Road to 1991 Perfection: Butler Was Greatness in Waiting, Dominated Devils

The young University of Washington inside linebacker had a coming-out game against Arizona State. He was patient all along.

Eight games into its national championship run, the University of Washington's powerful 1991 football team hosted Arizona State and the outcome was fairly predictable.

The Huskies scored four times in the first 18 minutes and led 31-0 at halftime before settling for a breezy 44-16 victory.

This meant that guys such as Hillary Butler and others who came off the bench got to play at least half that game and show what they could do. Outings like this served as spur-of-the-moment auditions.

Butler lined up as an inside linebacker, a heralded sophomore from Tacoma, Washington, someone who could run a 4.4-second, 40-yard dash. 

Most Husky fans stayed to the end of these blowouts just so they could see someone like Butler show off his untapped talent.

"That Arizona State game, that was one of the first games where I got to play a little bit more," he said. "I was always behind the best linebackers in the country with Chico Fraley, James Clifford and Dave Hoffmann."

This is another in series of vignettes about the UW 1991 national championship football team, filling in and supplementing the conversation as the pandemic-delayed season begins soon.

Against the overmatched Sun Devils, Butler led the Huskies with 10 tackles in his reserve role that day. Without starting a game that season, he would finish as the Huskies' sixth-leading tackler with 41.

"Coach Lambright saw a little something in the young guy and allowed me to rotate in and out," he said. 

Butler became a full-time Husky starter in 1993, but his final season was shortened to eight games after breaking four toes early on and having hernia surgery at season's end. He made the most out of his time with the UW.

He later spent a couple of years in NFL Europe with the Frankfurt Galaxy, played a season with the Seattle Seahawks and shared in Super Bowl XXXIII with the Denver Broncos. 

Butler, who has a large family, today operates businesses in the cannibus industry and in photography, and he holds a position with the NFL Alumni Association, which he details below in the second video.  

The 1991 Husky season was a springboard for him, an unforgettable time, if not a blueprint. 

"It was all part of growth, experiencing success early on and learning how to deal with success," he said, "and how to get to success."

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