Former Husky on Dealing with the Virus: 'I was Respectful, but not Fearful'

Don Dow, a starting offensive tackle from the 1982 Rose Bowl team, survived a recent bout with COVID-19.

Don Dow started at offensive right tackle for two seasons for the University of Washington football team, most notably in the 1982 Rose Bowl by opening up holes for Jacque Robinson on a glorious day in a 28-0 victory over Iowa. 

After being drafted by the Seahawks and giving the NFL a training-camp look, he created an event production company where he's successfully led the blocking for that venture, too, for three decades.

He's a highly involved Husky alumnus who attends 101 Club meetings, holds eight football season tickets and keeps close tabs on the football team.

Dow also is a COVID-19 survivor.

It knocked him down.

He got back up.

Traveling a fair amount during the pandemic for his business, the one-time 6-foot-6, 300-pound Husky lineman tested positive and became ill two and a half months ago. He unknowingly was exposed to others carrying the virus either in an office setting or at a restaurant dinner party. 

"I had it," he said. "I was kind of like a bad flu for me."

While he's in his 60s, which puts him in the high-risk category for survival in a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans, Dow never felt his life was in any danger.

"Not at all," he said. "That's probably my cockiness as an athlete. My whole time leading up to catching it, I was respectful but not fearful. I really kind of felt like if it showed up, I could power through it."

Dow, from Bainbridge Island, Washington, did just that and he received his first vaccination shot on Thursday in Augusta, Georgia. 

He's the second former UW football player to publicly acknowledge contracting the virus. Defensive tackle Tyrone Rodgers, a starter for the Huskies' 1991 national championship team, struggled mightily with COVID-19 last summer in Los Angeles and recovered.

"It wasn't a horrible thing for me," Dow said. "At this point, I'm thankful to have the antibodies."

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