Throwback Thursday: Damon Huard is Known for the Miami Win, Oregon Pick-Six and the Kid QB
Great quarterbacks were everywhere at Washington.
Highly skilled, accomplished signal callers.
Pro prospects, every one of them.
Mark Brunell, so fleet and so smart, led the Huskies to a 10-2 season and a one-sided 1991 Rose Bowl victory.
Once he went down with a debilitating knee injury the following spring, Billy Joe Hobert stepped in.
Hobert, cocky, gritty and kind of folksy in approach, directed the UW to a 12-0 season, a blowout 1992 Rose Bowl win and a co-championship with Miami.
Behind these headliners was another QB, Eric Bjornson, tall and lanky, a little on the shy side and eventually NFL-bound similar to Brunell and Hobert, only as a receiver.
Amidst all of this stockpile of great quarterback talent was this redshirt Damon Huard, hardly intimidated by the offensive leaders in the room.
He was just the opposite, friendly, chatty and comfortable in his own football skin while he learned from the others and waited for them to use up their eligibility.
In 1993, Huard and Bjornson were the quarterbacks, with Damon taking over a team now on probation for multitude of job- and recruiting-related and not eligible for a bowl for two years.
He quarterbacked the Huskies to 7-4, 7-4 and 7-4-1 seasons before turning the team over to his younger brother and highly recruited quarterback Brock Huard. They were two of three sons, all quarterbacks, with Luke playing for North Carolina, for longtime Puyallup High School football coach Mike Huard.
Damon's legacy was that he held the UW program together during tough times.
He directed the Huskies' stirring 38-20 victory over Miami, ending the Hurricanes' record home winning streak at 58.
A few weeks later, he served up a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown to Oregon's Kenny Wheaton that led to a 31-20 defeat unintentionally jumpstarting a dormant program into a powerhouse.
With the good and the bad, Damon Huard went undrafted but found his way to the NFL, where he spent eight seasons with three teams as an active player, a dozen overall on rosters
In 2000, Damon and Brock became the first set of brothers in NFL history to start on the same Sunday, Damon leading the Miami Dolphins up against the Indianapolis Colts and Brock guiding the Seattle Seahawks against the Denver Broncos.
Damon, as Tom Brady's backup in New England, shared in a couple of Super Bowl victories.
And now, a dozen years after he took his final football snap, Damon has a new claim to fame.
He's the proud father of Kennedy Catholic High School's Sam Huard, considered one of the nation's leading quarterback recruits for 2021 and, similar to his father and uncle, Washington-bound.
This younger Huard throws lefty, similar to his uncle and stands 6-foot-2, leaning more to his father's frame.
Damon Huard, into all kinds of endeavors post-football, such as working for the UW athletic department, broadcasting Husky games and sharing in a winery with other former NFL players, admittedly gets the most amped-up watching Sam Huard play quarterback.
He admits to nerves not there for a long time. Acknowledges the satisfaction in watching his offspring play. Will clear his schedule next fall, leaving the radio booth, in order to share in his son's senior high school season.
What a pass completion: Huard to Huard to Huard to Huard to Huard.