, USC gets.
posted on October 14, 2005 9:14 PM — link — abuse?
Where Gameday decides to locate any particular day is no concern for me. If they never come to Clemson it won't bother me at all. South Carolina's own Athletic Department tried to make it look like it was Gameday while saying it was Sportscenter (it was part of the 50 states tour they did.)
If Gameday came to Clemson I wouldn't even be there, let alone there with SC sucks signs (even if if was the SC game and not someone else. Then again I wouldn't go to a S.C. bowl game pulling for their opponent while wearing my Clemson gear either. I wouldn't be at a Thursday night game my rival was playing against someone else with my team's colors on and car flags flying either (see Raleigh last night.)
I didn't realize the encouragement by fans toward a bowl game was a boycott since there was no threat, implied or otherwise, against those towns or bowls if Clemson wasn't invited.
Name one school in the country that doesn't have some segment of their fanbase who gets all riled up at sportswriters and encourages e-mail campaigns and or boycotts. The obsession that some of your own fellow Gamecock fans have with Ron Morris is Exhibit A.
The announced attendance game has been well-documented around the country as well. A recent article in The State pointed out that SC and Clemson both play games with it for all 3 revenue sports.
Regan said:
posted on October 14, 2005 10:57 PM — 205.188.116.199 — link — abuse?
Much as I enjoy any discussion between my fellow Tiger fans and our 'friends' in Columbia, I'd like to reference the article itself and give kudos to those Washington State fans who have the love of their team (even during down years, apparently) to go out on that kinda limb to represent...
These are the College Football stories I love, where there is no bashing any other team (after all, they are just kids playing a game as well); there is just love and support for the team to a level that bears a new tradition.
The WSU fans aren't throwing jibes or insults in anyone's face, they are just supporting their kids no matter what...
Keep it up, Cougars! Whether you are 11-0 or 0-11, the newest tradition in College Football is indicative of why this is the best sport in the world...
Aaron said:
posted on October 14, 2005 11:40 PM — 67.183.232.99 — link — abuse?
Big props to Tom Pounds. As a Washington State fan, I've always loved seeing that flag being waved and now that I know the story it's even better.
Leave it to you all to ignore the entire topic of the post and turn this into a Clemson discussion.
posted on October 14, 2005 11:50 PM — link — abuse?
Aaron,
I started out making a comparison to something else that some would see out of place at Gameday as it related to a team not involved in that matchup. It devolved from there but in a much more civil manner than SC and Clemson fans typically are online.I had the discussion about the WSU topic a few weeks ago with Kevin via e-mail because this year was the first time I've ever noticed it.
I still think it's stupid, but whatever floats their boats.
Aaron said:
posted on October 15, 2005 2:40 AM — 67.183.232.99 — link — abuse?
Stupid? Why is that? They're showing their school spirit in a totally harmless way. It's much better than them writing obscenities and/or degrading comments on a sign directed to their favorite team's opponent. I think it's cool, and I'd say the same no matter what team it was.
DPC said:
posted on October 24, 2005 7:20 PM — 67.107.134.59 — link — abuse?
To all the ESPN College Game Day fans out there in football land. It is something we as WSU fans look forward to every Saturday morning. We understand that College Game Day might never make it out to Pullman, Washington to one of our home games. So you guys can keep smacking each other around on where ESPN Game Day should be. And hopefully the WSU flag will keep showing up. But you should give us props to the effort we make to show our school spirit. ESPN Game Day starts mighty early for us on the West Coast and there are many people in Cougar land that tape the show just to see if the flag makes it. It even showed up at a couple of the 50 in 50 Sports Center shows. Die hard fans we have in Cougville even though our team has disappointed us the last 3 weeks by blowing late in the game leads. If you want to keep smacking each other around on this fansblog I understand. But just remember what this topic is about. The Cougar Flag!!! Many thanks to Tom Pounds for getting it started. I look forward to it every Saturday morning even if I do tape the show.
GO COUGS
Jeff Quinton said:
posted on October 14, 2005 6:54 PM — link — abuse?It beats the S.C. fans who are so obsessed with their daddy in the Upstate that they've all made "Clemson Sucks" signs for both Gamedays in Columbia, even though Florida and UCF were the two opponents.