Pelluer on Family Tradition: 'My Mom Taunted Me at the Apple Cup'

UW quarterback wasn't wearing the preferred uniform in state rivalry game and he heard about it
Pelluer on Family Tradition: 'My Mom Taunted Me at the Apple Cup'
Pelluer on Family Tradition: 'My Mom Taunted Me at the Apple Cup' /

If you know anything about Northwest college football, you've heard about the Pelluers and all of their gridiron family connections.

Originally, they turned up at Washington State. They were Cougars. Generation after generation.

Carl Gustafson was a WSC fullback in 1925-27.

His daughter, Jodee, married Arnie Pelluer, a Cougars end in 1957-58.

Jodee and Arnie's son, Scott, was a WSU linebacker in 1977-80.

And then there was Steve Pelluer, the next youngest brother, shown here in our Huskies Legends series.

"I broke the mold," he said.

This Pelluer played quarterback for the Washington Huskies in 1980-83, for legendary coach Don James. He went to two Rose Bowls, starting as a sophomore in the 1982 Pasadena game, a 28-0 win over Iowa. He was good, named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year as a senior in 1983. 

He also was chided by an unlikely source, his mother, for pulling on the purple and gold in his first Apple Cup in 1980 with Scott on the other sideline. Check out the video and hear what happened. 

Scott and Steve, who both made to the NFL, also have a younger brother, Arnie, who decided he would play linebacker for Stanford--against the Huskies and Cougars.

As for the latest generation of Pelluers, Scott had one son play for the Cougars (Peyton), another for the Huskies (Cooper) and yet another for Montana (Tyler). Interesting enough, Scott was an assistant coach for the UW.

As for Steve, who has worked as a Bellevue commercial real estate broker for two decades, his son (Zeke) is currently a redshirt freshman tight end at Washington.

We'll have other video installments from Steve Pelluer in the near future. In this Facebook video, he shows off his arm strength in downtown Seattle this week while meeting up with Jimmy Rodgers, who offered this post.


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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.