Sept. 23, 2004

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -

By Don Mann

Western Washington University head football coach Rob Smith knows a thing or two about football rivalries.

"I grew up in Hoquiam," said Smith, "and back then it was Hoquiam-Aberdeen. Those two towns are separated by a street, and we played on Thanksgiving Day. We'd get 10,000 people for that game. I've been fortunate, as a high school player in what we called the Turkey Day game, as a college player to play in the Apple Cup with Washington and Washington State, and now as a college coach to have this rivalry here with the Cascade Cup and now the Battle in Seattle and all that's on the line with that. It's fun, it really is."

Smith is also a man who remembers the fine details, a personal trait that behooves someone in his line of work. So the 16-year Viking pilot didn't have to be reminded that he was 7 and 10 against Central Washington, as the Division II rivals prepare to meet again today at Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. It's the 93rd meeting between the schools in a small-college battle that began in 1922. Central leads the series, 56-32, with 4 ties.

"When I got here in '89," Smith recalled, "there was a real difference between the two programs. Central was playing at a very, very high level, and Western had struggled. One of our goals here early on was to elevate our program to the same level that Central had been playing at."

Western had struggled indeed. From 1979 through 1986 the Vikings suffered through eight straight losing seasons, some of which were downright dismal, when wins of any type were as scarce as November sunshine. "There was a stretch there in the eighties where not a lot of good things happened," said Smith, in what may be the understatement of the season.

John Craig, who played at Central in the late sixties and had coaching stints at both schools during the Viking drought, chose his words delicately, in the time-honored tradition of political correctness that coaches reserve for their brethren.

"It was just a difficult coaching situation. (Western coach) Boyde Long really knew his football, but it was a very skeletal staff, and I say that knowing that I was on that staff, too. It was a difficult time for recruiting. They didn't have as large and as stable a staff as they do now. And they had some problems in terms of funding."

And for thirteen straight seasons, from '79 through '91, Central put the wood to Western. Thirteen straight. Call it what you will: a skid, a slide, a schneid. In Bellingham it was misery. "Depressing," said former Viking Rick Vanderyacht, who had seen better days.

"Very tough to take," said Western Hall of Famer Pat Locker. "You'd go to Central and both team's fans would sit together at the 50-yard line and it was a tough deal. We'd have to listen to these guys telling us what a bunch of terrible football players and terrible coaches we had and how much better they were, and those type of things just get your gut."

Locker recalled another image, one slightly more amusing yet entirely symbolic. "They always had this guy -- and I think he must've been on steroids or something-- in the Wildcat uniform and we had our Viking--it's usually a gal because nobody wants to wear the thing. And the cat was always just kicking the crap out of our mascot on the sideline. So I told someone we gotta get somebody like a wrestler to put on the uniform and go to the Central game and beat up on the Wildcat."

GOODBYE ALBATROSS

The reversal of fortune was a long time coming, and on a fog-shrouded November afternoon at Civic Stadium in 1992, in Coach Smith's fourth season at the helm, the pendulum finally began to swing back. Jason Stiles, current Viking radio color man, was then a red-shirt freshman quarterback with a big assignment.

"I wanted so bad to win that football game for our seniors, guys who had been through the crap and it was the first time they'd experienced success. It's such an important time, the last time they'll ever play football. And if we win it's the first time we go to the playoffs in school history and if we lose it's just like any other season."

But it wouldn't be just any other season.

Western blocked a Central punt on the fourth play of the game, and tilted the field with two Stiles touchdown strikes in the first six minutes. From there it was a jailbreak.

All told, the Vikings hung 37 points on the scoreboard--their gaudiest output ever against Central. And the defense had a game for the ages: 6 sacks, 3 interceptions, and a colossal snuffing of Central's running game, to the tune of negative-30 yards.

The Bellingham Herald said it all: Goodbye, albatross.

Said Coach Smith, later that week, "I don't know if we've come down from the clouds to know the historical significance."

For Viking fans it wasn't that it was uncharted territory; it's just that it had been a while. And it was suddenly safe again to use the "R" word. Said Stiles, "Anyway you cut it, thirteen years is thirteen years. Prior to that in the late eighties there was talk about getting rid of the program. I mean that's real big when you go from that to your first national playoff appearance.

"When we were able to get after them in '92," said Rob Smith, with great precision a dozen years later, "and beat them on our field, and beat them handily, 37-7, with a playoff berth on the line, that was a huge win and I think a huge turning point for this program."

"We beat `em in '94, we beat `em in '95, and then they beat us in that critical playoff game later in '95." Smith called that game "the most devastating loss we've ever had. Simply because we're number one in the nation, undefeated, and had beaten them in the regular season. But they had a great player in Jon Kitna, who played that day like the NFL player he is now."

That day, of small-college song and story, Kitna torched the Vikings with 455 yards passing on 35 completions and 4 touchdowns, leading the Wildcats to a 28-21 victory in what is arguably the signature game in the history of the rivalry.

"I've always maintained," said Smith, "that that year we had the best team in the country, but Central had the best player in the country. And on that day the best player beat the best team."

He added, "But it wouldn't be a great rivalry if one team always beat the other. To make a true rivalry you've got to have two teams that each feel they can win the game, and do win. And we've had that here."

Given the fact that Western has taken four of the last six contests, the rivalry appears to be alive and well.

"First of all," said Viking defensive coordinator John Ely, "if you don't know what a real rivalry is, if people don't understand, it's hard to explain." He, too, speaks with some authority. Ely was a tight end and linebacker at Western in the late eighties and spent two seasons in Pullman as a Cougar coordinator in the early nineties. For him the comparison of the Cascade Cup to the Apple Cup is self-evident.

"The similarities are unbelievable. It's in-state, east-west, rural and city. The core of your players have played with guys on the other team. Your recruiting base is in Washington. Ninety-percent of our players are from Washington and so are theirs. So there's a whole bunch of former high school teammates on the opposite side."

Central middle linebacker Blake Walker knows about being on the opposite side. The senior Wildcat captain, who is on his way to becoming Central's career leading tackler, hails from Everett, on the west side of the mountains. Though he was recruited by Western, he found the program in Ellensburg to be a better fit.

What made him opt to cross over? "To tell you the truth," he said candidly, "it was the coaches. Coach Zamberlin is one of the best coaches around. And he's a former NFL linebacker, so he knows what he's talking about. Central kind of has a family atmosphere. I don't feel that Western really had that ... I just got a better feeling from the coaching staff."

LOST TREASURE

Even as an incoming freshman, Walker showed veteran savvy: "It's kind of a big deal, you know, if you're gonna be spending five years of your life almost every day with these guys, you gotta make sure that you like them." It seems as if everybody likes Pat Locker. Locker was a Kodak College Division All-American in 1979, when he became the first back in northwest college history--in any division-- to rush for more than 4,000 yards in his career. In the Bellingham area his name is still synonymous with Viking football.

"I came into the Central rivalry before I even went to Western," says Locker. "My mom went to Central and my dad went to Western." Starting in 1976, he played four times against the Wildcats and his three wins are in the books. But twenty-five years after his last carry, it's neither the runs nor the records that spark his memory of the rivalry; it's the wager.

"There was a kid by the name of Scott Claymore. He and I were pretty good friends and we knew the same kids who played against each other in high school. The week before the Central game he'd call and say, `OK, Locker, we got five bucks on this?'

And I'd say, `yeah, we'll go five bucks.' And the first three years we played them we beat `em, and I'd forget about the bet and he'd come limping across the field and pull his hat off, with his head steaming, and his five bucks were always stuck up in his helmet."

"So my senior year we went over there and we lost on a couple weird plays--we shoulda got `em but they beat us--and after the game he comes over, pulls his helmet off and says `Where's my five?'

"I forgot all about it, and I was a little embarrassed, so I had to end up getting him back after we got out of school."

Claymore remembers the rivalry well, and remembers that day.

"I was from Blaine, and Western was right down the street, so for me it was a special deal, for bragging rights, you know, hometown thing and all that. The main thing I remember was Western was one of the schools that were really good to play against. For the most part, real good sportsmanship going on. No trash-talking, no cheap shots. It was one of the ones we wanted to win maybe a little bit more than the others. For me it was certainly the most important game."

As an offensive tackle, Claymore participated in hundreds of collisions in his four seasons at Central. But his most memorable lick took place in the Western game his senior year.

"We used to run a `kick fence' when somebody would kick to us. The front linemen would all run to the sideline and then we'd turn and run down the sideline. And being the right tackle, I led the fence, and the idea was we'd pick the people off as they came across. And basically it set up perfectly and this poor guy came across there and, man, I'm telling you, I knocked him right into next week. I hit him so hard that he was out, and I was almost out on my feet. I had a 40-yard head of steam and it was just horrific. I mean it was brutal, very violent, and that was back when we led with the helmet. Probably the best hit of my career."

And did Locker ever pay his debt? Claymore laughed at the memory, a quarter-century later, like a man who had unearthed some small lost treasure, and said, "Yeah, I think he did. I'm not exactly sure where we were but I have a sneaking suspicion it was in a bar. I can't say for sure, but I do remember Pat with that big old smile on his face all the time."

It has been almost 35 years since Vic Randall strapped on a Viking helmet. He was inducted into the Western Hall of Fame in 1982, and his 26 career interceptions still stand in the school's record book.

("Yeah, amazing, because they didn't throw it that much, but when they did they threw it downfield," he said, with real bewilderment and not a trace of braggadocio.)

Randall, in his own admission, doesn't remember records and scores very well, a shortcoming for which he is easily excused, given the 300 or so football games he has since coached at Ferndale High School. But he remembers the Central rivalry, and playing them twice a year, a custom abandoned after Randall graduated in 1970 and resuscitated in 2003. When reminded that Central won seven of the eight rivalry games he played in, he glanced at the media guide with a furrowed brow. "Didn't realize that."

"I do remember getting caught from behind on a long interception return. Steve Hertling caught me. Steve was really, really fast."

"But what I remember most was (Western coach) Fred Emerson. We were over at Central and he comes in at halftime. We were behind, and he says, `You guys absolutely stink. You guys are the worst football team. You guys don't care. Figure it out yourself.' And he walked out the door. No halftime talk, no nothing. I'd never seen that before. We just kind of sat around looking at each other."

Hertling, a Wildcat Hall of Famer himself, doesn't remember running Randall down. "But I sure hope it's true," he said. "Vic was a good Viking, if there is such a thing."

"I had a lot of luck against Western," Hertling continued, "and had some pretty good games. Three of my four punt return touchdowns came against them. I don't recall who that kicker is, but I should buy him a car. He kicked these low line drives and I'd get the ball before the guys could get downfield. Our coach, Tom Parry, really drilled us on it. He was one of the best special teams coaches in the country, before they started to emphasize the kicking game."

Hertling's most vivid memory of the rivalry?

"We had a guy by the name of Vince Brown, who was injured and shouldn't even have been on the field. He could barely walk. We had a very close game against Western in 1967 and the only reason Vince suited up was because he was a senior and he was a captain. It was first and goal and a 6-point game and they were on our three yard-line. And Vince puts himself in and makes four straight tackles. I mean, that brought tears to your eyes."

Stew Egbert was a linebacker who played with Hertling at Central in the sixties. He doesn't recall the goal-line stand, but remembers Brown well. "He was relentless. He'd make a tackle and I'd come in there at the end, so I could get my name over the loud speaker."

"We always felt like we were this little farm community out there stuck in the middle of nowhere, getting little or no respect. We kind of thrived on that. Small version of WSU and the Huskies. We didn't have any problem getting up for Western. There were never any cheap shots, not a lot of talk. In those days it was pretty much above-board."

John Craig played linebacker on the opposite side of Egbert, with Vince Brown in the middle. "I remember Vince. In fact, he's part of the reason my nose is not totally straight today."

Craig also remembered an advantage Central had, back in the era of Vietnam. "Central had some players that were a little bit older, because some guys had just come out of the service. If you were 19 and somebody was 23, that was an older person, that was a grown man. So we had some real strong, physical players. Vince was one of those guys."

For so many of the players, former and current, it is the memory of competing against friends that resonates, long after the scoreboard lights go dark.

"The rivalry meant a lot to me," said Randall, "because one of my best friends was Berger Solberg, who was a defensive back on the Central team. We were very good friends and anytime you get to play against somebody you know it adds extra incentive."

Said Ely, "I remember looking across the field one time and seeing a former teammate of mine at Wenatchee Valley Junior College, and we had a few words. Then we lined up and got after it. That was good stuff. Pretty special."

Matt Sayre took his last snap as a Viking quarterback in 1991. His most vivid memory of the rivalry?

"My best friend in high school, Tracy McKenzie, was the middle linebacker for Central when I was playing quarterback for Western my last year. We're over in Ellensburg with blizzard conditions. So looking across at him all game long, with a blizzard coming down on us, was a pretty neat experience. And he never hit me--because I kept telling my offensive linemen to block him--but the other two linebackers hit me harder than I've ever been hit in my life."

Stiles, who prepped at Decatur in Federal Way, said, "At one point I had my entire high school backfield and receiving corps playing at Central."

"That's the thing that makes it more fun, as opposed to some team where you don't know anybody. You're gonna be seeing these guys for the rest of your life."

Blake Walker talked about competing against former Western tight end Adam Snel. "We went to the same high school, the same church. And, yeah, we had a few collisions."

Rob White, the Viking safety from Inglemoor, would lock horns again with nemesis Aaron Hineline, the Wildcat fullback from Woodinville. "That was our rivalry in high school, and it's just carried over to college. So it's fun and unique in its own little way. There's all these weird little connections, like my sister dated his best friend."

BIG-TIME

Claymore, twenty-five years after taking the helmet off, was asked if he still follows the Wildcats, and he revealed a slightly existential perspective. "I try to get over there every once in a while, but I figured out a long time ago you can't go back there. You know what I mean?"

Hertling, however, goes back there a lot. He estimates he has only missed a half-dozen games in twenty years, and that includes road games. His remarkable zeal for Wildcat football has taken him from his home in Oak Harbor to such faraway lands as New Haven, Conn., and Abilene, Texas. "It's an eccentric hobby," he admitted, "but it's been a lot of fun." This season he thinks he might take a game off. "We just got a place in Arizona, and it isn't fair to my wife. But I'll be in Seattle."

This is Blake Walker's second Battle in Seattle, and he has already learned to cherish the moment. "You walk into that stadium, and it's amazing, just unreal. To have that big of a crowd show up, it was just the time of my life. I'll never forget that. It felt like you were big-time. Just for that moment, you were big-time."

Rob White will also be experiencing his second game under the bright lights in the big city. "To be able to play in a venue like that, I don't even know how to describe it. It was just awesome. We seriously felt like we were pros."

Walker and White, like those who preceded them, may come to find that memories fade as the decades begin to stack up. But old loyalties die hard.

Said Egbert, the old Wildcat linebacker who has coached high school ball at Sehome--about a long kickoff away from the Western campus--for 25 years, "The thing about it is, as much as I've coached in this area and been in this area, you still love your alma mater. I have so much respect for the coaches up here and I wish them the best against everybody else, except for us."

Western running back Rick Vanderyacht, class of 1977, was a little less diplomatic. When asked if he was ever in touch with any Wildcats over the years, he was taken aback. "Wildcats? Doggone it, no. I try to stay away from them."

Pat Locker, who literally grew up with the rivalry, had one more story to share: "Central had a linebacker named Rick Harris and he's the guy I had to watch the film on for three years. He was about six-one, 250 - and that was a big linebacker back then. Could run like a deer, and the first couple years he was kinda mean and growlin' and he'd knock me down and I'd try to run over him and run around him or spin off. He was like the Dick Butkus of Central; just a scary guy and if you were running inside the tackles you knew he was gonna be in your earhole.

"And over the years we developed such a rapport that at the end of that senior year game when they beat us, he introduced me to his mom and dad and he and I shook hands and hugged each other. That meant a lot to me. I just thought he was the meanest guy in the world until he pulled his helmet off and introduced me to his folks. It was cool."

So it's no wonder that Locker has always seen the Western-Central game as a family affair. And no doubt somewhere in the stadium tonight, surrounded by his people, he'll be flashing that big old smile.

----- Don Mann is a freelance writer living in Ferndale.