Road to 1991 Perfection: UW, Miami Were Ready to Rumble at White House

Things got heated between the football teams when they crossed paths in the nation's capital.

After being declared co-national champions, the 1991 University of Washington and Miami football teams were invited to the White House to be honored for their accomplishments.

At the same time.

Probably not a good idea.

This might have been the singular best reason for introducing a college football playoff a few years later and avoiding a similar interaction of highly competitive, oversized men in the future.

"We almost did play in the parking lot of the White House," said former UW offensive guard Kris Rongen, now a Washington state corrections officer.

By play, he didn't mean throw and catch a football.

The Huskies came dressed in suits while the Hurricanes showed up in athletic clothes and with plenty of mouth. Things got a little feisty. Face to face, the two unbeaten teams went back and forth verbally.

"You had these clowns coming in in their sweat suits and talking [bleep]," Rongen said. "At one point the Secret Service said, 'Holy crap, we don't have enough guys to deal with this if it goes wrong.' "

This is another in a series of vignettes about the UW's 1991 national title run, supplementing the conversation for the recently completed pandemic-influenced season. We're now in the aftermath of the Huskies' 12-0 season in this throwback replay.

The Huskies arrived at the White House in a school bus provided by the sister of Ed Cunningham, the Huskies' starting center who was from Virginia. 

Admittedly, some of these guys had overindulged the night before and already were feeling a little short-tempered, hence the low tolerance for any trash-talk from their Miami brethren. 

Of course, cooler heads prevailed and everyone got to meet President George Bush and his wife Barbara without any incident or arrests being made.

"We were respectful, we showed up, we dressed the part," Rongen said. "It never did [happen] but it was a huge are-you-kidding-me moment." 

Rongen later was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks and hosted in training camp by defensive tackle by Cortez Kennedy, who was a year older and had played collegiately on earlier Miami teams.

The gregarious Kennedy, who was just 48 when he sadly died in 2017, made an interesting revelation while they were tipping a few.

"He took me out and said, 'I think your team would have whupped our asses,' " Rongen recalled.

Taking all of this into consideration, Rongen more than ever felt certain how things would have turned out had Washington and Miami actually settled things on the football field. 

"I think our defense would have crushed them and we would have done what we do," he said, referring to the offense, "and by the fourth quarter we would have owned them."

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