Huskies need luck to avoid historical low point
Friday, November 21, 2008 7:30 PM PST
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E-mail this articleColumn by John Pisapia
For The Daily News
Is this Husky football team the absolute worst in University of Washington history?
The current record of 0-10 leads you down the road to Horrendousville. This Husky team does not tackle, does not block and does not scare anyone, save for its fans.
There is every possibility that this collection of Dawgs will close the door on its season and hand lame-duck coach Ty Willingham an 0-12 parting gift.
No UW football team has ever gone 0-12.
Still, the question remains: Is this the Titanic of UW football history?
Before we jump ahead, let us look back. The 1893 UW squad lost to both the Tacoma Athletic Club and the Multnomah Athletic Club. Coach W.B. Goodwin guided the Dawgs to a 1-3-1 record. In 1898, Coach Ralph Nichols saw his charges fall to the Puyallup Indian Reservation en route to a 1-1 mark.
More recently, Keith Gilbertson led Washington to a 1-10 record in 2004. The Huskies were outscored 306-129 that season.
But perhaps the season that gutted the Dawgs and their fans was 1969.
The Huskies posted a 1-9 record during a season that was blown apart by internal turmoil and mutiny. They were outscored 304-116. They were led by quarterbacks Gene Willis and Steve Hanzlik. Unfortunately back then, freshmen could not play so U-Dub was one year away from the Sonny Sixkiller era.
Washington, already 0-5, appeared primed to end the losing streak as it led Oregon State 6-3 with time for only one play. Beaver quarterback Steve Endicott, who played summer baseball here for the B&K Pavers, heaved a high one toward the end zone. As Husky defenders tripped over each other, the pass connected giving OSU a 10-6 win.
During a 22-7 loss to Oregon the next weekend, the UW coaching staff punished an African American player for dropping the football at a crucial point of the game. The other African American players felt the player had been punished unjustly and asked for a meeting with Husky head coach Jim Owens.
Instead, Owens decided to ask each and every player if they were 100 percent committed to the program.
So on the day before Halloween, 1969, Owens popped the question. One-by-one the Husky players met with the big fella. When night fell, four African American football players had been suspended for what Owens termed a lack of commitment to the team.
The four players were Gregg Alex, Ralph Bayard, Harvey Blanks and LaMar Mills. Bayard later told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Owens asked him if he, Bayard, could give loyalty to him, Owens, as an individual.
Bayard told Owens that he had been taught that loyalty was something you had to earn. Bayard added that he had seen some things that he didn’t necessarily agree with.
The next day as the 0-6 Huskies boarded a bus to the airport for their trip to UCLA, approximately 200 protesters prevailed upon the remaining eight African American players not to go. Players and their families received threats of violence. Owens’ 17-year-old daughter was assaulted by two white and two African American men.
The Black Student Union and the Husky Black Athletes Alumni Association demanded Owens’ resignation. Following a 57-14 loss to UCLA, the Huskies hosted Stanford.
With no resolution at hand, a BSU representative took the field microphone from cheerleader Robb Weller and ripped into Owens and the UW coaching staff. The reps’ caustic verbiage incited a mini-meltdown as other African American students rained wine, beer and hard liquor bottles onto the track. Unfortunately, some of the missiles didn’t reach the track, instead catching unsuspecting students in the back, shoulders and head.
The hub-bub in the stands didn’t distract Stanford as the Indians nabbed a 21-7 victory to leave Washington with an 0-8 mark.
University President Charles Odegaard promised an overhaul of football disciplinary practices and athletic director Joe Kearney persuaded Owens to review the suspensions.
The next day, Owens met with the four suspended players and reinstated all but Harvey Blanks.
Washington fell to 0-9 the next week with a 16-7 loss to Southern California.
All that remained was the finale against 1-8 Washington State. UW defeated WSU 30-21 to finish 1-9. The highlight of the game came in the second quarter when the Cougars punted to the “dogs.”
That’s right, dogs.
Somewhere around the 10-yard line, two canines had made their way onto the turf at Husky Stadium and were making whoopee. As if guided from above, the football bounced right past the pair and into the end zone.
The Huskies better get lucky this weekend in Pullman, because it’s very doubtful they’ll be able to upend California on Dec. 6 in Berkeley, thus winding up 0-12.
Hmm, maybe this is the worst team in Husky history.
John Pisapia is a former sports editor of The Daily News.
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