The idea first came to former Washington State quarterback Jack Thompson when he was at a USC football game and saw booths set up by Trojan-owned businesses at Los Angeles Coliseum: Why not start a network of Cougars-owned businesses that would help Cougs find other Cougs every time they needed a service or had a new purchase in mind?
Thompson went home to Seattle, enlisted the help of fellow Cougs Robbie Tobeck, Paul Dent, Mike Bernard, Kyle Basler, Mike Politeo and Glenn Osterhout, and founded a Cougars non-profit support network that is independent of the university.
Thus, CougsFirst was born.