What does it mean to be a Cougar?

A satisfying answer to this question has long been searched for. The general consensus is that there is no explanation. It just gets in your blood and after time it just becomes a part of you for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. Outsiders never understand and never will. It truly is a unique culture.

Some are native to Eastern Washington and support the university because it’s their home and all they’ve ever known. Others go through the more personal process. They apply to college, attend WSU, and are thrown headfirst into the fire and fall in love with the school over and over again through their own experiences.

Then, there are the lucky ones. The ones whose dads attended the university years ago, and brought them up on the Cougs like an irresistible drug they couldn’t get away from.

To those dads, the ones who have been there from the beginning, we say thank you.

Thank you for decking us out in crimson before we could talk. Thank you for gluing us to the TV during glorious Apple Cup victories, and hiding us from the dark ones.

Thank you for supporting us, and giving us the backbone to stand up for ourselves in school when liking the Cougs wasn’t the “cool” thing to do. When we were mocked by our classmates and teachers who thought they were smarter for wearing purple. We were raised that facts are facts, and Huskies carry themselves with a little more arrogance, a little more foolishness, and are overall a little peculiar in their ways.

We have learned through the years that it feels better to work for something, to earn respect, and do things the right way, rather than have it handed to us by way of name association.

Thank you to the dads who took us on the best winter vacations as kids to Pasadena, San Diego, or even El Paso, to watch the football team in its golden age. When kids with other collegiate allegiances – or none at all – sat at home for the holidays watching TV and playing video games, we were there, first hand, viewing history in the making.

We were taught that it is always better to be a Coug, through our successes and failures, than to be anything else.

And most of all, thank you for teaching us about loyalty. To be a Coug is to be loyal. We don’t turn on our own when times are hard, and we are always accepting of one another – no matter what.

Being a Coug is practicing a religion, and Cougar football Saturday is the Sabbath.

So thank you to all the dads who raised their kids the right way. Hopefully, we will raise ours the same. As my dad always said, “You can go to any college in the world you want, but I’m only paying for one.” Go Cougs!