Dan Doornink is exactly the kind of Coug we should remember, and not just for the 123 yards. He was a Wapato kid who signed with Jim Sweeney as a quarterback, got buried on the depth chart, and became a Hall of Fame running back anyway. That kind of pivot is pure Pullman. We have a few other stories about Cougs who figured it out in their own way, Nelly Jemeli on the Palouse, a Pac-12 champ in her own words and Solomon Kipchoge talks Pac-12 title race and life after Pullman, and they share that same thread: nobody handed them anything.
The story that sticks is the 1984 playoff game. Doornink hadn't carried the ball in two games. The Seahawks had turned the ball over nine times in their last two losses. Chuck Knox walked into the Kingdome against the defending Super Bowl champions and told everyone they were going to run it down their throats. Doornink got 29 carries. He gained 123 yards. After the game he said, "They knew exactly what we were going to do and still we were able to get the yards." That is not a quote you can manufacture. That is a guy who studied at UW Medical School while playing professional football, who lost 38 pounds in an ICU bed fighting COVID, and who spent the second half of his life as a doctor in Yakima. There is no separation between the runner and the physician. Both jobs required the same thing: show up, do the work, don't complain.
Doornink led the Cougars in rushing in 1976 and 1977. His 1,739 yards still sit 14th on the all-time list. He was part of that 1977 win over 15th-ranked Nebraska, a road win that mattered because it proved WSU could walk into a big stadium and leave with a win. But the takeaway here is not the stat line. It is the way he handled the in-between. He was not the star every week. He was a rotational back for most of his seven seasons in Seattle. He had exactly one 100-yard regular season game in his career. Then the playoffs came and he got 29 carries. That is what it means to stay ready. That is what it means to be a Coug who leaves Pullman and keeps the same attitude.
The concrete point to hold onto is this: Doornink's 123-yard playoff game was not a fluke. It was the result of a coach who trusted a rotational back and a rotational back who had been studying for years. That game happened because he was prepared for a moment that had not arrived yet. That is the kind of patience we should be teaching. Not the highlight. The preparation. Go Cougs.