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Which (post 1960) Husky Football downturn was hardest on you mentally?
YellowSnow
Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 35,274 
Which (post 1960) Husky Football downturn was hardest on you mentally? 51 votes
1964- 74 J.O. starts off fast and then fades away
0%
1985- 88 Race fires Don James
0%
1993- 98 F.O. Pumpeii, Lambo was shit AF
7%
4 votes
2003- 15 Gilby/Ty/Sark/Pete needs moar Tim
72%
37 votes
2019- 21 Pete quits and Jimmy runs the damn ball
17%
9 votes
2024- The Ballad of Jedd Fisch
1%
1 vote
Comments
Plunging immediately into mediocrity after high of highs, on probation for 2 seasons & no bowl games. Beating @creepycoug and then shitting the bed against Oregon. Add to it the purple helmets and Lambo losing the players.
…and, on a personal note, I was still a passionate fan back then, so all that shit was hard to take.
Those 12 years happened in the prime of my middle age and I will never forgive UW
This is where is gets tricky because we had varying lived experiences in these downtowns.
1993- 98 is an obvious choice but I never felt that depressed about football in those years. Husky Stadium was still loud and raucous and the games were always early afternoon. We were barely removed from a Natty and still nationally. Things felt normal and we were just about back baby! I don't think it really sunk in until Nebraska corn holed us in Seattle, that we were very much not back.
Plus, I was focused on row boat and thought the footballers that I worked with in the AD were meatheads.
2004-2008 was brutal.
The 90s period was disappointing, but we beat Miami, the Ohio State, tied and beat the condoms, and it felt like we were close until '98 when Air Farce beat us (twice in a row).
I've never really had the expectation of being 11-1 and top 5 every year, maybe because when I started actually following Huskys, they were always having 8-3-1, or 6-5 type seasons every year until 1990.
I was too young to remember 1985- 88.
2003- 13, I still loved Husky Football but I had sort of accepted the suck, and it was before I got more into college football message boards (I was a Dawgman nobody).
2016- 18 made me care before getting left with the biggest blue balls in sports history.
I died a little the day they lost to Montana because I was certain that Jimmy was Teflon and would get another year or two to thoroughly gut the program. I was sure another dark decade was coming and I wasn’t sure I could stand another one. I was hopeless and I had pretty much given up. Never knew how much yard work one could do on Saturdays. St. Ruperake saved everything. EVERYTHING! The start of this Microfiche tenure just seems like the start of Pete. Setting his culture, whatever that’s worth, at the expense of winning with a team ready to win now. Next year they get really young and struggle, year three they either put it all together or Fishdicks can kick rocks. I know, the portal should speed this up! Fisher of men basically said from the start he’s building this through recruiting. That takes tim and development. Sucks but that’s what was bought by UW. LIPO
Gilby/Tyrone were baffling in so many new ways off the field, and politically with Tye, let alone the play they produced. That stretch killed things permanently for me. Sometims we didn't leave E1 for the stadium which was just off and sickening
When DJ (ILTCHDJ) was ousted, I had hope, misguided as it was, with Lambo. When Rick was booted, I had hope, misguided as it was, with Gilby. I had hope with Sark (it could have been anyone) because he wasn’t Ty…
When Pete quit, something changed with me. After stomping a very good Stanford team, I really thought we were back. I did not have hope going forward.
Even with the success of the last two years, something was off about it…can’t sign in-state blue chips, NIL, portal, and moving to B1G. Christ, at one point on Friday I actually dismissed losing to Rutgers because “It’s non-conference” (and wasn’t drunk)…
The changes in the game had to happen, I guess, but my passion is waning.
My freshman year was Tui’s Rose Bowl. Senior year was Gilby, Nevada, and the end of the world. There have been a few fun seasons since but I just can’t quite care that much. In reality 12 men on the field was probably the last time this team caused me to break something.
Willingham killed me. I thought the uniforms were cool as shit at the time… we looked good losing. Don’t throw tomatoes at me.
I remember that James response was to quit.
For fucks sake
The Jimmy and Montana abomination has a special place in my memory. I had lived in LA for 13 years and ended with some bad personal stuff there and had moved back to Washington and had an amazing few month run and ecstatic going to games in Husky Stadium was going to be part of my life again then boom, Montana, and the rest. It was also a different time than the 2000s where it felt and probably was more hopeless to get back once you fall off.
The Neu/Gilby/Ty shit I was mostly in college and had drinking and partying to distract me and it felt back then that programs cycled more than they do now.
As bad as Jedd has been it felt like we could have been UCLA right now at one point and we're not, and that's somewhat encouraging.
ty years were the worst, i went to games actively trying to get kicked out, never happened though.
The Jimmy Lake 2021 campaign caused me to put all my UW except for a t-shirt in a box in the attic with the intention of taking it to Seattle to drop off at a Goodwill the next tim I went. I was angry.
I was living outside Washington state from 91 to 07 and I didn’t have a lot of info on what was happening with the program until probably 2003. The Lambo years always felt like we? were close but couldn’t get over the hump. I bought into the lack of depth argument because of sanctions. Even when they fired Rick, I thought he had run his course but also thought it was dumb to hire Gilby as anything other than an interim guy. I was still optimistic because Gilby was bringing back the 5 tough questions.
By tim Tyrone was hired, I thought maybe he’d be able to get the program back to 7-5 records and get it to a point of respectability again for a new coach to take the reigns. Turns out, the 7-5 coach was the guy who followed Tyrone. That still wasn’t the depths of my despair. I think the OG HHB board was funny enough to get me through it all and I also knew UW had some very inept leadership with Emmett and Turner. I thought replacing those 2 cocksuckers might make a difference.
Sark was Sark. I gave up my season tickets after the year at the Clink and the only thing after that was a 4 game pack during Pete’s first year.
2016 was fun and boded well for the future but then you could see Pete not doing enough to get us? over the hump. I truly hoped Jimmy would be that guy and the giant size 14 kick in the nuts.
thanks Tequilla!
August 1993 was completely devastating for me. But December 2007 was equally devastating, and it led me for the first time to root against Washington in a football game. (Cal)
I saw one home loss when I went to UW for the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons: the 1999 ASU loss of course. I hadn't arrived to campus when we blew the home game to Air Force.
I saw us beat an insanely talented Miami team, beat Michigan, Colorado before they totally sucked, get a couple of top-10 conference wins and finish 2nd, 1st and 2nd in the conference, with shots at the Rose every year. I knew enough Huskieieieie history to know that we didn't always win the conference but that we were usually right there.
To see us fall completely apart and be one of the worst programs in CFB was mind blowing, and of course for it to not be a 5 alarm fire within the admin, fan base and media fucking blew my mind. Fuck those people who allowed it to happen.
Ty and Sark killed a little bit of my soul. Sark having the guys do the ‘Lawn Mower’ on the sideline was when I almost quit.
The last two losses have hurt, especially the way it happened, however, last season was great, and I truly believe the future is bright in the B1G
You should write a book about it