Always a rivalry week: Why is Washington vs. Washington State called the “Apple Cup”?

With more than 130 schools and more than 130 years of history, there's a rivalry somewhere in college football every week. Some are titanic clashes, some are petty boundary disputes, but all mean the world to the rivals involved. This season, we're letting you in on the triumphs, the heartbreaks, and the ridiculous of rivalries across the country. Today: the (far too early) return of the Apple Cup.

The schools: Washington and Washington State. It's a classic rivalry between snobs and sluts, between city and country, between wine and beer. Each side believes their side is touched by the divine and the other side is a bunch of lost heathens… and that's what you want in a rivalry.

The story: The University of Washington first competed on the football field in 1900 against the Agricultural College, Experiment Station and School of Science of the State of Washington. Soon after, the Agricultural College shortened its cumbersome name to Washington State—which was further shortened to “Wazzu”—and the century-long rivalry between the two schools began. UW and Wazzu have met almost every year since 1900, except when world wars and the occasional pandemic intervened. It served as the gateway to the Rose Bowl for both teams on several occasions.

The series: Washington leads the series 76-33-6. The Huskies have won the last two, nine of the last ten and 12 of the last 14 games in the series. Washington is a favorite by about 4.5 points this year.

The trophy: The Apple Cup Trophy, a two-handled cup with numbers from the rivalry's history engraved on a wooden base, is housed at the university that most recently won the game. Both schools have a shelf reserved for the trophy, and the jokes about dust accumulating on the losing team's shelf are frequent, constant, and to be expected.

Washington produces more apples than any other state in the union by a wide margin. (Second place: Washington's national championship rival, Michigan.) Washington's Apple Commission first donated the “Big Apple Trophy” to the game in 1963, replacing the unoriginal “Governor's Trophy.” Since then, the game and series have been known as The Apple Cup.

Notable games:

Moon landing, 1975: Washington trailed Washington State 27-14 late in the fourth quarter, but when the Cougars opted for a late 4th-and-1 conversion instead of a game-winning field goal, Washington's Al Burleson returned an intercepted pass 93 yards for a touchdown. After a defensive stop, Washington's Warren Moon threw a pass wide open that deflected right into the hands of Spider Gaines, who scored a 78-yard touchdown to take the lead.

The Snow Bowl, 1992: There's nothing better than a good, weather-affected college football game, and the 1992 Apple Cup was played in Pullman during a heavy snowstorm. The highlight of the game: Drew Bledsoe caught Phillip Bobo in the end zone for a touchdown pass that sent Bobo sliding face-first into a snowbank:

That touchdown helped Wazzu win against the (shared) defending champions, the Huskies, and any day you can bring your rival back down to earth is a good day, no matter how cold the ground is.

“The game is over”, 2002: The Huskies, who were considered underdogs, took a lead against the Cougars in overtime, but then the game turned around on a single, hair-raising play. Wazzu backup quarterback Matt Kegel threw what appeared to be a screen pass, but Washington lineman Kai Ellis stepped in and caught the ball short. The ball fell to the ground. Incomplete pass, right? Referee Gordon Riese dashed Wazzu's hopes with a quick statement: “It was ruled on the field that it was a backwards pass. Washington intercepted the backwards pass and the game is over.”

Both sides were in a frenzy as officials and players left the field amid a hail of bottles and curses.

The Crapple Cup, 2008: Look, they can't all be gems. In 2008, the teams met with a combined score of 1-20. No, that's not a misprint. It took two overtimes, but Washington State won 16-13 in an Apple Cup matchup that was, as sportswriters called it at the time, “full of worms.”

The last hurrah, 2023: In one of the boldest calls in Apple Cup history, Washington coach Kalen DeBoer attempted a conversion on fourth-and-1 with just 1:11 left on the clock and the score tied. At stake was Washington's undefeated season and, as it turned out, a spot in the College Football Playoff. But Michael Penix Jr. tossed the ball to Rome Odunze, who ran the yard and 22 more yards to set up a game-winning field goal. Two games later, Washington played Michigan for the national title. One game after that, Penix, Odunze and DeBoer were all gone … and so was Washington itself, which moved up from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten after the season. And that sets the stakes for this year's return game.

This year: Yes, both schools enter this game undefeated for the first time since 1935. But there's a big catch. The Apple Cup is one of the most visible and painful reminders of how college football conference realignment is upending and ending some of the sport's oldest traditions. Washington and Washington State will meet again this year — but this time in September, not on Thanksgiving. It's a non-conference battle, not for Pac-12 supremacy. And this year, the Apple Cup will kick off at Lumen Stadium, the sleek, professional home of the Seattle Seahawks, not a campus stadium.

The Apple Cup will continue at least through 2028, and the trophy will still hold a place of honor with the school that wins it, but something powerful and irreplaceable about this rivalry has been lost in the realignment.