Huskies' 10 Biggest Big Ten-Related Accomplishments

Upsets, national titles and clutch performances have been part of the history.

Donnie Moore runs through an Ohio State tackle in 1965 at Husky Stadium. / Dan Raley collection

Against the Big Ten, the University of Washington football team has taken staggering punches and delivered them.

Through the years -- the outcome of the most recent CFP national championship game notwithstanding -- the Huskies significantly closed the gap from being bullied by the country's most storied college football conference to meting out its own punishment when the other guys least expected it.

With Northwestern officially welcoming the UW into the Big Ten on Saturday with a game kicking off at 4 p.m. at Husky Stadium, the time just seems right to single out the 10 biggest moments for these players from Montlake against the various heavyweight programs across the Midwest.

Feel free to debate the choices, and the order, but we're fairly comfortable, with our longstanding institutional knowledge of all things Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, that the following selections, in paying homage to the Bo Derek ratings system, are a perfect 10:

1. Donnie Moore's Monster Game -- No Husky football player has offered a more punishing performance in a more hostile setting than the speedy and powerful 5-foot-8, 210-pound Moore who went into Ohio State in 1966 and rushed 30 times for 221 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 38-22 victory over the Buckeyes. Before a crowd of 80,041, he ran for 20 yards the first time he touched the football and 47 yards and a score the last time he handled it. Moore didn't lose a yard all game. It was the greatest opposing rushing outburst at Ohio Stadium, or the Horseshoe, until Indiana's Tevin Coleman rushed for 228 yards in 2014.

2. Mario Bailey's Heisman Pose -- Bailey's end-zone gesture following his 38-yard TD catch in the fourth quarter of the 1992 Rose Bowl, aimed at Michigan's Heisman Trophy winner and fellow wide receiver Desmond Howard, served as an exclamation mark and the most memorable moment of the Huskies' punishing 34-14 victory over the Wolverines to wrap up a perfect 12-0 season and a national championship in the coaches' poll. Bailey simply felt he was a better player than Howard, much like his dominant team was convinced it couldn't be beaten.

3. Bob Schloredt's Comeback Game -- Against No. 1-ranked Minnesota in the 1961 Rose Bowl, Schloredt came off the bench for the second series of the game after a long injury absence, led the Huskies to a 17-7 victory and was named the game's most valuable player. Three months earlier, Schloredt fractured his collarbone while making a tackle against UCLA and would miss the last half of the regular-season schedule. The Helms Foundation ranked the Huskies No. 1 nationally following the game.

Bob Schloredt led the UW to a 1960 Rose Bowl win over Wisconson. / Rose Bowl

4. Huskies Raise West Coast Flag -- With a Rose Bowl alliance put in place in 1947, the Big Ten won 12 of the first 13 games, most of them blowouts, against the Pac-12 and its different variations before a once-beaten UW team showed up in Pasadena for the 1960 showcase as a heavy underdog to Wisconsin. Letting out a lot of pent-up emotion based on geography, the Huskies won 44-8, finally legitimizing the teams in the Pacific time zone. George Flaming, a UW running back, returner and kicker, and Schloredt were named co-MVPs of the landslide game.

5. Big House Eviction Notice -- Eighteen years after taking that resounding 16-point win at Ohio State, the Huskies went into Michigan and emerged with a 20-11 victory in a 1984 game that wasn't that close. Jimmy Rodgers had one of his most memorable games as a UW safety, coming up with 2 pass break-ups, a sack and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for hitting Wolverines quarterback Jim Harbaugh well out of bounds that brought coach Bo Schembechler over to cuss him out. Hugh Millen had his best game as a Husky quarterback, completing 13 of 16 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown, finding receiver and high school pal Mark Pattison behind the Wolverines secondary for a 73-yard scoring strike.

6. Buckeyes' Black Eye -- Ohio State later would try to hire Ohio native Don James away from the Huskies and this game was one of the reasons why. In this 1986 meeting, the UW turned to its defense to force 3 fumbles, intercept 3 passes and block a punt for a touchdown that was recovered in the end zone by Tony Zachary in a 40-7 rout. Nobody saw this mismatch coming. Ohio State was 10th ranked entering the game and there was so much interest in the match-up CBS-TV showed it nationally.

7. Full Moon Over Pasadena -- The Huskies entered the 1978 Rose Bowl with a 7-4 record, which paled in comparison to Michigan's glossy 10-1 ledger full of blowouts. Yet those pregame looks were deceiving as the UW jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the third quarter on Warren Moon's 2 short TD runs and his 28-yard scoring pass to Spider Gaines, and then held on for dear life against the Wolverines, who were hoping to claim a national championship. The UW needed late interceptions from Nesby Glasgow and Michael Jackson to close out a 27-20 upset. Moon was named game MVP and accidentally left behind at the stadium while doing an onslaught of interviews and soaking in the big win and taken to the team hotel by a TV broadcaster.

Sonny Sixkiller was hard to defend against, as TCU found out. / Dave Eskenazi collection

8. Sixkiller Proved Deadly -- The UW was coming off a 1-9 season, its worst in school history, which began with consecutive lopsided defeats at Michigan State, at Michigan and at home to Ohio State, when Michigan State arrived in Seattle for the 1970 opener. The previously run-minded Huskies came out throwing with the unknown Alex "Sonny" Sixkiller at quarterback and wearing the No. 6 purple jersey. On his fourth play against the Spartans, he wound up and whipped a 59-yard touchdown pass to Ira Hammon. He completed 15 of 36 passes for 276 yards and 3 scores overall, engineered a 42-16 upset and launched the swashbuckling Sixkiller era.

9. Who Is Jacque Robinson? -- At the 1982 Rose Bowl, the Huskies and Iowa were scoreless in the second quarter when little-known running back Jacque Robinson entered the game. Playing not quite two quarters, he rushed 20 times for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns and was named game MVP as the UW rolled to a 28-0 victory. Asked afterward who was Jacque Robinson, Husky coach Don James, quipped, "He's a freshman running back. I know this, because I checked the program."

10. Beating Brees In a Breeze -- The Huskies made Rick Neuheisel the first person to become the Rose Bowl MVP as a player (for UCLA) and win the game as a coach when they snapped a 17-17 tie with Purdue in the third quarter on John Anderson's 42-yard field goal and went on to a 34-24 victory in the 2001 game. Marques Tuiasosopo outdueled the highly publicized Drew Brees at quarterback to win game MVP honors. Tuiasosopo completed 16 of 22 passes for 138 yards and a TD, and rushed for 75 yards and a score, while Brees completed 23 of 39 passes for 275 yards and 2 TDs.

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