Inside The Huskies

January Football Games Are Nothing New to the UW, Just Husky Stadium

Stadium by the lake will be empty throughout the fall for the first time since it opened 100 years ago.

Dan Raley

The Washington Huskies have played football games before in January. 

They're 9-8-1 in bowl games held in the first month of the new year, 7-7-1 in the Rose Bowl. 

They always practice in March and into April.

The spring game once was held in May, now April.

So what's the difference?

A college football shutdown like no one the city has ever seen. 

Husky Stadium will be empty in the fall for the first time since it was unveiled with a game against Dartmouth on Nov. 27, 1920, one the home squad lost 28-7.

It's not exactly the way the school wanted to celebrate its centennial for its football palace by the lake. 

Reaction was somewhat muted around Montlake over Tuesday's announcement that the Pac-12 Conference was suspending football and all fall sports competition until Jan. 1, 2021, at the earliest, because of the ongoing pandemic. 

The move came on the heels of the Big Ten choosing to delay things as well to the spring or thereabouts. 

Leave it to Husky redshirt freshman Faatui Tuitele, a highly regarded defensive tackle from Hawaii, to take a mature approach to an unsettling situation. 

"All good, more time to perfect my craft and get better," tweeted the newcomer, who has four games under his belt, two at Husky Stadium. 

Tuitele was one of the few who had any public reaction to the postponement.

The UW said it wouldn't make any players available right away to offer reaction to an epic decision, which could result in a pair of seasons held in the same year. No doubt people have to digest all of the ramifications. 

Jimmy Lake, his Husky head-coaching debut delayed once more, weighed in with UW president Ana Mari Cauce and athletic director Jen Cohen in this tweeted message from the school.

If the virus permits it, expect a short schedule conducted against a handful of Pac-12 opponents early in the year or well into the spring and then it's back to a full fall slate a year from now. 

The short season will be used to get players back into competition after more than a year off. It also will be needed to help restore budget and job losses. 

Otherwise, the Huskies open its next full-fledged season against Michigan on Sept. 11, 2021 at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

That's the back end of a two-game series that had the Wolverines coming to Husky Stadium in 25 days, a match-up that was wiped out long before this season ended and will be rescheduled. 

Weird times, indeed. 

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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.

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