Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Afternoon Kickoff Set for Washington-Wisconsin Game

The Huskies are set to make just their second visit to Madison for a football match-up.
Dan Raley|
Ohio State players head to the locker room at halftime against Wisconsin at Randall Stadium in a game they won 34-0.
Ohio State players head to the locker room at halftime against Wisconsin at Randall Stadium in a game they won 34-0. | Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Washington-Wisconsin football game -- a match-up of UWs -- will kick off next Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. PT in Madison, 3:30 local time, and the Big Ten Network will televise the action, a Husky athletic department official said.

The Huskies (6-2 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) will be favored over a Badgers team (2-6, 0-5) that has struggled all season.

Wisconsin has lost its last six games and scored just a solitary touchdown over its past three outings.

The Badgers are coached by Luke Fickell, who is 15-19 in three seasons, and been unable to match the success he had at Cincinnati, where he was 57-18 in six years and guided the Bearcats to the 2021 four-team CFP playoffs.

This game marks just the second time a Washington team will play at Wisconsin, with the first match-up coming 57 years ago.

In 1968, Harvey Blanks had the game of his often controversial career when he propelled the Huskies to a 21-17 victory over the Badgers during the second week of the season.

From Chicago just 140 miles away, the 5-foot-8, 185-pound speedster returned the opening kickoff 73 yards to the Wisconsin 17, where the Huskies would squander this opportunity by missing a field goal.

With his team leading 7-0, Blanks raced 66 yards to score on a punt return at the 13:33 mark of the third quarter after the Badgers were held to 3-and-out on the opening drive of the half.

With 7:59 left in the third quarter, Blanks scored again, this time on an 8-yard run for a 21-0 lead with what would be a game-winning touchdown with a crowd of 42,965 watching.

Then it was hang-on time for a Husky team that would give up 17 unanswered points and wouldn't have too many successes in 1968, finishing 3-5-2.

Playing for the UW in this game was Bill Sprinkle, a starting safety who returned a punt 10 yards. Sprinkle, of course, is the father of current Husky basketball coach Danny Sprinkle.

Back then, the Huskies ran the run-oriented Wishbone offense and quarterback Jerry Kaloper attempted just 5 passes, completing 2.

A year after this game, Blanks was suspended indefinitely from the UW football team by coach Jim Owens during a racially-charged environment, with the Husky leader accusing the running back of what amounted to be insubordination.

Blanks was 73 when he died in Denver in 2022. Unable to make a pro football career happen, he enjoyed a long and successful run as a stage actor.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football