Sailgating The Way To Team-Themed Drinks For Fans
This is part of PubClub.com’s School Spirit(s) series which features drinks based on traditions for college football teams across the country. This installment focuses on the University of Washington Huskies.
By Kevin Wikerson, Editor & Publisher, PubClub.com
In the U District, along The Ave and on Husky Harbor, fans of the University of Washington team support their team whether its sunny or raining. That applies to how the Huskies are playing as much as it does to the weather.
Washington has a rich football history. It was a charter member of what became the Pac-12 and won 18 titles in that conference. It claims two national championships, in 1960 and 1991 and was coached by the legendary Don James from 1975-1992. Its purple and gold colors come from a vote of the student body in 1892 inspired by a line from the poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron, which opens with “the Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, / And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.” The fight song is “Bow Down To Washington.”
The team plays in Huskie Stadium, one of just three college football stadium on the water (the other two being Baylor and Tennessee), leading to college football’s most creative gameday ritual. Instead of tailgating, people on boats go “sailgaiting,” which is a unique-to-Washington pregame ritual in which people go to Huskies Stadium on a boat, drop anchor and party in Huskies Harbor. It’s a boat tie-up party like the one that takes place at Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, on holiday weekends, except people are there for a football game. There are three ways to get on a boat: rent one, know someone with a boat or take a ticketed public cruise from Argosy Cruises Husky Sailgating or Chinook’s Dawg Boat (note the latter departs 90 minutes before kickoff, which doesn’t allow much time for sailgaiting).
Naturally, this leads to a Husky appetite for cocktails and there are certain drinks that fit the culture and colors of the team. There is already a cocktail called the Purple Haze which plays on one of the school colors and the often-damp Seattle weather. But there’s more.
5 Drinks Husky Fans Should Drink At Washington Football Games
To get into the School Spirit(s), here are five drinks for true Huskies fans to drink on gamedays. They can be consumed at the game, while sailgaiting or at a sports bar with other fans, home or away. One is purple, one has to do with the state being the country’s largest producer of apples, one tears into a coach that abandoned them, one is actually served in Husky Stadium and one quite literally takes a shot at Oregon. And there’s a couple of other drinks, including one that’s good to forgot the pain of a loss.
• Apple Cup Appletini. This is from a Huskies friend of mine and it’s an especially good drink to have during the Apple Cup game between the Huskies and the Washington State Cougars.
• While sailgating, have a Kick Kalen DeBoer, a “get out the anger” whiskey-based drink, a Manhattan with blue curacao named after the coach who got the Huskies to the national title game in 2024 (2023 season) only to leave for Alabama the next week.
• The Duck Fart is a good shot to have when the Huskies are playing the hated Oregon Ducks.
• The Washington Apple shot.
• Sailgate Punch, now available for sale in Huskie Stadium. Other team-themed cocktails sold in the stadium are the Purple Reign, Husky Sour and Montlake Margarita.
Bonus Drink: Huskies Beer
• And there is, of course Red Hook Ale Brewery beer, which was established in Seattle in 1981. In 2024, the company started brewing a Montlake Gameday Gold Lager, a 5.0% light lager that is sold in Huskie Stadium.
And Finally, If You Lose To Oregon (Or USC)
• The Mind Eraser. This shot will help you forget the final score. At least for the moment.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, events and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
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