Inside The Huskies

The Road to 1991 Perfection: James Had a Premonition About That Husky Team

The University of Washington football coach could tell he had something special well in advance of the national championship run and shared this with his wife.
Dan Raley|
The Road to 1991 Perfection: James Had a Premonition About That Husky Team
The Road to 1991 Perfection: James Had a Premonition About That Husky Team

Don James and his wife Carol sat down to have dinner at their  home in Bellevue, Washington. On this particular night, the fast-approaching 1991 football season was the main course.

The legendary University of Washington football coach shared with his spouse how he had something special on his hands. 

Not one for hyperbole, James nonetheless seemed as upbeat as he'd ever been about one of his football teams — and he was coming off a two-loss club that won the Rose Bowl and was seven years removed from his once-beaten Huskies ranking No. 2 in the final polls.

He had all of the right ingredients available from a 10-2 UW team to return to Pasadena and try and surpass that.

"You know, Carol, there's something special about this team and staff that I really like," he told her. "This could be our best team ever." 

James always liked to keep his family closely involved with his UW football teams and it extended well beyond insider knowledge. 

Son-in-law Jeff Woodruff was a Husky assistant coach, serving as the offensive coodinator and a quarterbacks coach. Daughter Jenny James became a UW cheerleader. Carol was a conduit to the players, a mother figure they could call whenever they needed to bear their souls.

The coach talked about everyone being in sync from coaching to offseason workouts.

"Everyone knew what they had to do," Carol James said. "They had to put in extra effort, every minute, every week, everything. I think they all pick up on that. I know the coaches were dedicated to it. It just seems to spread through the whole team like wildfire."

From there, the Jameses watched the momentum build and the victories pile up until the Huskies became the most successful football team in school history.

Carol James liked that her husband made her a big part of that national championship run.

"Don and I talked about everything, but he didn't let me game plan though," Carol said with a laugh. "I couldn't call any of the plays. I can still remember him going through that team over dinner."

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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.

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