Road to 1991 Perfection: Best UW Practice Brawl Ever Came Out of This

In winning a national championship, the University of Washington football team had its best battles at practice.

The No. 1 Husky defense against the first-unit offense.

Purple vs. purple.

These moments were fierce, physical, unforgiving.

Guys flinging guys around. Taking big swings. Getting in healthy shoves.

Former UW defensive lineman Mike Ewaliko remembers an all-out brawl that brought most of the 140 or so players running onto a practice field.

"It was complete pandemonium on the back field," he said. "People were getting kicked, helmets were flying and it was a big old cloud of dust until the coaches finally split it apart. I think we ran. I can't really remember if we ran or they had us go up because it happened so often. It was crazy."

And, after Steve Emtman and his friends put away the gloves and put the wraps on their 12-0 season, this wildly competitive spirit carried over into the following 1992 season.

There was even one instance, as the Huskies made yet another national title attempt, that topped those more than 100 guys getting after it.

As former Husky quarterback Billy Joe Hobert remembers it, someone ripped off Bob Sapp's helmet.

Sapp was a freshman offensive lineman from Colorado who would grow to be 6-foot-5 and 295 pounds and became better known as "the Beast."

He was someone who, after leaving the UW, would earn a living as a professional wrestler, boxer and mixed-martial-arts combatant.

Meaning he knew how to fight in any manner of ways.

Needless to say, Sapp was a bit torqued off.

"He gets freaked out, gets his helmet tore off, he's mad and I'm staying away," Hobert said. "Because I know I'm going to get crushed by being in between."

What came next left everyone in awe. It forever became a part of frivolous Husky folklore, too.

This is another in a series of vignettes about the UW's 1991 national title run, supplementing the conversation for the recently completed pandemic-influenced season. We're now in the aftermath of the Huskies' 12-0 season in this throwback replay.

Sapp went after his aggressor like a gigantic Bruce Lee, that well-known and deceased former UW student who turned took his mixed-martial art craft to Hollywood.

Green Hornet, anyone?

Sapp was the Purple Bumblebee.

"He freaking squares up with this dude who has a facemask and he punches the facemask square like this, and caves it in," Hobert said. "How the frack can you do that? He was like, 'Hi-Ya!' "

Hobert was entertained by it all. Frightened, too. Sapp left him with a story to tell.

Make that Mr. Sapp.

"I was like, 'Oh, crap, I'm not messing with that dude — ever," Billy Joe said.

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: HuskyMaven/Sports Illustrated

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Husky Maven. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.