Huskies Add Michigan Transfer Giles Jackson, Assign Him No. 0

No University of Washington football player has worn that digit before.

Dan Raley | Jun 9, 2021

Michigan transfer Giles Jackson on Tuesday officially became a University of Washington football player in the simplest manner: the school quietly added his name to the online roster after he posed for a photo with coach Jimmy Lake.

However, the elusive wide receiver and kick returner from Antioch, California, deserved much more fanfare than that.

After all, Jackson was assigned No. 0 — becoming the first Husky player in 132 seasons to use that jersey.

Previously, UW players wore no numbers during the first two decades of games, then were permitted single-digit jerseys among the others from the 1920s to the 1950s, with All-American running back Chuck Carroll making No. 2 worthy of being one of four numbers retired by the school.

But no one wore 0.

For a decade, Huskies answered only to double-digit numbers.

In 1967, they were permitted to use single-digit jerseys once more as roster sizes increased.

Quarterback Sonny Sixkiller's No. 6 became quite possibly the most famous football jersey number in school history, beginning in 1970 when he was a sophomore sensation. T-shirts and all sorts of commemorative paraphernalia with 6 affixed to it were sold.

Still, no one wore 0.

The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Jackson, who still holds sophomore class standing, comes to the UW after spending two seasons with Michigan, where he was No. 0.

He had 95- and 97-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns against Rutgers and Maryland, respectively, while appearing in 18 games overall for the Wolverines. He caught 24 passes for 309 yards.

Jackson left the Big Ten team after his wide-receiver minutes fell off considerably this past season. The newcomer will receive a chance to face his former teammates when the Huskies play at Michigan on September 11 in Ann Arbor.

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Published Jun 9, 2021

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.