One of Worst UW Football Injuries Ever Happened Against Illinois

It was one of the worst injuries ever -- considering the national spotlight, the momentum shift and the ominous sight of a player being taken away by hand on a stretcher -- in University of Washington football history.

In the 1964 Rose Bowl against Illinois, Husky quarterback Bill Douglas was the victim, his misfortune forever frozen in time by a stark newspaper photo.

On the ninth play of that postseason game's opening drive, Douglas took the snap on a first-and-10 situation, faked a handoff inside, did a clever spin move and raced over the right side for 12 yards to the Illini 14.

He was met high and low by two defenders and didn't get up. The crowd of 96.957 suddenly went silent.

This was bad. Really bad.

"I planted my foot to cut back and the guy -- and it wasn't Butkus -- hit my lower calf, my cleats stuck and I was just like a fence post," Douglas said of going down. "When I rolled over, the knee was out of the joint and my foot was pointed the other way."

Bill Douglas was front-page news after getting injured in the 1964 Rose Bowl. | Seattle P-I

As the current UW team (5-2 overall, 2-2 Big Ten) hosts 23rd-ranked Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium, someone should still hold a moment of silence for Douglas' knee. His injury was about as bad as it gets in what always has been an extremely violent sport.

They say that every full-blown collision during a college football game is a lot like being involved in a serious car accident. In this case, Douglas' knee, and momentarily his career, were totaled.

"They took me into the locker room and the thing that helped me was the team surgeon was there at the game and he said, 'Bill, I'm going to set this right now,' " the quarterback recalled. "He reset it before all the swelling came in and put me in a full-length cast. I didn’t even see the second quarter."

Douglas was a 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior speedster who grew up on a farm in Wapato, Washington, and came to the big city to become a highly effective dual-threat player for the Huskies.

Before arriving in Pasadena, he was named the first-team, all-conference quarterback in what was known back then as the Big Six Conference, which consisted of USC, UCLA, Stanford, California, Washington State and the UW.

At midseason, he was selected as the Associated Press National Back of the Week for leading the UW to a 39-26 victory over California and being his highly efficient self. He rushed eight times for 67 yards, including a 38-yard gainer, and scored once on a short run, and completed 12 of 19 passes for 176 yards.

Bill Douglas was named AP National Back of the Week against Cal in 1963. | UW

Against Illinois, his talents were neutralized in the worst imaginable way, with his ligaments and muscles all rearranged.

Running the offense to open the game, Douglas moved the Huskies 53 yards from their own 33 and into the red zone.

He had pitched the ball a few times to Dave Kopay, who would become an NFL running back and later the first pro athlete to disclose he was gay. He threw a couple of jump passes, one to tight end Al Libke. He would keep his team moving down field even after his teammates jumped offsides twice and were penalized for backfield in motion on that opening drive.

And then it ended abruptly for him.

On a hot and sunny day in Southern California, with the temperatures reaching 85 degrees at the Rose Bowl, Douglas barely got a taste of the game, hardly had a chance to work up a sweat in the January 1 heat.

He had played well, but he was done.

The Huskies would gamely try to hang in there without him, even take a 7-3 lead at halftime, but Illinois came away with a 17-7 victory.

Without Douglas, the UW offense fumbled the ball away three times and served up three interceptions.

Three plays after he left, with back-up Bill Siler replacing him, the Huskies fumbled the ball away to Illinois at the 9.

"Bill Douglas' injury hurt us," Husky coach Jim Owens confirmed afterward.

Douglas didn't play long enough to encounter the great Dick Butkus up close. The fearsome Illini linebacker was out there and he was so good he has a national award honoring the top college at his position named after him to this day.

People strongly suggest this team would have beaten Illinois had Douglas not been put on a stretcher and carried away -- and the quarterback remains one of them.

"I like to think we would have.," he said. "We were moving it on them."

No doubt Douglas will be watching this Saturday's UW-Illinois game from his Eastern Washington home. Pardon him if his knee throbs a little.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: