SPOKANE, Wash. — So many things are changing in college football, and that includes when we get the Apple Cup game between Washington State University and the University of Washington. The different time of year comes different weather and different attire for game day. Snow games are not in our future.
WSU and UW are no longer in the same conference, which means in all likelihood the Apple Cup will continue to be played in September instead of the traditional Thanksgiving weekend. However, the game wasn’t always played in November when the rivalry first began more than 100 years ago.
In the early days of the Apple Cup, the games were mostly played in Seattle and mostly played in November. However, if the game did come to Pullman, it was usually in October. Starting the 1930s the game alternated between October in Pullman one year and in November in Seattle the next.
This continued until 1950 when the game began being played on the same week every year, alternating between Spokane and Seattle. The Apple Cup wouldn’t return to Pullman until 1982. The biggest game of the year quickly became the coldest game of the year on the Palouse. Thanks to all those years avoiding a November game in Pullman, the coldest Apple Cup on record only happened ten years ago.
Pullman also holds the distinction as the site of the warmest Apple Cup on October 14, 1939. The high was a balmy 70 degrees that day, something our weather team does not expect will happen on Saturday in Seattle.
That said, Saturday may still end up as the warmest Apple Cup when the teams kick off at 12:30 p.m. Temperatures will be in the low 60s, which will be warmer than the highs for all but three of the previous 115 days the Cougars and Huskies battled on the gridiron. Since more September meetings are almost certain to come, it’s not hard to imagine a year where you could wear shorts sandals to the biggest game of the season.
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