There are moments in life when something you have only imagined suddenly becomes real.
For me, one of those moments happened in a football stadium in Olympia.
I had grown up in Edwall, Washington, where college football was something I followed from a distance. I listened to games on the radio. I read about them in the newspaper. I watched college players on television and wondered what it would be like to play at that level.
At that point, it was still a dream.
Then I walked into Stevens Field.
A Stadium That Looked Huge to Me
When I first arrived in Olympia, I was still trying to figure out where I fit.
I had transferred to Olympia High School and was beginning to understand that football there was on a completely different scale from what I had known before.
One evening, some of my lunchtime friends invited me to watch the Olympia Bears play.
I remember walking through the tunnel and hearing the band and the crowd. Then I stepped out into the aisle and saw the stadium.
My reaction was immediate.
This looked more like Washington State than Reardan.
That comparison came naturally because I had been thinking about college football for years. I had listened to Washington State games on the radio and read about players and coaches in the newspaper. Now I was standing inside a high school stadium that, to me, felt enormous.
And then something clicked.
I remembered being a kid at Lincoln Elementary School in 1959. During recess, a rubber ball had gotten away from me. While chasing it, I asked another kid what the huge structure in the distance was.
He told me it was Stevens Field, home of the Olympia Bears.
Years later, I was standing inside that same stadium.
Suddenly, the picture in my head changed.
I could imagine myself playing there.
First I Had to Learn How to Play
There was only one problem.
I had to become good enough to make the team.
I had not grown up playing organized football in the same way some of the other players had. The dream was there, but the ability still had to catch up.
As I put it in Crab Creek Chronicles, I had plenty to learn and not much time.
That became the focus.
I worked at it.
Football was no longer something I only listened to or watched. It became something I was trying to understand from the inside.
I also discovered that I enjoyed basketball and made the ninth-grade team after trying out with about 30 other players. I had worked on my basketball skills while growing up in Edwall, and that preparation helped me feel comfortable when I stepped onto the court.
Those early experiences were important because they showed me something I could not have fully understood at the time.
Dreaming about something and actually doing it are two very different things.
The stadium could give me the picture.
The work had to give me a chance.
Then the Letters Started Coming
As my high school career developed, college football became less distant.
The letters began arriving.
Washington and Oregon showed interest. Oregon State became involved. Notre Dame entered the picture. I even received an appointment to the Air Force Academy and was expecting one to West Point.
And yet, there was one school whose absence bothered me.
Washington State.
My mother noticed it too.
At a Seattle luncheon, she was sitting next to WSU Alumni Director Pat Patterson when the subject of her children came up. She explained that I had plenty of schools interested in me, but I had heard nothing from Washington State.
Her response was apparently enough to get someone’s attention.
Within five days, I received four letters from WSU, including an invitation to attend its homecoming game against Oregon State.
That was how recruiting worked in those days.
There were no emails. No cell phones. No online recruiting profiles. Much of the communication came through letters and telephone calls.
When I think about that now, the process seems almost slow compared with what recruiting has become.
But for a high school kid waiting for the mail, a letter could change your entire day.
The Offer I Had Imagined
Eventually, the University of Washington made things very real.
Coach Jim Owens and his staff came to my high school. I recognized some of the people in the room from watching them on television, including Bob Schloredt, the Washington quarterback I had watched at our farmhouse on television.
Then Coach Owens offered me a full scholarship.
I remember sitting there thinking about what had just happened.
Washington was one of the schools that, at the time, established whether a recruit was considered a major prospect on the West Coast. Receiving that offer meant something to me.
But the decision was not finished.
Washington State was still in the picture.
And the choice would involve more than simply looking at which school had the biggest name.
The Visit I Still Remember
The Washington State visit had its own personality.
Coach Jim Sweeney came to town and took my mother and me to dinner at the Jacaranda, a restaurant on the water.
Sweeney was not the quiet type.
He talked about the Apple Cup, Washington State’s recent shutout victory over Washington, and his plans for the Cougar program. He wanted me to believe that the program was changing and that I could be part of what came next.
Then the conversation turned to what I wanted to study.
My mother suggested teaching and coaching.
Sweeney had a very different idea.
He announced that I was going to become governor of Washington.
That was Coach Sweeney.
It was also the kind of recruiting experience that stayed with me.
Looking back, I realize that choosing a college was never simply about football. It was about the people you met, the environment you imagined yourself living in and the kind of future you could see from there.
For me, Washington State had another connection that the other schools could not duplicate.
It felt like home.
The Beginning of Something Much Bigger
Eventually, I would become a Washington State football player.
Years later, I would return to the university as its athletic director.
That part of the story is much easier to see now.
At the time, though, I was simply a young man standing in a high school stadium, trying to figure out whether a dream could become a career.
That is why I remember Stevens Field.
It was not the biggest stadium I would ever enter.
It was not the most important football game I would ever watch.
But it was one of the places where the future became easier for me to imagine.
Why This Story Belongs in Crab Creek Chronicles
When people hear about a career in college athletics, they often start with the titles, the big games, the facilities and the decisions made from an athletic director’s office.
My story started much earlier.
It started in a small Washington community, with a kid listening to football games on the radio and wondering what it would be like to become part of that world.
Then came Olympia.
Then Stevens Field.
Then the letters.
Then the recruiting visits.
And eventually, Washington State.
That sequence matters to me because none of those moments existed by themselves. The boy who dreamed about playing major college football eventually became the player, and the player eventually became the athletic director.
The story was already underway long before I knew what the ending might look like.
That is one of the reasons I wrote Crab Creek Chronicles. The book is not only about where I ended up. It is about remembering where the idea first began.
FAQs
When did Bill Moos begin thinking seriously about playing college football?
His interest developed during his high school years after moving to Olympia and becoming more involved in football. Seeing the Olympia Bears play at Stevens Field helped make the possibility feel real to him.
Which colleges recruited Bill Moos?
The memoir describes interest from Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and Notre Dame, along with appointments to the Air Force Academy and West Point.
Did Bill Moos receive a scholarship offer from Washington?
Yes. University of Washington coach Jim Owens offered him a full scholarship during a visit to his high school.
Why was Washington State important to Bill Moos?
Washington State had a strong personal connection for Moos. He had followed the Cougars from childhood and ultimately became a WSU football player before returning decades later as athletic director. Washington State Magazine also describes his memoir as tracing his path from his eastern Washington childhood through his football and athletics career.
Is this story included in Crab Creek Chronicles?
Yes. The memoir covers Moos’s childhood, high school football, college recruitment, Washington State playing career and later work in college athletics.