Ex-Husky Medved Remembers Facing Late, Great Dick Butkus in '64 Rose Bowl
Dick Butkus had blue stars fastened to each side of his bright orange University of Illinois helmet, which was always fitting — because whenever this guy hit someone, stars were a distinct possibility.
On Thursday, this overly violent middle linebacker, who once was described by Sports Illustrated as "the most feared man in the game," was 80 when he died at his Malibu, California, home.
With all things considered, it was a living arrangement that didn't seem to accurately describe him. While Butkus had every right to live at the upscale Southern California beach community as much as anyone, he had built his reputation as this great football gladiator from the down and dirty Midwest, roaming football fields in Champagne, Illinois, and in nearby Chicago.
People could argue Lake Michigan would have been a more applicable coastline for him, but maybe Malibu actually made more sense for Butkus.
After all, he was just 45 miles away from Pasadena and the Rose Bowl, where on January 1, 1964, he led his once-beaten and once-tied Illinois team to a 17-7 victory and a physical dismantling of the University of Washington in a hard-hitting, injury-filled affair.
Everyone in football was affected by the news of Butkus' passing, and that included the UW. Ron Medved, a former Husky running back and safety and later an NFL player, was on the field that day 57 years ago and remembers how the Huskies approached the great Dick Butkus, whose last name sounded a lot like "butt kicked," a linebacker calling card.
"When we were preparing for that Rose Bowl, a lot of it was preparing for Dick Butkus," Medved said. "He had a pretty dominating year for Illinois. There were lot of blocking schemes designed for him.
"For example, you'd have one person block him and a second person come in to double-team and somebody would actually triple-team him — we figured it was going to take that to stop him and slow him down."
In this time of single-platoon football, Butkus played center and linebacker. He had a key block on one of the Illini's touchdown runs against the Huskies and he came up with a fourth-quarter interception at the Illinois 15 to effectively quell the UW's final attempt at making it a game.
The game was so physical, the Huskies' starting quarterback Bill Douglas suffered a dislocated knee after running for a 12-yard gain on the game's 11th play. UW fullback Mike Kuklenski a short time later suffered a broken leg.
Butkus the All-America selection and later one of the NFL's greatest at his position, was not directly responsible for either Husky injury, but his mindset was contagious among his teammates.
Medved, one of the Huskies' better players, remembers just one on-field encounter with Butkus. He was the lead blocker on the UW's only touchdown, scored by Dave Kopay on a 7-yard run in the second quarter.
Medved ran into Butkus and actually was able to get him off his feet, and he's willing to concede that reports vary over how that happened.
"I got him real low and took his legs out from under him or he lost his balance or something," Medved said. "It's recorded for posterity. I wouldn't have told it to him, to his face, if I had seen him again."
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published. Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12
Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3
Have a question, direct message me on Facebook or Twitter.