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Washington Huskies history

1977 Washington Huskies: An Era Of Success Starts With A Rose Bowl Win

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Washington wasn’t on anyone’s radar when the 1977 season began. The Huskies had not reached the Rose Bowl since 1963 and James had gone 11-11 his first two years in Seattle. The way the 1977 Washington Huskies started the season wouldn’t have given anyone an indication that things had changed. But by the time the year was over, they were Rose Bowl champs and a new era of success had begun.

Warren Moon was at quarterback. The future NFL Hall of Famer won co-MVP honors in the Pac-8 Conference this season. Moon’s big play target was Spider Gaines, whose 30 catches went for over 22 yards a pop. Joe Steele was a good rusher, going for over 800 yards and his 25 catches were a nice total for a running back in this era.

Steele was joined in the backfield by Ron Gipson, who averaged nearly five yards per carry as a change of pace. They both ran behind a line that was anchored by a pair of all-conference players. There was Jeff Toews at guard. And center Blair Bush had a long NFL career ahead of him.

Defensively, Washington was led by All-Pac-8 players in linebacker Michael Jackson and defensive back Nesby Glasgow, another player with a pro career in his future. The Huskies were a well-balanced team and finished in the top 30 nationally for both scoring offense and scoring defense.

Those rankings are low for a major bowl winner, and the reason was an awful start in non-conference play. Washington was unranked to begin that year and the first four games showed why. They played three mediocre teams in Mississippi State, Syracuse, and Minnesota, all of whom hovered around the .500 mark. The Huskies lost all three games. In between, they managed to beat a bad San Jose State team, but were still 1-3 going into league play in October.

When the Pac-8 slate began it was like a switch flipped. A trip to play Oregon was the third straight road game, coming off the losses at Syracuse and Minnesota. While the Ducks were a terrible team, there was no reason to see the 54-0 beatdown coming.

Washington came back home to play Stanford. The Cardinal had a good offense. Their quarterback, Guy Benjamin, shared Pac-8 MVP honors with Moon. Running back Darrin Nelson would have a successful NFL run with the Minnesota Vikings. Wide receiver James Lofton went on to a Hall of Fame pro career. And Stanford had a rookie coach who turned out to be a pretty good—a guy by the name of Bill Walsh.

In the face of all that, the Huskies won easily, 45-21. They were back to .500 at 3-3.

The next two weeks were a little tougher. Washington played a ho-hum game in beating lowly Oregon State 14-6. Their trip to UCLA resulted in a 20-12 loss.

A strong November push was ahead. Cal’s season was the reverse of Washington’s—the Golden Bears did well in non-conference play and were still ranked #17 as a result. But Moon and the offense dropped 50 points and walked out Berkely with a 19-point win. Cal ended up sub-.500 in conference games.

At 4-1 in the conference, Washington was, quite improbably, in the hunt for the Rose Bowl with two games left. USC was coming to Seattle. The Trojans were the league’s perennial power and had been ranked #1 earlier in the season. But they were also fading. Even with the league’s top rusher, Charles White, that fade continued. Washington won 28-10.

That win finally got the Huskies ranked, at #19. They were tied for first in the Pac-8 but needed help. UCLA needed to lose to USC. In fact, Washington’s season finale didn’t matter at all for the Rose Bowl. If the Bruins lost, the Huskies would go to Pasadena.

Even so, this was still the Apple Cup rivalry game with Washington State and their own future NFL quarterback in Jack Thompson. Washington won it 35-15. They had to wait a week to find out their fate. But when they watched UCLA lose to USC, the Huskies were going to the Rose Bowl and their own victory meant they were outright conference champs.

The opponent was mighty Michigan, coming in at 10-1 and ranked #4 in the country. When top-ranked Texas lost the Cotton Bowl early in the day, the Wolverines were one of several one-loss teams that had a chance to stake a claim. But Moon and the Huskies got in the way.

Washington dominated the game for three quarters. Moon hit Gaines on a 28-yard touchdown pass. The defense stuffed Michigan on a 4th-and-1 from the three-yard line. To the astonishment of the national TV audience, the Huskies led 27-7 in the fourth quarter.

Michigan came roaring back, cutting the lead to 27-20 and then driving to the Washington 8-yard line with less than three minutes to play. It was Jackson who made the play of the game. A short pass to tailback Stanley Edwards resulted in Jackson simply wrestling the football away. A last-gasp Wolverine drive after that was ended by a Glasgow interception. Washington held on to win 27-20.

The surprise run through the conference and then the Rose Bowl itself, was a preview of things to come. Moon, after having to spend six years in the Canadian Football League, almost certainly due to the prejudice against black quarterbacks, eventually became one of the NFL’s signature QBs.

And the Washington program was just getting started. While USC returned to its dominating ways, the Huskies would get back to the Rose Bowl in both 1980 and 1981. They finished #2 in the country in 1984.  From 1990-92, they won three straight conference titles and took home a national championship in 1991. The success of the Don James era really got started with this 1977 season.

1984 Washington Huskies: Staking Their Claim For #1

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Don James had turned the Washington program into one of significance, earning three Rose Bowl bids (1977, 1980, 1981) in a Pac-10 long dominated by USC and UCLA. The last couple years had seen Washington come up short of New Year’s Day, settling for Aloha Bowl trips both times. The 1984 Washington Huskies opened the season as an unlikely candidate to return to the New Year’s stage, much less stake a credible claim for the national championship. But that’s exactly what they did.

READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS

Hugh Millen was fairly mediocre at quarterback. The 52% completion rate and 6.1 yards-per-attempt weren’t bad by the standards of the time, but he only threw for 1,051 yards and the TD-INT ratio was 5-9. No receiver put up any notable numbers. Jacque Robinson was a good running back, and his 901 yards were fourth in the conference, but the Huskies weren’t going to win a scoring race with anybody.

Nor were they bursting at the seams with defensive talent. Vestee Jackson, who would eventually have an eight-year run with the Chicago Bears, was a talented cornerback, but other than that, Washington had to win with coaching, discipline and execution.

They opened the season ranked #18 and shutout Northwestern 26-0 to get the year started. The Huskies then paid a visit to Ann Arbor, where Michigan was ranked #3. Washington’s opportunistic style made the difference. They intercepted Wolverine quarterback Jim Harbaugh three times and got five turnovers in all. Leading 10-3 in the third quarter, Millen hit Mark Pattison on a 73-yard touchdown pass to break the game open.

Washington won 20-11 and even though this would prove to be a disappointing Michigan team, one that would go 6-5, the glow of this win had the Huskies zooming up to #9 in the polls.

A 35-7 victory over eventual SWC co-champ Houston followed. Washington then beat Miami-Ohio 53-7 and got by lowly Oregon State 19-7. Washington’s perfect record, combined with chaos at the top of the polls had them suddenly sitting at #2 in the country. On October 13, the Huskies blew out mediocre Stanford 37-15 while Texas and Oklahoma—the teams directly ahead and behind them in the rankings—played to a tie. Washington was now ranked #1.

James’ team won a pedestrian 17-10 decision over an average Oregon team and they beat a pretty good Arizona club 28-12. The Huskies concluded their three-game homestand by beating up two-win Cal 44-14. The stage was set for November 10 at Southern Cal.

USC was ranked #14, thanks to an early loss to LSU, but the Trojans were undefeated in league play. No one else was close enough to catch either Washington or USC, so the winner of this game would clinch the Rose Bowl spot. Washington couldn’t get anything going offensively the entire day, fell behind and their passing game problems were exposed in a 16-7 loss. They slipped to #8.

The Huskies were still in the mix for a major bowl bid even if it wouldn’t be Pasadena. The traditional season finale with Washington State wouldn’t be easy. The Cougars had six wins, they had the Pac-10 MVP in running back Reuben Mayes and quarterback Mark Rypien would one day star at the Washington on the other side of the country—with the Redskins, where he was a Super Bowl MVP.

James had his team ready to go though and they played a good offensive game, winning 38-29 and nudging their way back to #4. The Orange Bowl, needing an opponent for #2 Oklahoma came calling.

The Orange Bowl was at the center of a raging national debate. BYU was ranked #1, but played a weak schedule and then played in the Holiday Bowl (as they were contractually obligated to do) on December 21, barely escaping Michigan 24-17.  Third-ranked Florida had a loss and a tie and was on probation. While BYU was expected to win the final vote, their critics were pointing to the Orange Bowl as the place where the national title should be settled.

The Huskies jumped down the throats of the Sooners with two first-quarter touchdowns. The Sooners answered with a pair of TDs of their own and kicked a field goal for a 17-14 lead. But Millen found Pattison on a 29-yard touchdown pass with a little less than nine minutes to play, putting Washington back on top and they tacked on one more touchdown to seal the 28-17 win.

BYU would win the vote. There are some of us who believe that Washington, with a tougher schedule and more impressive win over the common foe of Michigan, would have been a better choice. But if nothing else, Washington was back into the national conversation. And with the benefit of history we know that James eventually got that elusive national title, sharing the crown with Miami in 1991.