UW's 3 Best Wins and 3 Worst Losses Against UCLA
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The University of Washington-UCLA football series used to be so outwardly hostile.
Fifty-seven years ago, the Bruins won a game in Los Angeles using a disingenuous pass play they called the Z-streak. The Huskies said it was just another name for cheating.
UCLA appeared to send reserve wide receiver Dick Witcher to the bench, only he stopped a yard short of the sideline. No one from the UW noticed. When the ball was snapped, the obscenely wide-open Witcher caught a game-winning, 60-yard scoring pass to provide a 28-24 victory.
In 1969, the UW was a program in such racial upheaval, the Jim Owens-coached Huskies faced UCLA in Southern California without any of its African-American players — four were suspended for refusing to give a loyalty oath to the coach and eight stayed home because those others were suspended.
Making matters worse, Bruins coach Tommy Prothro showed no mercy for this undermanned Husky team and blatantly ran up the score, not stopping until the game ended 57-14.
A year later, Owens returned the favor, abandoning all football good graces in Seattle. The coach ordered the UW to attempt a two-point conversion pass while holding a 54-12 lead and, when that failed, an onside kick, which was successful. The Huskies were determined to score more than 57 points, which they did, winning 61-20.
Lately, the angst levels between these teams have dropped to more manageable levels, though UCLA easily could be described as UW South.
Coach Chip Kelly uses four players who either played for the Huskies or were once signed by them, and employs a former UW player and assistant coach as an assistant.
The Bruins roster imports include junior edge rusher Laiatu Latu, who leads the Pac-12 in sacks with 5; junior wide receiver Colson Yankoff, who caught a pair of touchdown passes last weekend against Colorado; sophomore quarterback Ethan Garbers, who threw one of those scoring passes to Yankoff; and senior linebacker Ale Kaho, who asked for his UW release in order to transfer to Alabama before he ended up at UCLA.
On the coaching payroll is Ikaika Malloe, the former UW safety and linebacker who left when Jimmy Lake's staff was fired and coaches outside linebackers and special teams for Kelly.
The Huskies trail 41-32-2 in the series after losing 14 of the past 19 outings to UCLA. They've dropped eight of the past nine games held at the Rose Bowl.
However, the silver lining in all of this for the UW is new coach Kalen DeBoer's track record. A year ago, his Fresno State team pulled a last-second 40-37 upset of the Bruins at the Rose Bowl, using former Husky quarterback Jake Haener to get it done.
Games that stick out in the series are as follows:
3 BEST HUSKY WINS
1970, at UW 61, UCLA 20 — Motivated by revenge, Owens urged his unranked Huskies to pour it on the 17th-rated Bruins once they got it going before a crowd of 59,250 that roared its approval. Eight touchdowns later, with top two quarterbacks Sonny Sixkiller and Greg Collins throwing three touchdowns each, the personal score was settled. The UW rolled up 553 yards of total offense and intercepted four passes. Owens didn't try to hide what he was doing.
1966, at UW 16, UCLA 3 — A year after the Z-streak beat them, unfairly the Huskies still insisted, they held the nation's highest-scoring team at 36.3 points per game to a mere first-quarter field goal. UCLA entered the game ranked No. 3 in the polls and would finish 9-1. In the steady rain, the UW simply teed off on the Bruins with its defense, even scoring a clinching touchdown on a 29-yard interception return by safety Frank Smith.
1982, at UW 10, UCLA 7 — The once-beaten Huskies and once-tied Bruins entered as the nation's 10th- and 9th-ranked teams, respectively. They relied on high-scoring offenses, with the UW averaging 36 points a game and UCLA 39 an outing. Yet on a windy and rainy day, Don James' defense decided this one, with defensive back Bill Stapleton knocking down a fourth-down pass at the Husky 23 with 25 seconds left to play and his teammates coming up with 9 sacks.
3 WORST HUSKY LOSSES
1990, UCLA 25, at UW 22 — The once-beaten Huskies harbored serious national championship aspirations when they entered this late-season game ranked No. 2 in the polls and listed as 21-point favorites, with a crowd of 71,925 filling up Husky Stadium. However, UCLA's Brad Daluiso ended this one with a 43-yard field goal with 10 seconds for the win. With 2:36 left, the Huskies tied the game at 22 on Mario Bailey's 32-yard touchdown catch and Mark Brunell's conversion run. The UW even got the ball back once more, but Brunell threw an interception that led to Daluiso's kick.
1969, at UCLA 57, at UW 14 — A bad season turned far worse for a winless Husky football team when it went to Los Angeles without all of its black players, maybe the only time that's happened in the program over the past seven decades. The Bruins scored on an interception return on the game's third play and things got worse from there. Owens felt his coaching adversary, Prothro, needlessly took advantage of the mismatch and ran up the score. UCLA was up 47-7 entering the fourth quarter. This was Owens's most lopsided at the UW.
2003, at UCLA 46, UW 16 — The 18th-ranked Huskies led 16-7 after a well-played first half. However, the UW folded up over the next 30 minutes, fumbling in the end zone and giving up an instant touchdown after the break, and 39 unanswered points overall at the Rose Bowl. Keith Gilbertson's team permitted 10 points in eight seconds early in the fourth quarter on a field goal and an interception return. It was ugly, maybe the beginning of the darkest era of Husky football that lasted for six seasons.
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