The 1972 Washington State Cougars football team was an
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
team that represented
Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...
in the
Pacific-8 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...
(Pac-8) during the
1972 NCAA University Division football season. In their fifth season under head coach
Jim Sweeney, the Cougars compiled a in the Pac-8, tied for 3rd), and outscored their opponents 274 to 241.
The team's statistical leaders included Ty Payne with 1,349 passing yards,
Ken Grandberry with 833 rushing yards, and Brock Aynsley with 344 receiving yards.
made its debut in late September and hosted four games; top-ranked
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
was played in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
and the was at
Joe Albi Stadium
Joe Albi Stadium is a former outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, located in Spokane, Washington. In the northwest part of the city, just east of the Spokane River, it was primarily used for high school football, and as a secon ...
Washington State won their first Apple Cup in
four years over favored #17
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, dealing Husky quarterback
Sonny Sixkiller
Alex L. "Sonny" Sixkiller (born September 6, 1951) is a former American football player and sports commentator. He is currently a senior manager for business development for Huskies Sports Properties, the rights-holder for University of Washing ...
a in his final collegiate The Cougars finished in the top twenty in
both major polls; the Pac-8 did not allow a second bowl team until
Schedule
Roster
:
All-conference
Two Washington State players, both offensive linemen, were named to the
all-conference team: senior tackle
Bill Moos
William H. Moos (born circa 1951) is an American former college athletics administrator and college football player. He served as the athletic director at the University of Montana from 1990 to 1995, the University of Oregon from 1995 to 2007, Wa ...
and sophomore guard Steve Ostermann. On the second team (honorable mention) was linebacker Clyde Warehime.
Ostermann returned to the first team in
1973 and
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
.
NFL Draft
One Cougar was selected in the
1973 NFL Draft
References
External links
Game program: Utah at Washington State– September 30, 1972 – Martin Stadium debut
Game program: Oregon State at Washington State– October 21, 1972
Game program: #1 USC vs. Washington State at Seattle– November 4, 1972
Game program: Stanford at Washington State– November 11, 1972
Game program: Washington vs. Washington State at Spokane– November 18, 1972
{{Washington State Cougars football navbox
Washington State
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
Washington State Cougars football seasons
Washington State Cougars football
The Washington State Cougars football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Washington State University, located in Pullman, Washington. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac- ...