Nice article about the first game between the Griz and Washington, where we upset them for our first and only win in the series. Even a Dartmouth reference for PlayerRep!
I especially liked the part about the game the week before against what is now Carroll College. Griz whupped them 133-0. lol
http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...-uws-sun-dodgers-in-a-spectacular-mud-battle/
The top headline on the front page of The Seattle Times on Sunday, Oct. 17, 1920 read: FIRST AIR MAIL FROM AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND HAWAII REACHES HERE.
Big news it was then, both here and far, when a day earlier United State air mail pilot Edward Hubbard landed his hydroplane in Seattle carrying 310 pounds of mail, 16 bags in all. He fought “a stiff gale” and a stubborn toothache to make the flight from Victoria, B.C., in a record time of 53 minutes.
That same Saturday, the Washington and Montana football teams played for the first time. Montana upset UW on its home field, 18-14. The game’s headline appeared just underneath Hubbard’s heroics on the Times front page: MONTANA DOWNING WASHINGTON YESTERDAY IN SPECTACULAR MUD BATTLE.
UW and Montana would play 17 more times through 1951. Montana never won again in the series.
Featured Video
The Huskies, by the way, weren’t even the Huskies when they first played Montana. They were the Sun Dodgers then, a nicknamed adopted earlier in 1920 with some hesitation. (Many didn’t like the negative connotation it invoked to Seattle’s weather, and just a year later UW was searching for a new mascot. The Huskies nickname was formally introduced on Feb. 3, 1922, during halftime of a UW basketball game.)
The 1920 UW-Montana game was played on upper campus at Denny Field, the football team’s home since 1895. By then, Husky Stadium was in the final stages of construction, at a cost of $600,000. Washington played its first game at Husky Stadium six weeks later, on Nov. 27, 1920, losing that game to Dartmouth, 28-7, before some 24,500 fans in the new stadium.
That ended a miserable 1-5 first season under Leonard “Stub” Allison, by far the worst season in program history at that point. (Washington, of course, went unbeaten from 1908 to 1916 under Hall of Fame coach Gil Dobie, a 64-game unbeaten streak that remains the longest in NCAA history.) Allison lasted only the one season as the UW coach, but he reemerged as the coach at California in 1935 and led Cal to what remains its last Rose Bowl victory (a win over Alabama after the 1937 season).
UW’s slide in 1920 began in the mud against Montana. Despite a “fine pelting rain,” a crowd of 2,400 was treated to “about the most thrilling game that a spectator could ask for,” according to The Times’ account.
Most figured that Washington, coming off a 33-14 season-opening victory over Whitman a week earlier, would handle Montana, even though the Grizzlies had opened its season with a 133-0 victory over Mt. Saint Charles in Helena (now called Carroll College).
“We’ll be satisfied if we give Washington a close run,” Montana coach Bernie Bierman said the day before the game. (Bierman went on to coach his alma mater, Minnesota, to five national championships.)
UW was sharp early, needing only about three minutes to score first, on a five-yard touchdown pass from quarterback (and student-body president) Bob Abel to Ervin Dailey. But the grass field was covered in a sheet of water, making the ball “almost impossible to handle,” The Times wrote. Washington would fumble “time after time,” and Montana soon had the advantage.
In the second quarter, Montana’s backs of Adams, Sullivan and Higbee (first names not included in reports) broke the game open, showing such an impressive display of speed that the writer noted the game would “live long in the history of Washington football.”
By the fourth quarter, Montana had built an 18-7 lead, and would finish with a 417-150 edge in yards from scrimmage.
“It was a bitter battle to lose, for the Purple and Gold grid warriors fought desperately in the final quarter,” The Times wrote.
UW and Montana, as members of the Pacific Coast Conference, would play 12 times over the next 15 seasons. The Huskies won every one except for 6-6 tie in 1929. (The Huskies’ 32-0 win in 1927 is the only game in the series played in Montana.)
They haven’t played since 1951, when Montana left the PCC to join the Mountain States Conference, the precursor to its current home in the Big Sky Conference.
The Purple and Gold and the fighting Grizzles finally meet again at 5 p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium. Most figure that the No. 7 Huskies should win handily. One Vegas book has them favored by 38.5 points.
There is rain in the forecast.
I especially liked the part about the game the week before against what is now Carroll College. Griz whupped them 133-0. lol
http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...-uws-sun-dodgers-in-a-spectacular-mud-battle/
The top headline on the front page of The Seattle Times on Sunday, Oct. 17, 1920 read: FIRST AIR MAIL FROM AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND HAWAII REACHES HERE.
Big news it was then, both here and far, when a day earlier United State air mail pilot Edward Hubbard landed his hydroplane in Seattle carrying 310 pounds of mail, 16 bags in all. He fought “a stiff gale” and a stubborn toothache to make the flight from Victoria, B.C., in a record time of 53 minutes.
That same Saturday, the Washington and Montana football teams played for the first time. Montana upset UW on its home field, 18-14. The game’s headline appeared just underneath Hubbard’s heroics on the Times front page: MONTANA DOWNING WASHINGTON YESTERDAY IN SPECTACULAR MUD BATTLE.
UW and Montana would play 17 more times through 1951. Montana never won again in the series.
Featured Video
The Huskies, by the way, weren’t even the Huskies when they first played Montana. They were the Sun Dodgers then, a nicknamed adopted earlier in 1920 with some hesitation. (Many didn’t like the negative connotation it invoked to Seattle’s weather, and just a year later UW was searching for a new mascot. The Huskies nickname was formally introduced on Feb. 3, 1922, during halftime of a UW basketball game.)
The 1920 UW-Montana game was played on upper campus at Denny Field, the football team’s home since 1895. By then, Husky Stadium was in the final stages of construction, at a cost of $600,000. Washington played its first game at Husky Stadium six weeks later, on Nov. 27, 1920, losing that game to Dartmouth, 28-7, before some 24,500 fans in the new stadium.
That ended a miserable 1-5 first season under Leonard “Stub” Allison, by far the worst season in program history at that point. (Washington, of course, went unbeaten from 1908 to 1916 under Hall of Fame coach Gil Dobie, a 64-game unbeaten streak that remains the longest in NCAA history.) Allison lasted only the one season as the UW coach, but he reemerged as the coach at California in 1935 and led Cal to what remains its last Rose Bowl victory (a win over Alabama after the 1937 season).
UW’s slide in 1920 began in the mud against Montana. Despite a “fine pelting rain,” a crowd of 2,400 was treated to “about the most thrilling game that a spectator could ask for,” according to The Times’ account.
Most figured that Washington, coming off a 33-14 season-opening victory over Whitman a week earlier, would handle Montana, even though the Grizzlies had opened its season with a 133-0 victory over Mt. Saint Charles in Helena (now called Carroll College).
“We’ll be satisfied if we give Washington a close run,” Montana coach Bernie Bierman said the day before the game. (Bierman went on to coach his alma mater, Minnesota, to five national championships.)
UW was sharp early, needing only about three minutes to score first, on a five-yard touchdown pass from quarterback (and student-body president) Bob Abel to Ervin Dailey. But the grass field was covered in a sheet of water, making the ball “almost impossible to handle,” The Times wrote. Washington would fumble “time after time,” and Montana soon had the advantage.
In the second quarter, Montana’s backs of Adams, Sullivan and Higbee (first names not included in reports) broke the game open, showing such an impressive display of speed that the writer noted the game would “live long in the history of Washington football.”
By the fourth quarter, Montana had built an 18-7 lead, and would finish with a 417-150 edge in yards from scrimmage.
“It was a bitter battle to lose, for the Purple and Gold grid warriors fought desperately in the final quarter,” The Times wrote.
UW and Montana, as members of the Pacific Coast Conference, would play 12 times over the next 15 seasons. The Huskies won every one except for 6-6 tie in 1929. (The Huskies’ 32-0 win in 1927 is the only game in the series played in Montana.)
They haven’t played since 1951, when Montana left the PCC to join the Mountain States Conference, the precursor to its current home in the Big Sky Conference.
The Purple and Gold and the fighting Grizzles finally meet again at 5 p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium. Most figure that the No. 7 Huskies should win handily. One Vegas book has them favored by 38.5 points.
There is rain in the forecast.
