Inside The Huskies

UW Fans Showed Up in Force, Celebrated by Storming the Field

After two dismal crowds, Husky followers filled the seats and celebrated lustily.
Dan Raley|
UW Fans Showed Up in Force, Celebrated by Storming the Field
UW Fans Showed Up in Force, Celebrated by Storming the Field

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Washington Huskies

The Michigan State defense couldn't get a hand on Michael Penix Jr., who threw for 397 yards and 4 touchdowns, but the University of Washington student section was over him.

Just when everyone was beginning to question the Husky fan base and its lack of enthusiasm for the first two games of the season, UW supporters showed up in full force for Saturday night's showdown with the Big Ten team.

Attendance was announced at 68,161 and it was a definite step up over who and what showed up for the Kent State and Portland State games.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was in the house. So was Richard Karn, the Hollywood actor and UW grad. Sonny Sixkiller was feted once more for his quarterbacking heroics 52 years ago against Michigan State. And so was a lot of students who haven't started fall quarter yet.

Once the game was over, the considerable assemblage of fans in the west-end stands headed for the field, first surrounding and engulfing Penix, who didn't mind a bit as the accompanying photo and video demonstrate.

However, it was a little unnerving for everyone standing on the field and having overexcited UW underclassmen blowing past like human projectiles determined to share in a huge win between the lines.

Watch the video to see what it felt like to be in a stampede in real time. Or maybe this it was it's like to run with the bulls in Spain.

There were no reported injuries, other than Michigan State having to deal with a bruised ego from an 11-point setback that wasn't really that close.

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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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