I Wasn’t Expecting Another Visitor
By the time the SUV came slowly down the lane, I had already decided I wasn’t interested.
The previous few weeks had been filled with phone calls and unexpected visitors. People had been trying to convince me to consider the Washington State athletic director’s position, but I had given everyone the same answer. The job hadn’t been posted, and when it was, I wasn’t going to pursue it.
I had already experienced the disappointment of UNLV. I wasn’t eager to put myself through another one.
So on that crisp March afternoon, when I saw another vehicle coming toward the house, I figured Jack Thompson had sent someone else to try again.
I was alone at the ranch, eating a sandwich.
I pulled on my boots, pulled my Wrangler jeans down over them, and walked onto the porch.
A well-dressed man got out of the SUV and walked toward me.
Then came a question.
“Bill Moos?”
“Yes. I’m Bill Moos.”
He shook my hand.
“I’m Elson Floyd, president of Washington State University, and I have come here today to bring you home.”
I was speechless.
Then he told me why.
“I want you to be my athletic director, Bill.”
The Setting Made the Moment Even Stranger
There is something almost amusing about the way that meeting happened.
I wasn’t sitting in an office waiting for an important phone call.
I wasn’t dressed for an interview.
I wasn’t surrounded by people discussing my qualifications.
I was at home on the ranch with three-day-old beard growth and boots covered in whatever I’d been walking through that day.
And the person standing in front of me was the president of Washington State University.
The contrast wasn’t lost on me.
Washington State was not just another university. It was where I had started my college career as an 18-year-old student-athlete. It was where I had played football. It was my alma mater.
Now its president had driven to my ranch because he wanted me to come back.
That changes the feeling of a conversation.
Coming Home Was Not Going to Be Enough
There was something else I remember about that conversation.
I was grateful.
I was also direct.
I told President Floyd that returning to Washington State would be a thrill, but I wasn’t interested in simply maintaining what was already there.
If I came back, we were going to build.
That meant facilities. It meant hiring and retaining good coaches. It meant recruiting the best athletes we could get.
And it meant I needed the president’s support.
I told him exactly that.
His response was simple.
“You can rest assured, I’ll have your back.”
There wasn’t much drama in the exchange.
No long speech.
No elaborate promise.
Just two people trying to determine whether they were looking at the same future.
Sometimes Returning Home Means Seeing It Differently
I’ve thought about that meeting many times since.
Coming home can sound simple when you say it out loud.
You leave a place.
You build a life somewhere else.
Then, years later, you return.
But you don’t actually return as the same person.
The Washington State I had known as an 18-year-old football player was not the Washington State I was being asked to lead decades later.
And I wasn’t the same person either.
I had played football.
I had coached.
I had worked in administration.
I had already led athletic departments and dealt with the problems that come with running major college programs.
So when President Floyd asked me to come home, he wasn’t asking the young man who had left Pullman years earlier.
He was asking the person that young man had become.
That distinction is easy to miss when we talk about going back to somewhere familiar.
The Ranch Was Quiet. My Head Wasn’t.
What I remember most about that afternoon is not simply the offer.
It is where I was when it happened.
The ranch had become a different kind of place for me by then.
After leaving Oregon, I had spent a great deal of time working on the property and building the Special K Ranch. The pace was different from college athletics. There were cattle, land, construction projects and plenty of physical work.
And there was time to think.
Years later, I can see how much those years gave me.
College athletics had always moved quickly. There was always another game, another decision, another problem waiting.
The ranch didn’t work that way.
A fence still had to be built.
Cattle still needed attention.
The seasons moved whether I was ready for them or not.
That quieter life gave me room to think about what I wanted next.
So when Elson Floyd arrived, he wasn’t simply interrupting lunch.
He was interrupting a period of my life that I had begun to think might last.
Kendra Remembered What I Had Just Been Through
There was another person whose reaction mattered.
Kendra.
When I told her what had happened, she was happy, but she was cautious too. The disappointment surrounding my earlier UNLV experience was still fresh enough that neither of us could simply ignore it.
That is another thing about opportunities that looks different from the outside.
People see the offer.
They see the possibility.
They don’t always see what happened immediately before it.
For Kendra and me, the Washington State conversation carried the memory of something that had not worked out.
So there was excitement, but there was also a reason to be careful.
I appreciated both.
When I eventually went to Pullman the following week, I knew she had faith in me to make the right decision.
What Made the Decision Real
The visit to the ranch was only the beginning.
The real conversation happened later in Pullman, particularly when Elson and I sat together in his study.
I told him what I believed Washington State athletics needed.
He listened.
I told him that significant investment would be necessary, including at least $150 million in football facilities.
Again, he didn’t hesitate.
Then we discussed the personal side of the decision.
I had seven years remaining on my Oregon agreement, and leaving meant walking away from a significant amount of money.
So this wasn’t simply about nostalgia.
It wasn’t enough that Washington State was my alma mater.
There had to be something worth coming back for.
And there was.
Looking Back at the Man on the Porch
When I think about that afternoon now, I sometimes wonder what the younger version of me would have thought.
The 18-year-old who first arrived at Washington State couldn’t have imagined sitting on a ranch decades later while the university president came looking for him.
Life rarely moves in straight lines.
The places that shape us can disappear into the background for years, only to return when we least expect them.
That is what happened to me.
Washington State had been part of my childhood dream of playing major college football. It became part of my professional life. Then I left.
And eventually, it came back to my front porch.
That’s one of the reasons this story belongs in Crab Creek Chronicles.
It isn’t simply the story of getting a job.
It is the story of how a place from my past came looking for me at a time when I was living a very different life.
And sometimes, when the past comes knocking, you find out it still has something to say.
FAQs
What is Crab Creek Chronicles about?
Crab Creek Chronicles is Bill Moos’ memoir, covering his journey from growing up in rural eastern Washington to playing football at Washington State and later working as a college athletic director. The book brings together family memories, athletics, career experiences and the people who influenced his life.
Who was Elson Floyd?
Elson Floyd was president of Washington State University when he approached Bill about becoming the university’s athletic director. In the memoir, Floyd personally visited Bill’s ranch to make the offer.
Why was Bill hesitant about returning to Washington State?
Bill had recently experienced disappointment surrounding the UNLV athletic director position. He had also become comfortable with life on the ranch, so returning to college athletics required serious consideration.
What did Bill want to change at Washington State?
Bill made it clear that he wanted to build the athletic program rather than simply maintain it. He discussed facilities, coaching and recruiting with President Floyd and wanted his full support for those goals.
Why is this story important to the Bill Moos book?
The encounter shows how unexpectedly Bill’s return to Washington State began. It also brings together several parts of his life: his early years as a WSU athlete, his career in college athletics, his ranch life and the decision that eventually brought him back to his alma mater.