PULLMAN, WA – There’s a special culture that’s only found in a college town. It’s cultivated by hometown pride, school spirit, and in the case of Pullman, WA, an agricultural industry that has paved the way for cheese as famous as the California Gold Rush. On the Palouse, “Go Cougs” isn’t just something folks say on game days. It symbolizes the resilient, fighting spirit of the people of Pullman, whose warmth is enough to balance the cold winters and a changing collegiate athletic landscape that left Washington State behind.
For the last three years, I’ve made one road trip a year to cover Arizona Football. My criteria when deciding where to go: which city or town will give visitors an authentic experience with culture, pride, and warmth? When I saw Washington State on the calendar, I knew Pullman would do just that.
It’s not easy to get to the Palouse. There is an airport, but it’s small – there are three gates. When you step outside, you’re greeted by rolling hills that are fading from green to yellow this time of year, and the smell of wheat fields and earth. If you’re lucky, like me, it’ll also be raining, and the closest Uber of Lyft is likely 30 minutes away. But hey, that’s part of the charm right.
After finally securing a ride share, I arrived at the Cougar Land Motel, which as the name implies, is adorned with the WSU logo on the marquee sign out front and is decked out in Crimson and Gray in the lobby. But just like a ride share, finding a place to drop my bags wasn’t exactly easy. In fact, the lobby was actually locked with a sign in the window informing guests the staff was busy cleaning rooms and would be back to check guests in early – if possible – at 2:00 PM, about two hours later than the time on my watch. So I did my best impression of a Pacific Northwest native and pretended to be unbothered by the chilly drizzle as I walked up the road to my first recommendation of the trip, Cougar Country Drive In.
Cougar Country is known for its cheeseburgers, french fries and onion rings, and iconic fry sauce. I’m not sure there’s such thing as a bad burger and onion rings, but let me tell you, after dragging my suitcase up a hill in the rain to the restaurant, there was something magical about that first beer battered onion ring in the spicy fry sauce.
After finishing my meal and wading my way through a group of elementary students that appeared to be on a field trip and had taken over the dinning area on stop for lunch, it was time for a sweet treat at Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Ferdinand’s is home to the WSU Creamery, the on-campus dairy research and production facility that makes top tier ice cream and is the home of the world famous Cougar Gold cheese. When Arizona was still in the Pac-12, I heard stories and reviews about Cougar Gold from time to time, but I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for the experience and quality of the ice cream and cheese at Ferdinand’s.
I started with a scoop of Cougar Tracks, which is similar to Moose Tracks, with fudge swirls and miniature peanut butter cups mixed in on sugar cone, because let’s face it, I’m a sucker for peanut butter. I don’t know if y’all have bought ice cream at the store lately, but if you’re not careful, what you get is technically a ‘frozen dairy dessert’ because there’s not enough milk and cream in it to be ice cream. This however, is the real deal. It is not hyperbole when I say the ice cream had some of the best, if not, the best creaminess and texture I have ever experienced before. Coupled with the awesome assortment of flavors – easy 12/10.
And then came the cheese. I was easily persuaded to bring home two tins of cheese – one of the original Cougar Gold and another of the Hot Pepper, which is similar to a spicy pepper jack. The shop didn’t have any samples available, so I paid my bill, finished my ice cream, and began walking down the back towards the main part of campus before deciding, screw it, when in Rome, er, Pullman, you’ve got to try to cheese. So I walked back up the hill, purchased a snack pack of Cougar Gold, and proceeded to make my way towards the Cougar Pride Statue out front of Gesa Field at Martin Stadium for about as an authentic of a sampling experience as I could think of.
Let me tell you, it was perfect. With bronze Butch behind me and the rain beginning to fall again, I couldn’t but smile from ear to ear as the rich, creamy, salty cheese hit my tongue and melted in my mouth. I don’t know if it was the whole experience – the cool PNW weather, the atmosphere on campus, and the quality of the cheese itself – but eating Cougar Gold is the sort of thing that makes you inexplicably happy. I know it’s just cheese, but in a way, you could almost feel that hometown pride, school spirit, and warmth of the Palouse with each bite. As excited as I am to get home and share stories and pictures with my friends and family, I’m equally as excited for them to try Cougar Gold for themselves and experience that same (gold) rush of euphoria and happiness I felt.
By this point, I had killed enough time stuffing my face with delicious dairy that I was able to check in to the Cougar Land Motel, so I began making my way back towards downtown Pullman. I used it as an opportunity to explore campus, where I stumbled across the Arizona equipment truck parked, the historic Washington State archway located at the entrance to campus, and a massive WSU sign in front of the visitor center that connects sits in between campus and downtown.
Getting checked in and finally dropping my suitcase was a game-changer because it meant I had a free hand to hold a cup of coffee! I met up with a couple of Arizona alumni I knew had made the trip and made plans to see them later that evening for dinner before making my way back up to campus for Cougar Marching Band rehearsal. It was the first, and unfortunately, not the last time I climbed the massive hill that separates downtown from campus. Woof, or whatever the equivalent is for Cougars and Wildcats. Bill Walton would probably know the perfect sound.
But despite my huffing and puffing, getting to watch a world-class organization like the CMB rehearse was 100 percent worth it. Dr. Jon Sweet, the Director of the Cougar Marching Band, was a wonderful host and an even better leader and director. Rehearsal was fun, organized, and productive, all things I valued during my time in the Pride of Arizona Marching Band.
I believe one of the best compliments a marching band can receive is being told it sounds bigger than it actually is. The CMB has about 260 members, but just listening to them, the group easily sounds like 350-400 strong. They are moving some sound! Sweet’s students have a clear passion for music and Wazzu, as well as respect and admiration for him and the staff, and it shows in the quality of the music and pictures they put on the field on Friday night and Saturday during the game.
After rehearsal, I made my way back down the hill and met up with my pals from earlier at Rico’s, a pub located in downtown around the corner from my motel. It was dark, cozy, and absolutely the kind of place I would spend Friday nights at if I went to school at WSU or lived in Pullman. Plus, any bar that serves popcorn for $1 automatically gets bonus points in my book.
If you can believe it, after dinner I made my way back up the hill to The Coug, a popular bar for students that reminded me a lot of Dirtbag’s in Tucson. At this point, my legs and feet were asking, er, more like interrogating my brain why I hadn’t called an Uber or at least found a scooter. I may or may not have had a couple of beverages while I was there, but that wasn’t the purpose of my visit. I was there for Incognito Band. You may be asking yourself, what on earth is Incognito Band? Dr. Sweet and the staff will deny it if you ever ask, but the CMB dresses up in costumes and disguises, waits until 9:52 PM – yes, specifically 9:52 PM – then performs a pep rally along greek row and out front of The Coug and Valhalla, the two bars located on campus.
You know it’s good tradition when both students and alumni of 20-30 years were growing impatient and cheering “where’s the band” together in unison. It wasn’t anything fancy or overly organized, but the randomness and spontaneity of the Incognito Band appearing at your favorite local watering hole for a couple of pep tunes makes it one of the coolest college traditions I’ve ever seen.
I woke up on Saturday just like I do every weekend – eager for GAME DAY! After a long travel day and late night “partying” with the Incognito Band, I needed some hotel coffee to get me to actual coffee down the street at Roost, a local coffee shop with an excellent assortment of homemade pastries, baked goods, and other breakfast items, where I met one of the alumni from the night before. While I was standing in line, I began chatting with some Wazzu fans that had made the trip from Seattle for the game and were excited to see their Cougs play. To my surprise, they treated me to my coffee, a gesture that warmed me up on a chilly morning on the Palouse.
After getting some quality caffeine, we made our way over to The Old European for breakfast, which has become an institution in Pullman since it opened in 1989. All of the ingredients are local and natural, and all the batters and doughs for their authentic European breakfasts are made in-house from scratch.
Naturally, we put that to the test, starting with an order of half original, half sausage and havarti cheese filled aebleskiver, which are a fluffy Danish pancake ball. They were delicious on their own, but paired with the blackberry brandy syrup and applesauce, wow!
Being the creature of habit that I am, I ordered my go to breakfast – over medium eggs, bacon and hash browns extra crispy, and sourdough toast. In a world where life continues to move faster and faster around us, where companies continue sacrificing quality and service to squeeze every last drop of profit out of their business, eating a breakfast as high quality as the one I had at the Old European, with the caliber of service that our party received, did not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Finding a top notch breakfast spot has become a tradition on these trips for me and the Old European absolutely delivered.
If you can believe it, after a quick wardrobe change back at the motel, it was time to brave the hill again. The prize? Another trip to Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe – twist my arm!
The new variable this time was making the journey with my alumni friend from breakfast and Rico’s, which was a nice change except for the part where I was huffing and puffing between every third word trying to talk. I’m not kidding y’all, this hill is ridiculous.
We made it back to Ferdinand’s and unlike Friday where I walked right up to the counter, there was a line out the door, down the steps and up the side of the building. With my two tins of cheese safely back in my room, I tried to focused on more authentic, Washington-inspired selections on my second visit. I got a scoop of ‘Apple Cup’ Crisp, a vanilla ice cream with apple flavoring, caramel, oatmeal cookies, and spices, and Huckleberry Ripple, a huckleberry ice cream with a huckleberry swirl.
I’m going to be so for real with y’all, the girl behind the counter gave me two massive scoops. A day later as I’m writing this, I’m still not sure how I finished all of that ice cream.
After my alarming serving of ice cream, it was time to start shifting my focus towards pre-game, which began with Wazzu calls the Cougar Prowl. This is similar to the Wildcat Walk at Arizona, where the Pride of Arizona, Pomline, and Cheer and Mascots line the street and lead the football team into the stadium when it arrives on campus. The biggest differences? Wilbur doesn’t have a side-by-side that he rides around on, and there isn’t a big RV lot packed to the gills with fans who have been camping and tailgating overnight.
The Cougar Prowl concluded and it was time to make my way into the stadium. You can read more about Arizona’s 34-24 win here, or my thoughts and takeaways on the game here, but a couple notable callouts from the game include Butch leading the team out of the tunnel on that same side-by-side decked out in a full WSU theme and 30,000 fans clapping to hands and arms together while the CMB blasts theme from Jaws on defensive third downs.
By this point, if you couldn’t tell, I like to see as much as I can when I go on these trips. Naturally that meant spending my last few hours on the Palouse exploring the University of Idaho and surrounding town of Moscow, ID.
I got my final day rolling with a breakfast sandwich from Moscow Bagel & Deli, a local hotspot that a Washington State alumni told me before going on the trip “makes a few bagel sandwiches that I still think about most weeks.” I’m partial to my neighborhood bagel shop growing up, and the bagels I had a Hey Bagel in Seattle during the 2025 NCAA Tournament actually altered my brain chemistry with how good they were, but it was still a great way to start the day.
I then took some time to explore the Vandals’ campus, taking a quick stop at the Memorial Gym before making it to the real reason I wanted to visit Moscow, the infamous Kibbie Dome. I’m not sure there’s better way to describe it other than just flat out cool. For those who have been to a game at the Skydome at NAU, the size and feel are similar, but it’s just better. I have no idea the next time I’ll be back in Pullman or Moscow, but if there’s an Idaho home game happening that week, you’d better believe I’ll be there.
My time in Idaho concluded at the Moscow Food Co-Op, a local store with an incredible selection of groceries, hot food options, and fresh coffee, breads, and pastries that tempted me one final time before my flights to Boise, ID and back to State 48.
I believe this trip, and subsequently this diary of my 48 or so hours in Pullman, are important. Washington State is a proud program. Pullman is a proud place. But unfortunately, the power conferences forgot about the Cougars in 2024. And so we as visitors – opposing fans, media, and folks who remain nostalgic about the old Pac-12 – owe it to Wazzu to keep them in the spotlight. We owe it to the Cougar Marching Band, who missed the Apple Cup in Seattle and can only afford to bring half of its members to bowl games after realignment slashed the budget overnight.
So the next time Washington State pops up on the schedule, plan a trip, because there’s a wonderful, resilient, warm little town in eastern Washington that would love to welcome you with hometown pride, school sprint, and as much cheese and ice cream as you dare to eat.