Beginning with Big Ben, Huskies Who Have Gone to the Super Bowl
Ben Davidson was the first one from the University of Washington to appear on football's biggest stage. It seemed only fitting.
Seven years after playing in the last of two Rose Bowls for the Huskies, Big Ben, mustache and all, lumbered onto the field for the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II, which was held in 1968 at Miami's Orange Bowl.
Though his team lost 33-14 to the Green Bay Packers, the 6-foot-8, 275-pound Davidson found this game to be an ideal platform for someone like him who didn't mind drawing a little attention to himself, and the more the better. He was one of the NFL's most notorious villains because of his size and corresponding rough style of play, later a TV pitchman because of it and finally a character actor.
Before his death in 2012, Davidson told how he developed his nasty football persona as a collegian, as a natural reflex to getting clipped from behind on a play.
"I reached into his helmet and there was his head, his face and right under my thumb I felt something like an eye socket," Davidson said in his fierce gravelly voice. "I gouged his eye a little. That's when the lightbulb went on in my head and I said, "I can do this.' I think that's when I became a Raider."
Davidson is one of 42 former UW players to make it to a Super Bowl, with six of them playing in two of pro football's ultimate championship game. They've started 31 times.
Defensive tackle Steve Thompson, from Lake Stevens, Washington and later a minister in nearby Marysville, was the first UW player to win a Super Bowl. He shared in the New York Jets' 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in 1969, a game in which quarterback Joe Namath brashly predicted the underdog Jets would win.
"Namath didn't care," Thompson said of how he was perceived. "He was really free with how he lived his life, where other guys were sneaking around. I really respected him for that."
Super Bowl XV in 1981 marked the first time more than one ex-Husky player appeared in the same game, with defensive tackles Dave Browning and Dave Pear coming up with 4 and 2 tackles, respectively, in the Oakland Raiders 27-10 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the New Orleans Superdome.
Browning, a farmer in Mica, Washington, south of Spokane and near the Idaho border, played with John Matuszak, another Raider with a bad-boy reputation that even exceeded Ben Davidson's.
"There were times hanging with Matuszak that I knew I had to leave before trouble showed up," Browning said in 2009. "You learn from other people's mistakes. I wouldn't say I was a saint, though."
Tight ends Eric Bjornson of the Dallas Cowboys and Mark Bruener of the Pittsburgh Steelers marked the first time former UW players were on opposite sides in the big game, both showing up for Super Bowl XXX in 1996. Bjornson's team won 27-17 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
In 1999, Harald Hasselbach started at defensive end for the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII and shared in a 34-19 victory over the Atlanta Falcons and quarterback Chris Chandler at Pro Player Stadium in Miami. They had been Husky teammates.
This was was one of Hasselbach's 32 game-opening assignments as an NFL player — after not starting a single game at Washington (1985-89). That's what's called being a late bloomer.
Chandler is the only former UW quarterback to start and throw a pass in a Super Bowl game, while Mark Brunell and Damon Huard got there as back-ups for the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots, respectively. Chandler completed 19 of 35 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown, and was intercepted three times and sacked twice.
A year later, tight end Ernie Conwell became the first former Husky to catch a Super Bowl pass, hauling in a 16-yarder in the St. Louis Rams' 23-16 victory over Tennessee Titans in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
In 2005, Corey Dillon became the first ex-UW player to score a Super Bowl touchdown, running into the end zone from 2 yards out in the New England Patriots' 24-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Altell Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. Dillon finished with 75 yards rushing on 18 carries.
Dillon is one of three former Huskies who have Super Bowl touchdowns. He's joined by tight end Jerramy Stevens, who caught a 16-yard scoring pass in 2006 for the Seattle Seahawks' in their 21-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Ford Field in Detroit, and by Jermaine Kearse, who hauled in a 23-yard TD pass for the Seahawks in 2014 during a 43-8 rout of Denver at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Super Bowl LIII in 2019 marks the only time three former UW players have appeared in the same game, with defensive tackle Danny Shelton of New England going up against cornerback Marcus Peters and linebacker Cory Littleton of the Los Angeles Rams. Shelton and the Patriots won 13-3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
No one from the UW still has grown a mustache as menacing or commanded the pro football spotlight quite like Big Ben Davidson.
Huskies in the Super Bowl (48):
*denotes starter
Super Bowl II (1968) — *Ben Davidson, Oakland, DE
Super Bowl III (1969) — *Steve Thompson, New York Jets, DT
Super Bowl XI (1975) — *Ray Mansfield, Pittsburgh Steelers, C
Super Bowl X (1976) — *Ray Mansfield, Pittsburgh Steelers, C
Super Bowl XIII (1979) — *Ray Pinney, Pittsburgh Steelers, OT
Super Bowl XV (1981) — *Dave Browning, Oakland Raiders DT; Dave Pear, Oakland Raiders, DT
Super Bowl XVI (1982) — *Blair Bush, Cincinnati, C
Super Bowl XVII (1983) — Jeff Toews, Miami Dolphins, OG
Super Bowl XVIII (1984) — Tony Caldwell, Los Angeles Raiders, LB
Super Bowl XIX (1985) — *Jeff Toews, Miami Dolphins, OG
Super Bowl XX (1986) — *Rich Camarillo, New England Patriots, P
Super Bowl XXII (1989) — *Joe Kelly, Cincinnati Bengals, LB; Ray Horton, Cincinnati Bengals, CB
Super Bowl XXIV (1990) — *Ron Holmes, Denver Broncos, DT
Super Bowl XXVII (1993) — Ray Horton, Dallas Cowboys, CB; Kevin Gogan, Dallas Cowboys, OG
Super Bowl XXVIII (1994) — *Kevin Gogan, Dallas Cowboys, OG
Super Bowl XXIX (1995) — *Dennis Brown, San Francisco 49ers, DT; Dana Hall, San Francisco 49ers, CB
Super Bowl XXX (1996) — *Mark Bruener, Pittsburgh Steelers, TE; Eric Bjornson, Dallas Cowboys, TE
Super Bowl XXXI (1997) — *Lawyer Milloy, New England Patriots, SS
Super Bowl XXXII (1998) — *Brian Habib, Denver Broncos, OG; Harald Hasselbach, Denver Broncos, DE
Super Bowl XXXIII (1999) — *Chris Chandler, Atlanta Falcons, QB; *Harald Hasselbach, Denver Broncos, DE
Super Bowl XXXIV (2000) — *D'Marco Farr, St. Louis Rams; *Benji Olson, Tennessee Titans, OG
Super Bowl XXXVI (2002) — *Lawyer Milloy, New England Patriots, SS; *Ernie Conwell, St. Louis Rams, TE
Super Bowl XXXVII (2003) — *Lincoln Kennedy, Oakland Raiders, OT; Frank Garcia, Oakland Raiders, OG
Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004) — Damon Huard, New England Patriots, QB; Lester Towns, Carolina Panthers, LB
Super Bowl XXIX (2005) — *Corey Dillon, New England Patriots, RB
Super Bowl XL (2006) — Jeremy Stevens, Seattle Seahawks, TE
Super Bowl XLI (2007) — *Olin Kreutz, Chicago Bears, C; *Tank Johnson, Chicago Bears, DT
Super Bowl XLIV (2010) — Mark Brunell, New Orleans Saints, QB
Super Bowl XLVII (2013) — *Dashon Goldson, San Francisco 49ers, FS
Super Bowl XLVIII (2014) — Jermaine Kearse, Seattle Seahawks, WR
Super Bowl XLIX (2015) — *Jermaine Kearse, Seattle Seahawks, WR
Super Bowl 50 (2016) — *Shaq Thompson, Carolina Panthers, LB
Super Bowl LIII (2019) — Danny Shelton, New England Patriots, DT; *Marcus Peters, Los Angeles Rams, CB; *Cory Littleton, Los Angeles Rams, LB
Super Bowl LV (2021) — Vita Vea, Tampa Bay Bucs, DT; Jaydon Mickens, Tampa Bay Bucs, WR
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