WSU's Tipton can't forget slip even though it was 19 years ago

A Cougars fan Web site, in a listing of the top Apple Cups of the past 20 seasons, once summed up Washington's 38-29 triumph over WSU in 1984 like this: "(Mark) Rypien had a top-five team on the ropes 'til Rico Tipton lost his temper."

That's the cross Tipton, a WSU linebacker who played from 1981-84, has had to bear ever since.

"All the time," said Tipton this week when asked if WSU fans ever ask him about that game. "It never goes away."

Tipton, however, says he has never talked publicly about that game until now. Here's what happened: A 6-4 WSU team had a 26-16 lead on the 9-1 Huskies, having scored on its first two drives of the third quarter. WSU then stopped Washington on a third-and-two play on the next drive, figuring to get the ball back again in good field position. Instead, Tipton was called for a personal foul after the whistle for throwing a forearm at a Husky — he's not sure who — and was tossed from the game, in what turned out to be the last play of his career.

Tipton says a UW lineman had gouged his eyes as they were lying in the pile of players. When another UW player hit him from behind, he said he instinctively swung back.

"It's not something I could change or stop," he said. "It was an immediate reaction to the swing on the back of my head."

Given new life, UW drove for a touchdown, and the momentum swung for good. UW went on to an Orange Bowl berth, where it beat Oklahoma to finish 11-1, while the Cougars stayed home at 6-5.

"It was the biggest emotional turnaround of a game I've ever seen," said Jim Walden, who was WSU's coach at the time.

Walden, though, agrees that Tipton — now working in security at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup and at a juvenile detention center — has gotten a bum rap. The Cougars had five turnovers, for instance, including two interceptions by Rypien and two fumbles by Rueben Mayes, while UW didn't have any.

Tipton laments that no one remembers that he had a key interception in WSU's 1983 win in Seattle.

"People want to credit just one play for that game, and not all the turnovers I had nothing to do with," Tipton said. "The bottom line is that we still should have won."

— Bob Condotta