Sixkiller as a UW Freshman: 'I Was Going to Be the Best Wishbone QB'

Standout Huskies passer had to hand off the ball before he could let it fly.

University of Washington football wasn't exactly what Sonny Sixkiller envisioned once he arrived in Seattle.

For starters, about a dozen guys showed up to play quarterback for the 1969 Husky Pups freshman team. The line was long. Some were Vietnam vets back from the war. A bunch got moved to defensive back.

The other disconcerting thing was this: Sixkiller was a pass-oriented quarterback from Ashland, Oregon, and the Huskies installed the run-minded Wishbone attack not long after he committed. 

Without telling him.

From a pay phone outside of Hec Edmundson Pavilion, he would call his father, Alex Sixkiller, to commiserate and keep his family updated on his college experience.

'Hey, dad, this is what's going on," Sonny remembers telling him. "We're not going to throw the ball."

Quitting the team never crossed his mind, though. The thing about Sixkiller, just 17, was he was super competitive. This untimely change made him all that more determined to succeed.

"On the other side of it, it was, '(Bleep) it, I'm going to be the best Wishbone quarterback I can be,' " he said. "I ran it better than the other quarterbacks."

Yet it didn't happen right away.

Sixkiller was the third-string quarterback when workouts for the 53-player freshman team began. He trailed Greg Collins and Steve Wiezbowski, a touted pair of California recruits, in the pecking order.  

Collins was one of the headliners of that 1969 freshman class, a blond record-setting passer from Torrance, a coastal suburb south of Los Angeles. On the first day of practice, he posed for a Seattle Times photographer by taking a snap from center and drew plaudits from frosh coach Marv Weetman.

Wiezbowski hailed from Laguna Beach, south of Torrance, and he was an extremely versatile athlete. Once he joined the UW varsity, he played cornerback on game day but was at his best handling the placekicking duties.

Sixkiller went unmentioned in the earliest newspaper reports about the Pups. He nursed a sprained ankle that put him behind. One story mentioned Collins, Wiezbowski and Bellingham's Tom Roehl as potential quarterbacks, but Sonny was ignored.

"Collins was the big-name recruit because he played in a Southern California all-star game," Sixkiller said. "He was the coach's favorite when he got up here."

The UW freshmen played a four-game schedule that fall and Collins got the starting nod for the opener against the Washington State Coubabes in Pullman. It didn't go well for him. 

Collins fumbled repeatedly while trying to run the Wishbone and was responsible for eight turnovers in a 48-15 loss. 

Sixkiller started the next game against the Oregon Ducklings in Eugene and he led the Pups to a 12-0 victory. While mostly handing off to his backs, he stepped up and heaved a 48-yard touchdown pass to speedster Ira Hammon that got everyone's attention on the coaching staff. Sixkiller completed 2 of 7 attempts for 59 yards. 

Collins and Sixkiller split time thereafter, each drawing another start, in games against Oregon State and Simon Fraser, 24-12 and 44-0 victories, respectively. Sonny threw a touchdown pass in each outing, including a 71-yarder.

In this series of stories about Sixkiller, coming on the 50th anniversary of the storied Native American's rise to football fame, he made his move while practically everyone in the UW football program came to the realization that the Wishbone was a huge mistake. The varsity went on to suffer through a disastrous 1-9 season. 

The Pups, however, gradually introduced more and more pass plays as they tried to distance themselves from the complex running game. One reason for this was Sonny Sixkiller.

"We started throwing the ball and the varsity was jealous of us," he said.