I watched my Oregon Ducks play the Washington State Cougars in Pullman last Saturday. The minute the game came on I rose from my couch and went to put on a sweater. Memories of Pullman, Washington in November lowered my body temperature by 10 degrees. Pullman is in the Palouse, a unique geographical area of rolling hills like giant sand dunes that welcome icy blasts of weather from the polar regions that my Aunt Helen, who knew that country, described as having nothing between you and the North Pole but a barbed wire fence with the top strand down.
Sending young scholars to play football in Pullman in November could be classified as a crime against humanity. Extreme cold causes materials (including live creatures) to contract and become brittle. Engagement in any activity that involves violent collisions will make a person feel as if they are in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon where shattered parts of your body are flying all around.
In the first half the Oregon team fell behind by two touchdowns and a field goal. Shattered pieces of players were everywhere on the frozen tundra. The Coug players were unaffected by the temperature because their trainers stick a long needle into their brains and turn off the hot/cold switch. As the game went on the Oregon players became numb to the alien environment and fought back to win the game by a couple of touches. As Oregon QB Tyler Shough took a knee to end the game, all he could think about, along with his teammates, was that locker room with those skin-ripping hot showers. Who needs soap?
I suspect two years from now it will be difficult to get players from that game, still on the team, to willingly board the chartered aircraft headed for the Palouse.
