“The Cougars has beaten Stanford 24-23 in the biggest upset
of the 1971 season, so when the Cardinal came into Pullman the next year” WSU
head football coach Jim Sweeney was “looking for a way to get his club up.
“Stanford came in on Friday and was taking a workout” in Martin
Stadium. “WSU players were waiting to go on and the Cougar Marching Band was
practicing” on Rogers (practice) Field “next to the stadium. The band’s show
that weekend was a salute to Walt Disney. Just as Stanford finished its workout
and the Cougars started to go on to the field, the band was playing the theme
from the ‘Mickey Mouse Club.’
According to Bill Moos, a player on the 1972 WSU team, “ ‘Naturally,
some of the Stanford players were humming and whistling the catchy tune, and
some were singing along: M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E.’
“ ‘Did you hear that!,” Sweeney screams. ‘Those guys thing
you are and your facilities are Mickey Mouse! Are you goin’ to take that? Are
you goin’ to let them get out of here thinkin’ you’re Mickey Mouse? I wanna
know, are ya?’
“ ‘He called off out workout right there and let us think
about it overnight. Next day, before sending us into the stadium, he reminded
us again,” said Moos.
“Washington State beat Stanford 27-18 on November 11, 1971.
The ‘Mickey Mouse’ game it’s known as.”
Source: Page 188 of book “The Crimson and the Gray : 100 Years
With the WSU Cougars,” by Richard B. “Dick” Fry, published in 1989 by WSU Press
as one of three Washington State University Centennial histories
