THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Maybe the vibe in Pullman knows no conference

Due to the nature of the job these days, the road doesn’t take us to Pullman as much as it used to — compared to, say, Moscow. 

But it did on Saturday night, with the Idaho Vandals in town.

There’s a certain buzz to being at a Washington State Cougar game on a Saturday afternoon or evening at Martin Stadium — er, Gesa Field. 

Wandering through the Coug fans before the game, you can feel the “Go Cougs!” vibe. 

Sometimes, WAY up in the glass-enclosed press box, the game kinda sneaks up you, if you’re busy on your laptop, trying to get caught up on work. 

All of a sudden, you hear the roar of the crowd and look up to see the opening kickoff already in the air. 

MY FIRST introduction to WSU football came in 1974.  

Back then, Cougar football games were rarely on TV. 

(What!? No cable? No streaming? How did you folks even survive?) 

Somehow we did, by listening to the radio, fortunate enough to have the legendary Bob Robertson be our eyes. 

How great was Bob Robertson? 

Not only did he have a distinctive voice, he was accurate. 

A few times, I would listen to WSU football games and keep stats, based on Bob’s play-by-play. And when I would check my stats against the stats Bob would read at halftime, or after the game, and if I was off, it was only by a yard or two. 

You wouldn’t think that’s a big deal, but sometimes you pick up a random radio broadcast and hear the announcer say, “So-and-so with a gain of seven yards. Second down and four,” and you put your pencil down and change the station. 

(Yeah, I know. Spending Saturday nights as a teenager, keeping stats of a football game ON THE RADIO. Sounds exciting. 

But somehow, it worked out OK.) 

IT WASN’T that long ago — OK, maybe some 40 years ago — that WSU still played some of its home games at Albi Stadium in Spokane. 

(Nothing against the new ONE Spokane Stadium, but I kinda miss Albi. I know the kids from North Idaho thought it was a big deal to play high school football games there.) 

But WSU needed to play all its home games on campus, where the vibe truly is.  

I remember sitting in the end zone in the snow in the 1992 Apple Cup in Pullman, when Drew Bledsoe threw the pass that Phillip Bobo (we had a dog named Bobo once) caught while sliding out the back of the other end zone. 

I remember covering a game there and afterward, observing a despondent UCLA coach Terry Donohue after his media session, as in “how could we have just lost to WSU?” 

Who knows what will happen with WSU (and Oregon State) when the new college football realignment merry-go-round stops, after the other 10 conference brethren ran off with their new girlfriends. 

Maybe some come back; maybe they don’t. 

Maybe it doesn’t matter — as long as the “Go Cougs!” vibe remains in Pullman. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.