Inside The Huskies

Primer on How Husky Football Has Fared Against Big Ten

Breakdown of the UW win-loss records against the other 17 teams in the conference.

Dan Raley

Bob Schloredt (15) led the UW to a 1960 Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin and was named game co-MVP.
Bob Schloredt (15) led the UW to a 1960 Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin and was named game co-MVP. / Rose Bowl

Signs of Big Ten membership have turned up all over the University of Washington with new conference logos recently installed in Alaska Airlines Arena and Husky Stadium with football fall camp less than a month away. The Pac-12 Network went off the air on Sunday night.

With all of this happening, the time seems right to explain what the UW is getting into from a football perspective.

The Huskies have played against teams now belonging to the Big Ten for more than a century, hosting and losing to Penn State 21-7 in 1921 and tying Nebraska 6-6 in 1925 in Lincoln, though those schools wouldn't actually join the conference until 1990 and 2011, respectively.

The UW didn't play an active Big Ten member in football until 1936,, when it hosted Minnesota and lost to the Gophers 14-7 before a crowd of 36,864 in Montlake on the way to the Rose Bowl, which came 10 years before the Pacific Coast Conference and Big Ten began meeting in their annual postseason encounter on New Year's Day in Pasadena.

Big Ten logos now cover Husky Stadium.
Big Ten logos now cover Husky Stadium. / UW

Preparing for a deep dive into lthe eague, the Huskies have a composite 51-48-3 record against the 14 Midwest- or East Coast-based members. It's sub.-500 -- 177-190-13 -- when factoring in USC, UCLA and Oregon. The UW finishes 7-4 as a Big Ten opponent in the Rose Bowl, 7-5 if you include a wartime postseason loss to USC in Pasadena.

It's not going to be easy, by any means.

"You're in the big leagues," Fisch said. "It's like an NFL Sunday every Saturday."

UW AGAINST BIG TEN MEMBERS

Illinois 7-4 -- After losing the first three meetings, all in the early 1950s, the Huskies have captured seven of the past eight meetings, with their last victory coming 10 years ago, 44-19 in Seattle.

Indiana 1-2 -- The UW lost the first two games by a touchdown each before the Huskies took a convincing 38-13 win in Montlake in 2003. Luckily, they didn't have to play the Hoosiers when Michael Penix Jr. was their quarterback before he came to Montlake to finish up.

Iowa 3-3 -- The Huskies and Hawkeyes have played half of their games in the postseason, twice in the Rose Bowl and once in the Sun Bowl. It's been three decades since they last met, when Iowa took a 38-18 victory over a listless and unmotivated UW team in El Paso, using a starting linebacker named William Inge, a future Husky defensive coordinator, to get the job done.

Maryland 1-0 -- The teams have met for the only time in Hawaii in the Aloha Bowl in 1982 when Boomer Esiason was the Terps quarterback and the Huskies pulled out a thrilling 21-20 victory on Tim Cowan's 11-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Allen with six seconds left to play followed by Chuck Nelson's game-deciding extra point.

Michigan 5-9 -- The Huskies lost the first four outings of this series and have dropped the last three, including their biggest game yet -- the CFP national championship game last January in Houston, won by the Wolverines 34-13. They split four Rose Bowls, with the UW taking the 1992 game 34-14 to claim a national championship decided by the polls.

Michigan State 4-1 -- The UW has won the past four outings, all fairly decisively, including each of the past two seasons. The 1970 game in Seattle, captured by the Huskies 42-16, excitedly kicked off the passing-minded and point-scoring Sonny Sixkiller era.

Minnesota 7-10 -- The UW has played the Gophers more than any other Big Ten team, losing the first seven games before winning seven of the next nine. The Huskies beat a No. 1-ranked Minnesota entry 17-7 in the 1961 Rose Bowl, bringing them a national championship in their eyes. The teams haven't played since 1977, when the Gophers edged a Rose Bowl-bound, Warren Moon-quarterbacked Husky team 19-17.

Nebraska 4-5-1 -- The teams have played 10 times, but just once when the Cornhuskers have been Big Ten member, with Nebraska beating the UW 51-38 in its first season in the conference in 2011. The Huskies scored one of their greatest road victories in school annals in 1991, when they rallied from a 21-9 second-half deficit to win 36-21 in Lincoln on the way to a national title.

Northwestern 3-0 -- These teams played three times in five years in the 1980s and the Huskies were truly dominant, winning 45-7, 34-0 and 26-0, permitting only a third-quarter, 11-yard touchdown run in the first game while holding a 45-0 lead.

Ohio State 3-9 -- While the Huskies have lost 9 of 12 games to the Buckeyes, two of their biggest wins in school history have come against this program. In 1966, running back Donnie Moore rushed 30 times for an astounding 221 yards and 2 touchdowns in the UW's 38-22 victory in Columbus. Twenty years later, the Huskies handed Ohio State one of its worst losses ever, 40-7 in Montlake.

Oregon 63-48-5 -- It is certainly the best rivalry game in the Northwest and one of the best in the nation, with the teams meeting in the final Pac-12 championship game last December and now it will be a huge Big Ten game whenever played. The Huskies have won the past three outings, 37-34 in Eugene, 36-33 in Seattle and 34-31 in Las Vegas.

Penn State 0-3 -- These teams have played three fairly closely contested games over the past 102 years, with the Nittany Lions twice winning in bowl games, the Fiesta 35-28 in 2017 and the Aloha 13-10 in 1982. Penn State was a Big Ten member only when it appeared in the Arizona bowl game.

Purdue 7-2-1 -- The Huskies have enjoyed lopsided Big Ten success against the Boilermakers, capturing seven of the past eight games, including a 34-24 victory over a Drew Brees-quarterbacked team in the 2001 Rose Bowl. However, Purdue won the most recent outing, 34-24 in the 2002 Sun Bowl.

The UW recently swapped out the Pac-12 logo for the Big Ten.
The UW recently swapped out the Pac-12 logo for the Big Ten. / UW

Rutgers 2-0 -- Two and three years after the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten, they suffered 35- and 26-point losses to Chris Petersen's Huskies in home-and-away games.

UCLA 32-42-2 -- The series leaned in the Huskies' favor until UCLA captured 12 of the past 16 meetings, including the last two. The Bruins were the only Pac-12 team Kalen DeBoer couldn't beat, handing him a 40-32 defeat in the schools' most recent outing in 2022.

USC 31-52-4 -- The Trojans hold a commanding edge in this series from when they were Pac-12 members, even after losing five of the past eight games, including the last two. Their most recent outing came last season in Los Angeles, which the Huskies won 52-42.

Wisconsin 4-0 -- The UW has beaten the Badgers in all four meetings dating back 65 seasons, including the first matchup 44-8 in the 1960 Rose Bowl, which proved to be one of the most pivotal football games in school history. The Huskies showed they could win big on a national level for the first time and captured their first New Year's Day victory.

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