After a long absence I am finally going to start posting on here again. Although they are probably going to be far and few in between. I don’t have the time or the capability to keep up with the talents that are Hawk, BH & Hooty. I do have the time to read this blog everyday though. Turns out that is a lot easier than posting.
Anywho, after this Christmas my box set of the ‘Legends of the Palouse’ is finally complete thanks to my sister-in-law, Carol. She also got the box signed by Jack Thompson and the Part 3 DVD signed by Gesser. Apparently tallying 45 minutes of standing in line to do so. I’m sure she did it just to get a chance to talk to Gesser. I know you dig him Carol. The point being is that I’ve decided to break my blogging dry spell with a review of the ‘Legends of the Palouse’ movies.
There are 3 movies, 6 hours total running time. By the looks of it Jeff McQuarrie did most, if not all, of the directing, interviewing and editing. I have to imagine he had some kind of help though. Too bad I never watch the credits or I could probably tell you guys that. Go to http://www.legendsofthepalouse.com/ and check it out for yourself. You can buy the 3 movies separately or get the entire box set. The movies are:
Part One: The First 80 Years
The title is pretty self-explanatory but this one takes you from the very first coach in 1894 on through to 1914. It covers all the big names that you already know or buildings are named after or both. The thing for me was that I didn’t realize that I didn’t know jack about these guys until I watched this. The movie goes on to cover the greatest teams from 1915-1972. There’s a few inspirational stories. I particularly liked the story of Rob Retherford because he’s a hick like me. There is stuff about the history of the school itself. McQuarrie also put together a really great collection of old photos to make this movie complete and well worth the dough. I think they should pass this movie out to every freshman that shows up on campus and give them a test over it. I almost felt embarrassed by how much I learned from it because I probably should have known a lot of that stuff already. Now I feel more comfortable about calling myself a Coug.
Part Two – Learning to Bowl
This movie starts out talking about the Apple Cup rivalry. It goes over the Greatest Teams between 1975-1995. Yes, the ’88 Holiday Bowl team is in there as well as plenty of Bledsoe coverage. This one contains all the footage you can handle of afro’s, mustaches, those really thick face mask bars and mesh mid drift jerseys. If you’re into MTV Cribs you’ll like this one too because they have a chapter on making it in the pro’s and what some of these guys did with their fat paychecks.
Part Three – Raising the Bar
How couldn’t you love this one that covers the greatest teams from ’96 on. That’s a lot of good, winning football. They start the movie talking about the ’98 Rose Bowl and that team. Of course they went on to cover the 3 – 10 win seasons. The thing I really liked about this one is that they talked about, showed lots of footage of and interviewed quite a few of the good players from those years. There are lots of good little tidbits that get told too like Trufant used to cut everyone’s hair for $5 and Lamont Thompson could throw the ball just as far with his left hand as he could with his right. There is ample footage of Gesser, my favorite being a quick snip-it of him surrounded by trainers puking his guts out. There is a chapter on the great players through all of Cougar football history who played on average teams and never really got the glory they deserved. Then McQuarrie put together a panel of judges who ranked the greatest Cougar teams of all times. You’re going to have to buy the movie to find out how that turned out.
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