With Running Back Jim Eicher, the Huskies Rode the 'Bus' and Went Places

Teammates called him Magic Bus. Or Magic. Sometimes just Bus.

On early 1970s University of Washington football teams full of personalities and characters, among them a wildly popular Native American quarterback in Sonny Sixkiller and loony linemen who could have been extras in the North Dallas Forty or Semi-Tough films, Jim Eicher fit right in.

He drove a dark green and white Volkswagen van that had a bed, a record player and a refrigerator, plus a ton of miles.

A V-dub bus at the U-dub.

Eicher showed up as this long blond-haired kid from Queen Anne, as an uninvited walk-on in Sixkiller's class, as someone put at the very bottom of the Husky running-back depth chart.

He wasn't particularly fast nor was he all that big. He certainly wasn't pursued by the UW coaching staff.

Yet Eicher became an integral part of the Husky offense, coming up with tough yards and a handful of touchdowns, while blocking and sticking his nose in oncoming rushers trying to get at Sixkiller.

"I was not a star," he said. "Under no circumstances would I portray myself as a star. I was a role player at best. But I hung in there. I said, "I can do this," and I did."

All along, Eicher was meant to do this.

He grew up going to all the UW games, getting in free because he wore his youth football jersey to Husky Stadium.

He considered Charlie Mitchell and Don McKeta his heroes because they were halfbacks — and he was always a halfback.

Eicher decided to walk on at Washington and he went to the bottom of the freshman depth chart, listed at running back behind Pete Taggares, John Brady, Jim Kuhn, Brian Bagley and Albert Wilkens.

Two years later, Taggares and Brady were starters at fullback and tight end, respectively. The others were long gone.

Not Eicher.

He redshirted as a sophomore, though a UW assistant coach approached him during the Huskies' 56-7 rout of Navy and asked if he wanted to expend his eligibility and play that moment.

In 1971, Eicher earned a football scholarship and became a starter. The Huskies mostly needed guys in the backfield who could protect Sixkiller in the pocket, and the guy from Queen Anne was good at it. He scored twice against Illinois and once against Oregon.

Admittedly, he had trouble hanging onto Sixkiller's rocket passes. Not so much for those lobbed out there by backup Greg Collins.

"My main job was blocking and making sure Sonny got his passes off," Eicher said. "Sonny throwing was hard for me. Greg kind of looped one out to you. Sonny threw it hard, he really did."

Following a crewcut era of college football, Eicher and his teammates were a scruffy bunch. Hair flowing down their back. Long sideburns. Thick mustaches.

After doing an on-field interview in the wind, he returned to the locker room with his long locks blown all over the place. Coach Jim Owens noticed and made a not so subtle suggestion.

"Some of you look like you've been up in the mountains a long time and you need to get your hair cut," the coach said, looking at Eicher.

His 1971 season ended early on a running play against USC. Eicher had nowhere to go and went down. Torn ligaments came next.

"A USC guy literally fell on my knee and I felt it go," he said. "I got up and played a couple more plays and I had no lateral mobility. I realized I had to get off the field."

In 1972, he was slow to come back and regain playing time, but Eicher scored against Illinois again — on a 10-yarder, his only run over the first six games — giving him three touchdowns against the Illini. He led the Huskies in rushing a few times before the season ended.

He could have returned for another year, but Sixkiller and the others in his class had moved on and he had accomplished everything he set out to do. He became a Continental Airlines flight attendant. He met his wife Cathi, a fellow flight attendant. The Eichers created their own garment company.

As for that bus, Eicher, like so many others in those days, bought it in college in order to travel. The engine went out the first month. The starter never worked properly. Someone had to give his V-dub a push to get the engine to turn over. He drove it all the way to Florida and back.

Husky defensive linemen Dave Worgan and Randy Coleman took one look at the bus and supplied the nicknames. They likely hounded him for rides, too.

Little did they know, the Bus would be much sportier than that. He made just the right amount of stops. Paid the fare.

"I was more driven than anything in my life — I went from the bottom to become a starter," Eicher said. "I said, 'I'm just going to do this,' and I did. I was very happy with the results."

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