Inside The Huskies

Cougars Lose Dickert to Wake Forest, Put Program in Hands of Former Husky

Pete Kaligis of the UW's 1991 national championship team will serve as WSU interim coach.

Dan Raley

In 2012, former Husky offensive guard Pete Kaligis was Wyoming's interim coach, a role he'll handle for WSU into the Holiday Bowl.
In 2012, former Husky offensive guard Pete Kaligis was Wyoming's interim coach, a role he'll handle for WSU into the Holiday Bowl. / Troy Babbitt-Imagn Images

If coach Jake Dickert walking away from Washington State nine days before the Holiday Bowl wasn't enough to make Cougars fans indignant, they must consider the program now is in the hands of a former Washington Husky football player.

After Dickert was hired away by Wake Forest on Wednesday, WSU named Pete Kaligis as interim football coach to lead the Cougars into their Dec. 27 postseason game against 21st-ranked Syracuse in San Diego.

That's Kaligis, as in the one-time UW offensive guard who shared in four victories in five outings against WSU in 1989-93.

That's Kaligis, as in a 12-game starter for the Huskies' 1991 national championship team that pummeled WSU 56-21.

That's a one-time hated rival who's being asked to somehow bring the Cougars together after they lost their standout quarterback John Mateer, who led them to a stirring 24-19 upset of the UW back in September, to the temptations of the transfer portal; touted freshman running back Wayshawn Parker, also to the portal; and now Dickert -- who beat the Huskies in two of four meetings -- to an ACC job.

Enter Kaligis, now in his third season in Pullman, previously serving as the associate head coach and defensive-line coach before getting elevated.

He becomes the third UW-related person to lead the Cougars football team, joining one-time Husky assistant coaches in Jim Sutherland, who became the WSU head coach in 1956-63, and Bert Clark, who succeeded him in that job in1964-67.

A Bellingham native, Kaligis came to WSU after 13 seasons at Wyoming, where he worked alongside Dickert, and where he served as the interim coach for one game in 2012. He stepped in when Cowboys coach Dave Christensen, ironically another former Husky offensive lineman, was suspended for a week and fined $50,000 for a postgame dust-up with Air Force coach Troy Calhoun over claims that the Falcons faked an injury.

In Montlake, Kaligis is remembered best as one of the strongest players to come through the Husky football program. He set a record with a mammoth 520-pound bench press. Even with a somewhat slight 6-foot-2, 255-pound build, he regularly pancaked guys, including two at Nebraska in a 36-21 victory in 1991. He did this all while dealing with a damaged right knee that required multiple surgeries, both delaying his college football career and ending it prematurely.

"If you go with him on a long trip, you don't have to worry about taking a jack,'' quipped the great Husky defensive tackle Steve Emtman, who was a fellow weight-room fanatic. "He can lift the car by himself.''

Now Kaligis will be asked to lift the spirits of the Cougars, who have experienced a program dismantling along the lines of the UW's following its CFP national championship game appearance just 12 months ago.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football