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Inside The Huskies

Where Washington Stands In Its Winningest Ways

Some recognize the Huskies for holding the second-longest streak while others don't.
Dan Raley|
The UW and Oregon lines go up against each other at Husky Stadium in 2023.
The UW and Oregon lines go up against each other at Husky Stadium in 2023. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The current University of Washington football win streak stands at one game.

A 38-10 victory over Boise State in the LA Bowl that no longer exists.

An indisputable romp at SoFi Stadium.

However, we recently were reminded how the Huskies still hold the second-longest string of success recorded among the current Power 4 programs -- 40 consecutive victories between 1908 and 1914 for teams coached by Gil Dobie.

Only Oklahoma has won more games without interruption, capturing 47 games in a row from 1953 to 1957.

What the Sooners did during the time of the Cold War was most impressive, with every one of those victories coming against an established program.

Their victims, many multiple times: Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU, Maryland and California.

The Huskies exerted their dominance in a far different era, with it ending just as World War I began, with intersectional play non-existent, taking on all comers.

They regularly beat up on high school teams, athletic clubs, military squads and only locally based competition.

Among its 40 wins without a blemish, the UW counted eight high school teams, four military squads and two athletic clubs as conquests.

For this reason, the University of Oklahoma website Sooner Sports doesn't recognize the Husky win streak, preferring to include only "modern-era" teams and their accomplishments.

It wasn't until near the end of the Dobie era -- which finished 58-0-3 -- that the Huskies faced someone outside of the Northwest triangle of Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

In 1915, a pair of regional outsiders in California and Colorado finally came to Seattle on consecutive weekends, post 40-game win streak, and lost to the UW 13-7 and 46-0, respectively.

The Huskies' second-longest winning streak came during the Don James era -- 22. That included the 12-0 team in 1991 that ran the table and won the national championship.

Coach Kalen DeBoer was only in Montlake for two seasons, but he strung together a 21-game win streak in 2023 that took the UW into the College Football Playoff national championship game, where it ended against Michigan.

Chris Petersen put together a 12-game win streak over the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Over 2000 and 2001, Rick Neuheisel engineered a 12-game winning streak, as well, that included a 34-24 Rose Bowl win over Purdue and its highly accomplished quarterback Drew Brees.

With a favorable schedule amid early indications the UW has a defense that could be better than usual, Jedd Fisch's team seemingly has a chance to win its first 10 games this fall before closing against defending national champion Indiana at home and against Oregon on the road, which are major obstacles.

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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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