AP

Former WSU QB Ryan Leaf

PULLMAN, Wash. - It was exactly 10 years ago that Washington State's football team shed its image as Lovable Losers and went to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years.

Cougar Nation was overwhelmed: Grown men cried, the college football establishment couldn't quite believe.

Santa Monica, Calif., was transformed into Pullman-by-The Sea, as thousands of Cougar fans descended on team headquarters. Quarterback Ryan Leaf finished third in the Heisman Trophy race. The Fab Five caught everything thrown their way. Defensive lineman Leon Bender was victorious on the field with his tackles, and off the field with his mouth.

Washington State had not played in a Rose Bowl since 1931. Some wondered openly if the Cougars would ever make a Rose Bowl, or if they even belonged in the Pacific-10.

The 1997 season wasn't expected to be much different, with the Cougars picked to finish seventh in the league.

But coach Mike Price and his staff had amassed an impressive roster. Leaf, a junior quarterback from Great Falls, Mont., had a cannon arm and a fiery personality. In 1997 he broke Pac-10 records for most touchdown passes (33), total offense (3,583 yards), and yards passing (3,637) in a season, and at times seemed to will the Cougs to victory.

As a team, the Cougars set Pac-10 season records for total yards (5,524), passing yards (3,789), and average yards per play (6.8).

Leaf's targets were a group of veteran receivers who called themselves the Fab Five. They were Chris Jackson, Kevin McKenzie, Shawn McWashington, Nian Taylor, and Shawn Tims. Even if an opponent could stop one or two, they couldn't stop them all.

McKenzie had 50 catches for 833 yards; Jackson was just one reception behind McKenzie and led the team in reception yardage with 916. Tims caught 35 for 497 yards, and McWashington had 31 receptions for 556 yards. Taylor had only 21 receptions, but averaged an astonishing 25 yards per catch.

The running game was in the hands of Michael Black, who rushed for 1,157 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The season opened auspiciously, with the Cougars beating UCLA 37-34, thanks to an epic goal line tackle by Bender, in a game that would ultimately determine the Pac-10 representative to the Rose Bowl.

Two weeks later, the Cougs won at Southern Cal for the first time since 1957.

They went on to beat Illinois, Boise State, Oregon, California and Arizona. Their first loss was at Arizona State. Then they beat Southwestern Louisiana, Stanford and, finally, Washington to qualify for the Rose Bowl.

After the emotional 41-35 win in Husky Stadium, Leaf rushed across the field to the WSU section and spiked the football. He was carried off the field by fans, a rose stuck between his teeth.

Coaches and players cried. Even Husky fans cheered.

"First and foremost, that is the most fun football game I ever got to be a part of," Leaf said recently in a telephone interview from West Texas A&M University, where he is a football and golf coach.

Fans of the 10-1 Cougars poured out of the woodwork.

Two days after the Apple Cup, Washington State put its allotment of 35,000 tickets on sale, with priority to season ticket holders and donors. The $75 tickets sold out immediately, and some desperate fans began offering up to 10 times face value.

Price was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year, and Leaf was Offensive Player of the Year. Leaf and Bender were named to the All-Pac-10 first team, and were AP All-Americas. Leaf won the Sammy Baugh Trophy. Price won the inaugural Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award and accepted it from Robinson himself.

Then attention turned to the New Year's Day game with top-ranked Michigan (11-0), which was playing for the national title.

The team bought a night at the Santa Monica Pier for fans. There was a huge pep rally in a plaza in Burbank. The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica became a sea of crimson and gray, its shops, restaurants and bars overwhelmed with pasty-faced visitors from the Northwest.

The Los Angeles Coliseum, site of so many ignominious losses to Southern Cal, became Washington State's practice field and the gathering place for generations of Washington State alumni, who gathered at every practice to share memories and wonder if Hell had frozen over.

Myron Davis, 89, one of only seven survivors from the 1931 Rose Bowl team, addressed the 1997 Cougars before their morning practice on Dec. 26.

The game turned into a defensive war, with Michigan gradually taking a 21-16 lead. Washington State had a last chance deep in its own territory, and Leaf completed two big passes to bring the ball to Michigan's 16. With two seconds left, he spiked the ball to buy one more play. But officials ruled the clock had expired and the game ended.

"After I spiked the ball I looked at the scoreboard and there was 1 second on the scoreboard," Leaf said. But he also noted the Cougars had squandered earlier chances to score.

After the game, Leaf and Price walked off the field arm-in-arm, blowing kisses to WSU fans.

But one Rose Bowl does not cure all ills.

The morning after the big game, Leaf announced he was giving up his senior season to turn pro. The Cougars then posted three consecutive losing seasons.

But the recruiting improvements brought by the Rose Bowl appearance began to pay off, and the Cougars enjoyed three consecutive 10-win seasons and a second Rose Bowl after the 2002 season.

"We always had some good quarterbacks and played in a bowl here and there," Leaf said. "But going to the Rose Bowl was something else."