A Sixkiller Rose Bowl, Unbeaten Team, Heisman: It All Sounded So Good

With Sonny Sixkiller at quarterback, the Washington Huskies believed anything was possible.

They could score on any play, hit the deep route every time and beat any team they faced.

It had been that way since the Sixkiller's first game, once he came out throwing and triggered a blowout win over Michigan State.

The Huskies lost only the close ones, were capable of scoring 60 points in 60 minutes and always had a swagger.

Now here it was 1972, Sonny's senior season, and expectations were even higher.

Sixkiller was a serious Heisman Trophy candidate after finishing 14th the season before, in consideration for All-America honors and projected to finish his career in the Rose Bowl.

Everybody who followed college football knew who he was. Sonny turned up on the cover of seven national magazines the previous year. More were coming.

Sixkiller ranked alongside Oregon's Dan Fouts, Arkansas' Joe Ferguson and LSU's Bert Jones as the country's top quarterbacks.

Yet the major difference in Sixkiller's senior team and the others was this -- the Huskies were supposed to be undeniably great.

Street and Smith's magazine picked the them to go 11-0 in the regular season and rated them No. 8 nationally. Game Plan magazine likewise forecast an 11-0 record for the UW but called for a No. 5 ranking. The Associated Press put the Huskies at No. 9 to begin the season.

"I want to be known as somebody who quarterbacked a winning team and beat the big teams," Sixkiller said, trying to channel the hype. "It's no big thing to be widely known. I want to be a winner."

That might have been true, but 33,000 energized fans poured into Husky Stadium for the spring football game in May, a crowd two to three times larger than usual. Team followers saw Sonny play just two series, hit 6 of 8 passes for 141 yards and a score, and sit out the rest of a 38-6 victory over the alumni.

"This is the best Husky team I've faced," gushed Ben Davidson, the former Husky defensive end turned Oakland Raiders intimidator and a spring game regular.

Few UW football teams have been as experienced as the 1972 group. The Huskies returned 18 starters and had 18 seniors in the opening lineup.

With the season drawing close, Sixkiller surprised everyone by giving a very candid interview about his Husky career to beat writer Phil Taylor of the now-defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He covered a wide spectrum of topics, beginning with how it all nearly didn't happen.

Sixkiller had his packed his bags following his freshman season. He was leaving. He hated the Wishbone offense installed after he committed to Jim Owens' coaching staff. He lived in a frat house with 60 guys and he didn't like that either.

Most of all, Sixkiller didn't care for automatically being relegated to third wheel for the coming Husky quarterback competition. In the offseason, the coaches encouraged senior Gene Willis and fellow sophomore Greg Collins to work out together. Sonny wanted to know why.

"I couldn't understand why they didn't include me," he told Taylor. "I couldn't understand that at all and that really teed me off, really upset me. Of all the things that bothered me, that was the thing."

The rest, of course, is medical history. Willis blew a knee in a spring scrimmage and Collins broke his collarbone early in the spring game, and the Husky quarterback job belonged to Sixkiller from then on.

Sonny entered his final season holding 17 UW passing and total-offense records. He weighed 196 pounds, up from 171 as a sophomore. He didn't lack for confidence.

Asked if he'd considered the alternative had Willis and Collins not been hurt, Sixkiller offered Taylor a fairly definitive answer, "I've thought about that a lot. Every time, though, I can see myself beating them out. I think I would have beaten them out if I'd gotten a fair chance."

He'd played so well sportswriters no longer felt compelled to dwell on his Cherokee ancestry with cliched and poor-taste descriptions. While proud of his heritage, he felt pressured to appease different Native American groups which approached him and expected his undying support.

An Oklahoma native, Sixkiller didn't grow up on a reservation. He wasn't caught up in old customs. He was a mainstream person.

"I ran into one guy and he couldn't understand why I played a white man's game," Sixkiller said. "I said, 'Well, I've got a lot of good things out of it, you know.' "

After learning that Sonny planned to play in the NFL, that other man suggested that the quarterback give all of his subsequent earnings to Native American causes. Sixkiller pushed back on this idea.

"Well I'm going to keep most of it and help my family out if as I'm lucky enough to play pro ball," Sonny told him.

As for the NFL, Sixkiller expressed concern that, at 5-foot-11, he might not be tall enough to satisfy potential pro employers. Scouts told him that his quick release and poise were enough to get him a job, and he hoped they were right.

Yet first things, first. The Husky quarterback had his senior season to play. If all went well, 1972 would be truly unforgettable.

"Everyone is confident, really optimistic," Sixkiller said. "I think everyone totally believes in everyone's ability and what they can do as a whole. I know our defense is going to stop everyone we play. That's the way I feel and I think it's up to the people on offense to get it all together.

"I just can't see anyone beating us."