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Road to 1991 Perfection: Rongen is Punctual, Factual Regarding the National Title

The former University of Washington offensive guard still feels the impact of winning a college football championship.
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Kris Rongen is still a pretty big guy. He's a state corrections officer now in Olympia, Washington, rather than a University of Washington offensive guard, but people make the connection.

He'll put up with a spur-of-the-moment discussion about his past to a certain point.

"When I walk into a room, everybody is, 'Oh, you must have played football,' " Rongen said. "I'll share it then. I don't like to drunk people about it. They just annoy you."

Otherwise, he's happy to spend some time with you and replay the Huskies' 1991 national championship team that won by sizable margins over Nebraska, USC and Michigan and went 12-0.

"If you're sober and you want to ask, or the opportunity comes up, then that's cool," Rongen said.

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 that will conclude soon.

The impact of winning the championship, and how they did it, runs deep with Rongen. It carries over to his job, a dangerous one in which he has wounded criminals and been wounded.

He lives with a great respect for schedules and order, all instilled in him by legendary Husky coach Don James, who passed away in 2013.

"As far as employment opportunities and things like that, in that whole five years up there with Don James, I am a freak," Rongen said. "I start to sweat if I'm five minutes late, I mean early. It could be eight minutes early. I'm really punctual and goal-oriented and get things done that way."

He played for a Husky team that was crowned as the national champion by the UPI poll, which was voted on by the coaches, while unbeaten Miami was picked No. 1 in the AP ranking, as determined by sportswriters' votes. 

Rongen doesn't have any problem shaping that conversation, correcting others if they stray from how he views it. 

"The memories that we have from that and we'll cherish, they'll go on forever," he said. "It's kind of fun to say, 'Yeah, I played on that national championship team.' And it's fun to hear, 'You mean the co-national championship team.' No, it's the national championship team. Look who voted for us, the people who actually know, the coaches."

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