Road to 1991 Perfection: UW Title Run Didn't Come Without a Few Bumps
Lee Neal is a Seattle probation officer, 19 years on the job, dedicated to his craft.
Invariably it comes up at his workplace that he used to play football, that he was a running back for the University of Washington, later in the NFL.
Neal does not run from his past. He embraces and celebrates it. He can tell the troubled young law-breakers he encounters how 25 years ago he ran for 135 yards at Ohio State, breaking a 66-yard gainer, and how he picked up another 152 yards against USC, incredibly playing on a broken foot.
He does this because it makes them listen. Makes them respect him. Enables him to reach them.
"I think that helps with the rapport I establish with the people I supervise," Neal said. "It kind of helps out with our relationship. It allows me to enter into their way of thinking. It almost builds a bridge so I'm not really seen as a law-enforcement person. They see me as a football player, as an ex-Husky."
Nearly three full decades ago, he was part of the 1991 national championship team, albeit a redshirt tailback that season who was waiting his turn to play. It was supposed to be hard work, a learning experience and relatively uneventful.
Horrifically, Neal and six other freshmen became an unwanted headline.
Two days before the much-anticipated Washington-Nebraska football game in Lincoln, these first-year players were victims of an overnight freeway crash that happened in Oregon, changing lives forever.
Everyone was from Southern California. None of them were on the travel squad to the Midwest. Classes hadn't started. They were homesick.
They pooled their resources, rented a van and decided to spend the weekend at home in the Los Angeles area 1,200 miles away.
The group consisted of cornerbacks Reggie Reser and Michael Steward, offensive tackle Eric Battle, defensive lineman Doug Barnes, safety Richard Washington, wide receiver Joel Rosborough and Neal, plus a friend of Neal's, eight passengers in all
They got as far as Medford, Oregon, when at 2:30 a.m. an inebriated driver pulled onto Interstate 5 going the wrong direction — purposely and suicidal, investigators concluded — and drove into them.
The other man died at the scene.
The van rolled eight or nine times after it was hit by the car and ended up on its side.
Players were left with broken bones from head to toe. Steward was found unconscious. Barnes was running around a wooded area in a panic. Washington and Steward were trapped in the vehicle and hurt the worst, collectively incurring multiple broken bones in their thigh, pelvis, arm and jaw. They were hospitalized six and 10 weeks each.
This is another in a series of articles and videos that will replay the UW's 1991 national championship season, which is the apex of Husky football. We don't have a 2020 season yet, so we'll use '91 as a conversation piece.
The Oregon van accident was such a nightmarish experience it affected everyone differently. It ruined football careers and sent people in different directions. Four of them transferred out. One is now in prison. Another struggles with mental-health issues.
Richard Washington was supposed to be the next great Husky safety, possibly the best player of this particular group. He turned down Oklahoma, Colorado and Oregon to come to Seattle. He later played briefly at Long Beach City College with Rosborough and Steward.
"He was never the same again after that accident," Neal said.
Neal, Reser and Battle recovered and stayed the course with their Husky football careers, each becoming a starter. Neal and Battle still live in the Seattle area and stay connected.
For this resilient Husky running back, Neal used the accident to persevere with more tough times to come.
He battled the great Napoleon Kaufman and Rashaan Shehee for minutes and carries thereafter, and he dealt with that broken foot and other assorted football ailments that limited his opportunities. But he had his moments of greatness.
Shehee discusses his former teammate and what might have been in this video.
Neal can tell those who have run afoul with the law that comebacks are never impossible, that people can turn their lives around from major setbacks, unfair circumstances and practically anything.
Just ask him.
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