The 1971 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 wi ...

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 uni ...

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

1971 NCAA University Division football season The 1971 NCAA University Division football season saw Coach Bob Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers repeat as national champions. Ranked a close second behind Notre Dame in the preseason poll, Nebraska moved up to first place the following week, rem ...

. Led by fourth-year head coach Jim Sweeney, they compiled a 4–7 record (2–5 in Pac-8, seventh), and were outscored 286 to 246. The team's statistical leaders included junior quarterback Ty Payne with 1,206 passing yards, senior running back Bernard Jackson with 1,189 rushing yards, and wide receiver Ike Nelson with 349 receiving yards. The Cougars defeated tenth-ranked Stanford, the defending and future Rose Bowl champions, in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

on October 23, but lost their third straight

Apple Cup The Apple Cup is an American college football rivalry game between the University of Washington Huskies and Washington State University Cougars, the two largest universities in the state of Washington. Both are members of the North Division of th ...

. Washington State did not play the

Battle of the Palouse The Battle of the Palouse refers to an athletic rivalry in the northwest United States, between the Vandals of the University of Idaho and Cougars of Washington State University. The two land-grant universities are less than apart on the ...

in 1971, and neighbor

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

had their best season to date, winning eight consecutive games. Due to the

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

damage to Rogers Field in Pullman in April 1970, the Cougars played their entire home schedule north of campus 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 ...

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and 1971.

Schedule

College Football @ Sports-Reference.com
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Roster

All-conference

Four Washington State seniors were named to the All-Pacific-8 team: halfback Bernard Jackson, guard Steve Busch, cornerback Ron Mims, and placekicker Don Sweet. Busch was a repeat selection.

NFL Draft

Two Cougars were selected in the

1972 NFL Draft The 1972 NFL draft was held February 1–2, 1972, at the Essex House in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Buffalo Bills selected defensive end Walt Patulski. Player selections Round one Round two ...

References

External links

Game program: Arizona vs. WSU at Spokane
– September 18, 1971
Game program: UCLA vs. WSU at Spokane
– October 9, 1971
Game program: Oregon vs. WSU at Spokane
– October 30, 1971

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 {{Washington-sport-stub