WSU Early Glory Days Told Well In “Chance For Glory”

A new book out about Cougar football is out called Chance for Glory which celebrates the 1916 WSU Championship Rose bowl team. The author is Darin Watkins who now works for WSU but earlier in his media career he worked for a time in TV news in Yakima.

The basis of the book is the untold story of the Washington State University football team of 1915 when William “Lone Star” Dietz, a Native American, was hired as the new coach. His innovative strategies and knowledge would help a group of undersized players to become giants on the football field, and soon Washington State would be a household name across America. As the publisher’s pitch says “Much more than just a football story, Chance for Glory is a microcosm of American history. Author Darin Watkins places the Cougars and the first Rose Bowl in the context of two Washington schools trying to compete academically for their very existence.

We get glimpses into early Hollywood movie-making, we meet people with their roots in a legacy of Indian Wars from just a few decades earlier, and we hear distantly the guns on the European battlefields of World War I.

Intrigue, romance, courage, determination, strategy, and serendipity all meet in these pages to catapult the story of the winning Cougars into becoming one of the greatest football stories of all time.”

Sounds like a fun read for Cougs and Huskies alike. Out just in time for Christmas and for the Apple Cup 100 years later.

For more information about Darin Watkins and Chance for Glory, visit the author’s website and when you do, make sure you don’t miss the actual video clip from the 1916 Rose Bowl game.

Chance for Glory
The Innovation and Triumph of the Washington State 1916 Rose Bowl Team
Author: Darin Watkins (509) 595-2012
Aviva Publishing (2015)
ISBN: 978-1-943164-40-0
Like us on Facebook : www.facebook.com/ChanceForGlory
For more information and video of the 1916 Rose Bowl game, check out www.Chance4Glory.com