Legend of Sixkiller: Huskies Turned Sonny Loose Against USC
After four games played at home to gloriously launch the Sixkiller era, Sonny and his Washington football team took to the road for the first time. In Los Angeles, they faced the ultimate challenge.
USC.
The Trojans, built around an imposing backfield of quarterback Jim Jones, tailback Clarence Davis and fullback Sam Cunningham, were as powerful as ever. The team had appeared in the past four Rose Bowls.
The Huskies would pull out all stops in the pursuit of a monumental upset. They wound up Sixkiller and just let him go.
He and his teammates nearly pulled it off, too.
In the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum at night, the rifle-armed quarterback threw the ball 57 times and completed 30 -- both school records by a wide margin -- for 341 yards and a touchdown. Remember, this was 1970. His records that night would stand for nearly three decades.
His performance ran so counter to UW offensive efforts of the past, Sixkiller's attempts were 15 more and his completions 9 higher than the previous standards, previously set by All-America quarterback Don Heinrich 18 years earlier in a game against UCLA.
Unfortunately, Sonny's 57th toss ended up in the hands of Trojans defensive back Ron Ayala in the final minute, and the interception preserved USC's hard-earned 28-25 victory in front of 56,166 fans in a game televised back to Seattle.
The defeat proved as emotionally draining as any with Sixkiller at the helm. The Huskies left everything on the field, which included a heroic goal-line stand with four stops inside the 3 to give them that one last chance.
The UW players were so distraught afterward, they threw their helmets on the floor and kicked them hard down a long hallway in the locker room. They banged on lockers. They watched Jim Owens, a coach as tough as they come, well up when he addressed the team.
"It was the most emotional I've ever seen him," Sixkiller said told author Bob Condotta years later. "He had tears in his eyes talking about how close we had come and how hard we had worked."
The Huskies fell behind powerful USC 14-3 and 21-10, but they kept coming back. They were relentless. They were determined to pull this one out.
Sixkiller led them on drives of 88, 79 and 90 yards, doing most of the work through the air. In one stretch, he completed 9 of 13 passes.
The game turned absolutely brutal once the Trojans drove to a first down on the UW 3 near the end of the game, seeking a game-clinching score. The ensuing crashing collisions at the line of scrimmage could be heard all the way to Hollywood.
Stout defensive linemen Rick Huget and Kurt Matter, plus head-hunting defensive backs Bill Cahill and Larry Worley, each stood up or crashed through to make fierce stops. USC came up inches shy of the goal line.
Sixkiller quickly moved his team to the UW 44. People in Seattle knew that anything was possible with this confident guy running the show. But this was USC and the quarterback threw his last pass right to Ayala, who had two interceptions on the night, with just seconds left on the clock.
It was the second consecutive bitter, three-point loss for the UW, which dropped to 2-3. This one hurt bad. A USC win would have made the entire season. Husky victories over the Trojans were exceedingly rare back then. Owens' players had those guys on their heels all night.
The UW players knew how much the outcome of this game meant just by scanning the crestfallen face of their coach.
"That was the one time Jim showed it," Sixkiller said "To see your head coach like that, you couldn't help tearing up yourself."