Road to 1991 Perfection: Baird Said UW Was Kicking Itself Before Rose Bowl

The Husky place-kicker struggled badly before he and his teammates played Michigan, leaving the coaches concerned.

In the days leading up to the 1992 Rose Bowl against Michigan, the University of Washington football team had a few loose ends to tie up.

Defensive tackle Steve Emtman became so sick he had to visit a hospital for fluids.

A couple of reserves stayed out all night, broke curfew and were sent home.

Oh yeah, Husky kicker Travis Hanson was like a golfer with a severe case of the yips — he couldn't hit anything. Not even close. Shank after shank after shank.

"Our kicker couldn't hit the broadside of a barn," said Dick Baird, the then-UW recruiting coordinator. "We didn't know what was going to happen."

It wasn't a new situation for Hanson either. He'd kicked in the Rose Bowl the year before, connecting on a pair of field goals and a like number of extra points in the Huskies' 46-34 victory over Iowa. 

The coaching staff was rightly concerned, especially if their perfect season and national championship ambitions came down to a game-deciding kick.

"Hanson was in the bag the whole week before the Rose Bowl," Baird said.

This is another in a series of vignettes about the UW's 1991 national championship team, supplementing the conversation for the pandemic-delayed and -shortened season. We're dealing with game 12 of this throwback series, the '92 Rose Bowl against Michigan, a 34-14 Husky victory.

Hanson, now superintendent of the Deer Park School District in Eastern Washington, alleviated everyone's fears when the Huskies broke a scoreless tie with a Billy Joe Hobert 2-yard touchdown run and he converted the extra-point kick three seconds into the second quarter.

Later in the period, Hanson connected on 24- and 23-yard field goals to give the Huskies a 13-7 halftime lead. 

He wasn't completely healed though. In the opening minute of the fourth quarter, the UW scored to make it 27-7 and Hanson flat out missed the conversion kick.

It was dicey for a while. 

"I remember Don [James] having a meeting and going, 'What are we going to do?' " Baird said, referring to the Husky head coach. "We were too far into the stream to change horses. But we went with him and he ended up having some big kicks." 

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