UW's 3 Best Wins and 3 Worst Losses Against Oregon State
In 1969, all sorts of cosmic things happened everywhere, inside and out of the Earth's atmosphere. A Moonwalk. Woodstock. Jim Scheele.
OK, so you know about the first two moments.
Scheele?
He's long since deceased now, but he was an Oregon State end who lumbered down the field to catch an improbable touchdown pass that will forever live in Husky Stadium infamy.
Fifty-four years ago, Scheele got behind a pair of University of Washington defensive backs on the final play of the game and settled under a 49-yard Hail Mary throw from quarterback Steve Endicott that handed the Beavers a stunning 10-6 victory.
The ball hit Scheele's hands as the scoreboard clock turned 0:00 and he raced into the end zone triumphantly as the crowd of 53,824 sat in disbelief.
It was as if someone drained all the water out of Lake Washington in an instant. Mount Rainier suddenly lost its snowcap. Whatever could shock you in Seattle, this ranked right up there.
No game has been snatched away from the Husky football team at home in such a lightning-bolt if not humiliating fashion.
Scheele was a senior who caught his first career scoring pass that day. He would catch just one more before he was done. In the locker room, he posed for photos with his always animated OSU coach Dee "The Great Pumpkin" Andros planting a big kiss on his cheek.
Across the way, Husky defensive backs Bob Berg and Ron Volbrecht sheepishly told reporters how they were in a victory defense. Hate to see what the alternative alignment resembled.
The abrupt loss dropped the UW to 0-5 that afternoon on the way to what would become a 1-9 season — then the worst in school history and since surpassed for futility.
No play, however, has ever exceeded the Scheele touchdown catch for Montlake despair.
A look at the best and worst outcomes of this UW-Oregon State football series, that leans to the Huskies 68-35-4:
3 BEST HUSKY WINS
2000, at UW 33, OSU 30 — The nation's No. 13 and 23rd-ranked football teams got together in Husky Stadium and a shootout took place. This one came down to a last-ditch play that Oregon State couldn't convert. With 14 seconds remaining, Beavers kicker Ryan Cesca hustled onto the field to launch a 46-yard field-goal attempt for the tie and overtime. He didn't hit it well and the ball fell off to the right, making the UW the winner in the most competitive match-up of the more than century-old series before the biggest crowd to attend one of these rivalry games at 73,145. Both teams finished 11-1 and have never been better at the same time. The Huskies advanced to the Rose Bowl and beat Purdue and Drew Brees 34-24 and Oregon State played in the Fiesta Bowl and routed Notre Dame 41-9.
2010, at UW 35, OSU 34 (2 OT) — This game ended at 10:59 p.m. in a second overtime at Husky Stadium with linebacker Cort Dennison doing all he could to break up the Beavers' 2-point conversion pass from Ryan Katz to H-back Joe Kalahuni to secure the win. Thus ended a 3 1/2-hour battle at Husky Stadium that featured UW quarterback Jake Locker at his career best. He threw 5 touchdown passes to tie a school record, with 4 of them going to Jermaine Kearse, including a pair in the overtime sessions.
1960, UW 30, at OSU 29 — Down 15 points at halftime and playing for the first time without All-America quarterback Bob Schloredt, out with a broken collarbone, the Huskies pulled this one out with 2:07 left in the game. Bob Hivner, Schloredt's replacement, scored on a 2-yard keeper and George Fleming converted the deciding extra point at Portland's Multnomah Stadium. The game was a bitter struggle for the Rose Bowl-bound Huskies. Rich Brooks, OSU defensive back and future Oregon coach, hit Husky running back Charlie Mitchell so hard he gave him a concussion; and UW defensive end Ben Davidson, a future NFL villain, put a late hit on a Beavers back and drove him so far out of bounds he was flagged for a personal foul penalty and had half the OSU team wanting to fight him.
3 WORST HUSKY LOSSES
1969, OSU 10, at UW 6 — With just over a minute left to play, the Beavers began the final drive from their 15 with no timeouts. OSU quickly moved up the field with a pair of pass completions, the first to Scheele for 17 yards. Endicott, the quarterback, lost four yards on a run. Another pass completion went for eight yards. The Huskies committed pass interference. UW defensive tackle Rick Sharp knocked down a pass. Five seconds remained on the clock when Endicott took the snap, stood tall with perfect protection and found his man Scheele right before crossing the goal line with a perfect strike.
1985, OSU 21, at UW 20 — Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Steve Rudman always had a way with words. In this case, he wrote a pregame column that described the 37-point underdog Beavers as "the Barney Fife of college football." G-o-o-o-l-l-l-l-l-l-y Andy! If OSU was the bumbling fictional TV deputy, then the Huskies were Goober. With 1:46 left to play at the UW 30, Oregon State sent 10 guys after Husky punter Thane Cleeland and Andre Todd got there first to block the ball into the end zone, where teammate Lavance Northington recovered it for a score. Jim Nielsen converted the difference-making extra-point kick and 56,544 really upset fans immediately made a move to the exits.
2001, at OSU 49, UW 24 — The eighth-ranked and defending Rose Bowl-champion Huskies toppled Michigan and USC that season, but they couldn't hang with the Beavers in Corvallis. It was Jonathan Smith's comeuppance. He lost his first three games to the Huskies before relishing this beatdown. It was 35-10 at halftime. After losing to the UW three times, the OSU quarterback, eventual Husky offensive coordinator and current Beavers head coach led his team to a decisive victory in which he threw for 317 yards passing and Steven Jackson and Ken Simonton each scored three touchdowns.
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.
Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12
Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley
