The City of Seattle’s Relationship With UW & UW Football

RaceBannon said:

UW_Doog_Bot said:

DawgsCanDance said:

As an old-time Seattleite that grew up in Montlake my perspective is a little different regarding the Seattle sports scene.

Picture this:
in the 50's the big thing in Seattle was hydro racing ~ the city was NUTS about the rivalry with detroit and the gold cup was the thing that the entire town stopped and watched on the local boats, along the shoreline or on TV. TV was NEW... think about that. The most exciting TV ads were the local dairy ads for cottage cheese because the color guns on the new color tv's were out of alignment and so the cottage cheese ads looked like rainbow-colored product offerings. Cool.

Seattle was a small town that basically stopped at the city limits which was around the 7/11 on aurora that people in here are fond of referring to. Bellevue was a cow town that you needed to plan a day trip to get to because the bridge didn't exist yet. The freeway system through Seattle was just being built.

Seattle was a major league west coast city from a sports perspective in the sense that the PCL baseball league consisted of all of the major west coast teams... LA, SF, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. Throw in the Salt lake city Bees and the Hawaii Islanders and that was the league.

Same with hockey... the Western Hockey league was killer with LA, SF, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC and the local Canucks were a dynamite team. Seattle was definitely a great hockey town and the old ice arena really rocked... Yow, it was exciting to watch the long slap shots from the blue line amidst the smoke and air horns.

UW crew was a really big deal... it was the Dawgs and Cal vs the eastern powers of Harvard and some of the other IVY league schools.

The NFL didn't really exist on the west coast until the 49ers and Rams were introduced on the west coast... so you had your choice of which of those two teams were your local favorite.

So, the college football scene was the only game in town throughout most of the west. West coast football was a regional affair ~ UCLA, USC, Washington and Cal were the teams of note but the big ten and the big 12 were really the teams that mattered nationally. No one really expected the west coast teams to do much from a national perspective until the west coast teams actually started to do something unusual ~ some of the teams started to throw the football, sometimes as much as 20X a game [origins of the so-called West Coast Offense]

Some of the games were televised but until ABC sports started televising national games, football was all about going to the game. The metro league was an important part of the Dawgs recruiting footprint. In those days the Metro league was the best part of the local football scene, and there was a city vs state all-star game at the end of the season that the City team was usually the winner of.

It was one platoon football, the teams were small and the schedule often included luminary offerings ~ Here is the 1957 schedule:

University of Colorado SEP 21 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
MINNESOTA SEP 28 ~ At MINNEAPOLIS AND SAINT PAUL, MINN.
OHIO STATE OCT 5 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
UCLA OCT 12 ~ AT UCLA LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
Stanford OCT 19 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
Oregon State OCT 26 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Southern California NOV 2 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Oregon NOV 9 ~ AT EUGENE, ORE.
University of California NOV 16 ~ AT BERKELEY, CALIF.
Washington State NOV 23 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.

This would be such a fucking tits schedule if we had it today. We'd go 6-4 but still...

Jim Owens was 6 win Steve before 7 win Steve. Drove my dad crazy. Then some really bad years.

DawgsCanDance said:

As an old-time Seattleite that grew up in Montlake my perspective is a little different regarding the Seattle sports scene.

Picture this:
in the 50's the big thing in Seattle was hydro racing ~ the city was NUTS about the rivalry with detroit and the gold cup was the thing that the entire town stopped and watched on the local boats, along the shoreline or on TV. TV was NEW... think about that. The most exciting TV ads were the local dairy ads for cottage cheese because the color guns on the new color tv's were out of alignment and so the cottage cheese ads looked like rainbow-colored product offerings. Cool.

Seattle was a small town that basically stopped at the city limits which was around the 7/11 on aurora that people in here are fond of referring to. Bellevue was a cow town that you needed to plan a day trip to get to because the bridge didn't exist yet. The freeway system through Seattle was just being built.

Seattle was a major league west coast city from a sports perspective in the sense that the PCL baseball league consisted of all of the major west coast teams... LA, SF, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. Throw in the Salt lake city Bees and the Hawaii Islanders and that was the league.

Same with hockey... the Western Hockey league was killer with LA, SF, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC and the local Canucks were a dynamite team. Seattle was definitely a great hockey town and the old ice arena really rocked... Yow, it was exciting to watch the long slap shots from the blue line amidst the smoke and air horns.

UW crew was a really big deal... it was the Dawgs and Cal vs the eastern powers of Harvard and some of the other IVY league schools.

The NFL didn't really exist on the west coast until the 49ers and Rams were introduced on the west coast... so you had your choice of which of those two teams were your local favorite.

So, the college football scene was the only game in town throughout most of the west. West coast football was a regional affair ~ UCLA, USC, Washington and Cal were the teams of note but the big ten and the big 12 were really the teams that mattered nationally. No one really expected the west coast teams to do much from a national perspective until the west coast teams actually started to do something unusual ~ some of the teams started to throw the football, sometimes as much as 20X a game [origins of the so-called West Coast Offense]

Some of the games were televised but until ABC sports started televising national games, football was all about going to the game. The metro league was an important part of the Dawgs recruiting footprint. In those days the Metro league was the best part of the local football scene, and there was a city vs state all-star game at the end of the season that the City team was usually the winner of.

It was one platoon football, the teams were small and the schedule often included luminary offerings ~ Here is the 1957 schedule:

University of Colorado SEP 21 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
MINNESOTA SEP 28 ~ At MINNEAPOLIS AND SAINT PAUL, MINN.
OHIO STATE OCT 5 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
UCLA OCT 12 ~ AT UCLA LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
Stanford OCT 19 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
Oregon State OCT 26 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Southern California NOV 2 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Oregon NOV 9 ~ AT EUGENE, ORE.
University of California NOV 16 ~ AT BERKELEY, CALIF.
Washington State NOV 23 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.

Doog_de_Jour said:

AEB said:

I grew up in Sacramento, but always had strong ties to Seattle as my Mom immigrated to America through Seattle. I grew up loving UW as both parents went there. My freshman year was Fall ‘94, and I partied in Seattle U one Friday night with some girls I knew from Sac. Crashed with them and took the bus back to the UW District Saturday morning first thing. I’ll never forget going up Broadway on the bus - the street had purple and gold banners flying from the lamp posts. Old people. Young people. Everyone slowly started to board the bus as we moved north all dressed in Husky attire. It was amazing. Purple and Gold on lampposts on Broadway heading north. Everyone cared. So cool.

That must’ve been cool. You’re now even hard pressed to find UW banners on the Ave, never mind Boardway.

Edwin_Bambino said:

As someone who was born at the tail end of the 80’s and grew up in NE Seattle most people I grew up with were big Dawg fans by individual family ties or just due to proximity to UW other than those that had other PNW affiliations. The head of the Tyee club lived on my street growing up and his son and I were close which rubbed off on my brothers and I as well as my mom being an alum.

People that were born and grew up in my part of the city are still generally big UW fans regardless of if they went to UW or not. Also a ton of alums still live in NE Seattle, versus other parts of the city which I doubt care as much about UW. Where the Seahawks have picked up massively from what I have seen is people who moved into the city from outside the region who didn’t already have an NFL teams and disaffected UW fans from the Gilby / Ty era, some of whom while still UW fans are now bigger Seahawks fans. With the final population being non college educated non city dwelling fans who have moved solidly into the fanatical 12’s camp. Most of my friends and family enjoy both teams but if we had to only follow one it would be UW and it wouldn’t be a question.

Also I as UW admits more international and out of state students while some develop an affinity for UW sports many could care less.

huskyhooligan said:

Just looked up 88 dwags. They lost 5 games by a combined total of 15 points. What a heartbreaking season.

Edwin_Bambino said:

As someone who was born at the tail end of the 80’s and grew up in NE Seattle most people I grew up with were big Dawg fans by individual family ties or just due to proximity to UW other than those that had other PNW affiliations. The head of the Tyee club lived on my street growing up and his son and I were close which rubbed off on my brothers and I as well as my mom being an alum.

People that were born and grew up in my part of the city are still generally big UW fans regardless of if they went to UW or not. Also a ton of alums still live in NE Seattle, versus other parts of the city which I doubt care as much about UW. Where the Seahawks have picked up massively from what I have seen is people who moved into the city from outside the region who didn’t already have an NFL teams and disaffected UW fans from the Gilby / Ty era, some of whom while still UW fans are now bigger Seahawks fans. With the final population being non college educated non city dwelling fans who have moved solidly into the fanatical 12’s camp. Most of my friends and family enjoy both teams but if we had to only follow one it would be UW and it wouldn’t be a question.

Also as UW admits more international and out of state students while some develop an affinity for UW sports many could care less.

Bryant eckstein roosevelt or private schools?

YellowSnow said:

DawgsCanDance said:

As an old-time Seattleite that grew up in Montlake my perspective is a little different regarding the Seattle sports scene.

Picture this:
in the 50's the big thing in Seattle was hydro racing ~ the city was NUTS about the rivalry with detroit and the gold cup was the thing that the entire town stopped and watched on the local boats, along the shoreline or on TV. TV was NEW... think about that. The most exciting TV ads were the local dairy ads for cottage cheese because the color guns on the new color tv's were out of alignment and so the cottage cheese ads looked like rainbow-colored product offerings. Cool.

Seattle was a small town that basically stopped at the city limits which was around the 7/11 on aurora that people in here are fond of referring to. Bellevue was a cow town that you needed to plan a day trip to get to because the bridge didn't exist yet. The freeway system through Seattle was just being built.

Seattle was a major league west coast city from a sports perspective in the sense that the PCL baseball league consisted of all of the major west coast teams... LA, SF, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. Throw in the Salt lake city Bees and the Hawaii Islanders and that was the league.

Same with hockey... the Western Hockey league was killer with LA, SF, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC and the local Canucks were a dynamite team. Seattle was definitely a great hockey town and the old ice arena really rocked... Yow, it was exciting to watch the long slap shots from the blue line amidst the smoke and air horns.

UW crew was a really big deal... it was the Dawgs and Cal vs the eastern powers of Harvard and some of the other IVY league schools.

The NFL didn't really exist on the west coast until the 49ers and Rams were introduced on the west coast... so you had your choice of which of those two teams were your local favorite.

So, the college football scene was the only game in town throughout most of the west. West coast football was a regional affair ~ UCLA, USC, Washington and Cal were the teams of note but the big ten and the big 12 were really the teams that mattered nationally. No one really expected the west coast teams to do much from a national perspective until the west coast teams actually started to do something unusual ~ some of the teams started to throw the football, sometimes as much as 20X a game [origins of the so-called West Coast Offense]

Some of the games were televised but until ABC sports started televising national games, football was all about going to the game. The metro league was an important part of the Dawgs recruiting footprint. In those days the Metro league was the best part of the local football scene, and there was a city vs state all-star game at the end of the season that the City team was usually the winner of.

It was one platoon football, the teams were small and the schedule often included luminary offerings ~ Here is the 1957 schedule:

University of Colorado SEP 21 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
MINNESOTA SEP 28 ~ At MINNEAPOLIS AND SAINT PAUL, MINN.
OHIO STATE OCT 5 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
UCLA OCT 12 ~ AT UCLA LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
Stanford OCT 19 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
Oregon State OCT 26 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Southern California NOV 2 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Oregon NOV 9 ~ AT EUGENE, ORE.
University of California NOV 16 ~ AT BERKELEY, CALIF.
Washington State NOV 23 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.

When you read Boys in the Boys, Daniel James, describes there being like multiple reporters from the Seattle PI and Times covering the first day of Frosh Crew try outs in 1932-33. At my first day of practice for UW row boat, NOC. Lulz.

Sad how far row boat has fallen in the hearts and minds of sports fans.

seatownfunk said:

As a Thurston County kid born and reared in '77, the dawgs really only had this region locked up from 1989-1993. The Hawks had been #1 since '83-90, minus the '85 Orange Bowl and Natty. '82 Rose Bowl was all Dawgs. The '89 Freedom Bowl was a sea change.

Holmgren and the New Stadium won over the rabid South King County fan base and they never looked back. It's like Halloween every home game. Most rational Puget Sounders from my era love both teams almost equally, with the most successful always being more popular...unless you went to UW and are deathly ill from HUSKY FEVER!

I was a Hawk from birth till the Freedom Bowl. Now I am ALL DAWG and the hawks had actually dropped to 5th behind UWFB, UWMB, Sonics and Mariners before Holmgrem showed up.

The Biggest game in town growing up was always Seattle/Denver and Capital/Olympia. Capital/Tumwater was never a contest until '93 but the T-Birds were the BEST TEAM IN THE STATE!

DawgsCanDance said:

As an old-time Seattleite that grew up in Montlake my perspective is a little different regarding the Seattle sports scene.

Picture this:
in the 50's the big thing in Seattle was hydro racing ~ the city was NUTS about the rivalry with detroit and the gold cup was the thing that the entire town stopped and watched on the local boats, along the shoreline or on TV. TV was NEW... think about that. The most exciting TV ads were the local dairy ads for cottage cheese because the color guns on the new color tv's were out of alignment and so the cottage cheese ads looked like rainbow-colored product offerings. Cool.

Seattle was a small town that basically stopped at the city limits which was around the 7/11 on aurora that people in here are fond of referring to. Bellevue was a cow town that you needed to plan a day trip to get to because the bridge didn't exist yet. The freeway system through Seattle was just being built.

Seattle was a major league west coast city from a sports perspective in the sense that the PCL baseball league consisted of all of the major west coast teams... LA, SF, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. Throw in the Salt lake city Bees and the Hawaii Islanders and that was the league.

Same with hockey... the Western Hockey league was killer with LA, SF, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC and the local Canucks were a dynamite team. Seattle was definitely a great hockey town and the old ice arena really rocked... Yow, it was exciting to watch the long slap shots from the blue line amidst the smoke and air horns.

UW crew was a really big deal... it was the Dawgs and Cal vs the eastern powers of Harvard and some of the other IVY league schools.

The NFL didn't really exist on the west coast until the 49ers and Rams were introduced on the west coast... so you had your choice of which of those two teams were your local favorite.

So, the college football scene was the only game in town throughout most of the west. West coast football was a regional affair ~ UCLA, USC, Washington and Cal were the teams of note but the big ten and the big 12 were really the teams that mattered nationally. No one really expected the west coast teams to do much from a national perspective until the west coast teams actually started to do something unusual ~ some of the teams started to throw the football, sometimes as much as 20X a game [origins of the so-called West Coast Offense]

Some of the games were televised but until ABC sports started televising national games, football was all about going to the game. The metro league was an important part of the Dawgs recruiting footprint. In those days the Metro league was the best part of the local football scene, and there was a city vs state all-star game at the end of the season that the City team was usually the winner of.

It was one platoon football, the teams were small and the schedule often included luminary offerings ~ Here is the 1957 schedule:

University of Colorado SEP 21 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
MINNESOTA SEP 28 ~ At MINNEAPOLIS AND SAINT PAUL, MINN.
OHIO STATE OCT 5 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
UCLA OCT 12 ~ AT UCLA LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
Stanford OCT 19 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
Oregon State OCT 26 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Southern California NOV 2 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.
University of Oregon NOV 9 ~ AT EUGENE, ORE.
University of California NOV 16 ~ AT BERKELEY, CALIF.
Washington State NOV 23 ~ SEATTLE, WASH.