Montlake Memories: The 1990s
Husky Stadium Centennial Celebration
Jeff Bechthold
11/9/2020
With 2020 marking the 100th anniversary of the first football game at what is now called Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, GoHuskies.com is marking the milestone with a decade-by-decade look back at some of the big events that have taken place –football games and otherwise – at the Greatest Setting in College Football.
July 20, 1990 – Goodwill Games
A long list of geopolitical machinations led to one of the most unusual events ever to be held at Husky Stadium.
After a set of circumstances that dated back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, the international sports world had been in tumult. The United States, along with a long list of nations from all over the globe, boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. Four years later, most Iron Curtain nations and several other Communist-controlled nations countered, refusing to come to Los Angeles for the 1984 Games.
Somewhere in Atlanta, media mogul Ted Turner had an idea: an alternate version of the Olympics that, if things worked out in the most optimistic ways, could bring the world together in other ways.
The first games were held in Moscow in 1986. A couple of weeks before that competition began, the announcement of the site of the 1990 Goodwill Games was announced via a press conference at the Seattle Westin Hotel.
In the next day's Seattle Times, columnist Blaine Newnham laid out the news, pointing out that the U.S. Olympic Committee had reached out to take issue with the Goodwill Games:
"Earlier, the United States Olympic Committee sent copies to The Times of a press release demanding that the Goodwill Games not be ``intentionally or unwittingly'' set up as an alternative to the Olympic Games," he wrote.
Nonetheless, Newnham, at least was impressed by the presentation, which included heads of the various sports' governing bodies. Surely, at least at the time, the Goodwill Games were a "big deal."
Of course, between the 1986 announcement and the 1990 Games, things changed considerably as the Iron Curtain had begun to fall. Most notably, the Berlin Wall had come down in November of 1989. The following month, Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown and killed in Romania. In Czechoslovakia, poet and dissident Vaclav Havel took over as president in the Velvet Revolution. The dissolution of the Soviet Union would come in 1991.
On July 20, 1990, in front of a full Husky Stadium, the Goodwill Games opening ceremony was held at Husky Stadium. The event, in front of a full Husky Stadium, featured a speech from former President Ronald Reagan, an appearance from Arnold Schwarzenegger, and concert performances from the Moody Blues and Russian hard rock band Gorky Park.
Goodwill Games Opening Ceremonies
The Seattle games were mainly a success. In all, 2,312 athletes from 54 countries competed in 21 sports over 17 days. Soviet athletes stayed in Seattle with host families, cosmonauts visited area children, and the Moscow State Circus and the Bolshoi Ballet both performed in the Emerald City.
The Goodwill Games were contested all over the state of Washington. Volleyball and track & field events were held at the UW. The King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way was built to host swimming, diving and water polo. Basketball was played at the Seattle Center Coliseum and baseball was played at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. Rowing events were held on Lake Washington while, farther afield, Spokane played host to weightlifting and wrestling, and ice hockey and figure skating competitions were held in the Tri-Cities.
The Soviets, who had thoroughly dominated the inaugural event in 1986, finished atop the medal standings again in 1990, but by a closer margin, winning 188 total medals (66 gold) to the United States' 161 (60 gold). East Germany, Bulgaria, China and Cuba followed in the standings.
Among the most notable events to take place at the UW was the men's 100 meter dash at Husky Stadium, where Leroy Burrell won gold ahead of Carl Lewis.
Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis in the 100 Meters
The Goodwill Games continued for another decade, adding a winter version along the way. Summer events were held in St. Petersburg, Russia (1994); New York (1998); and Brisbane Australia (2001). Winter events were held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 2000. But, after Turner was purchased by Time Warner, the Goodwill Games were cancelled, despite having been scheduled for Phoenix (summer) and Calgary (winter) in 2005.
September 22, 1990 – Washington 31, USC 0
Washington had been a strong football program long before 1990, but starting that season, the Huskies put together what must be considered their best stretch of success since 1959-60, and maybe since the tenure of coach Gil Dobie, who never lost a game during his nine seasons (1908-16) at the UW.
The first solid evidence of what was to come may have been the Huskies' incredible, dominant and stunning, 31-0 rout of USC.
Washington had opened the season with relatively lackluster wins over San Jose State (20-17) and at Purdue (20-14) and was ranked No. 21 in the nation. USC, on the other hand, was coming off of three consecutive Pac-10 championships, unbeaten in its last 20 conference games. The Trojans, with second-year starting quarterback Todd Marinovich, had begun the year with wins over Syracuse and Penn State, and traveled to Seattle as the nation's No. 5 team.
The game was the Pac-10 opener for both teams, and the Huskies had lost their last four conference openers in a row, making the fight to the top of the standings difficult each of those years. The Trojans were favored by four and a half points.
The game also marked the centennial celebration of Husky Football. The night before the game, Bob Rondeau and Bruce King introduced the newly named All-Time Husky Team at a celebration on the stadium floor. The game program on Saturday featured the addition of a 176-page book detailing the history of the program.
The following day, the Huskies were about as close to perfect as they could have hoped to be. Everything went right as the Huskies destroyed an excellent USC team. Star running back Greg Lewis rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. Backfield mate Darius Turner rushed for two more, and sophomore quarterback Mark Brunell passed for 197 yards and score, to Mario Bailey.
As good as the offense was, the defense was better. Washington held Marinovich to just 80 passing yards and intercepted three USC passes (one from backup Shane Foley). The Trojans managed just 28 rushing yards, their worst day on the ground in eight seasons.
It was only the third shutout that USC had suffered in the previous 28 years (one of the other two was also at the Huskies' hands).
The game has come to be known as the "All I Saw Was Purple" game, thanks to a quote frequently attributed to Marinovich. In a manner similar to the fact that Bogart never actually said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca; and that Darth Vader never actually uttered, "Luke, I am your father," that now-famous quote was not precisely what Marinovich said.
Here's the full quote, as transcribed by Seattle Times columnist Blaine Newnham in Sunday's newspaper:
"I've never been shut out in my life. It's pathetic. I'm embarrassed. We never did anything to shut the crowd up. The only thing that Washington did that was a little different is that they showed blitz every time. I saw purple. That's all I saw. No numbers, no faces, just purple.''
Regardless of the exact wording, the sentiment was the same. Washington's defense, designed by longtime defensive coordinator Jim Lambright, became the model for nation for the next couple of years.
Anchored by All-America defensive tackle Steve Emtman, considered by many the best Husky football player of all time, the defense played eight players near the line of scrimmage and wrought havoc with an all-out, blitzing style, bolstered by an excellent group of defensive backs.
That defense would lead the 1990 Huskies to the Pac-10 title and a trip to the Rose Bowl, where Washington beat Iowa, 46-34. The following year, of course, the Huskies ran the table, going 12-0 and winning the national championship after a Rose Bowl win over Michigan. The Huskies made it three straight, winning the Pac-10 once again in 1992.
Greg Lewis went on to win the inaugural Doak Walker Award in 1990 as the nation's top running back. Drafted by the Broncos, he played two years in Denver before his career was cut short by a knee injury. Lewis has worked in several roles at the UW, both in and out of the athletic department, and has served as a color analyst on UW broadcasts.
Brunell played 19 seasons in the NFL, mainly for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He won a Super Bowl with the Saints and, after retirement, spent time as a TV commentator for ESPN and as high school and NFL coach.
Emtman, of course, won both the Lombardi and Outland Trophies in 1991, and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He left college early for the NFL and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 draft. His career was also hampered by injury, but he did play six seasons in the NFL. He eventually returned to the UW as a strength & conditioning coach and now has ownership in several businesses, including a contracting company in Eastern Washington.
September 19, 1992 – Washington 29, Nebraska 14
Washington had rolled through the 1991 season, finishing 12-0, and by the time No. 12 Nebraska came calling in week three of the 1992 season, the Huskies had won 16 in a row and were ranked No. 2 in the latest Associated Press poll.
The game was a rematch of a Husky win the previous year in Lincoln, when legend holds that the Nebraska fans stood to applaud the visiting Dawgs at game's end, so impressed they were with the UW's performance. It was probably the highlight victory of the '91 regular season
The '92 matchup add the added attraction of being the first true night game in Husky Stadium history. In 1985, the Huskies had opened the season with a 5:30 p.m. game vs. Oklahoma State, but early September sunset in Seattle means it was still light when that game ended. Against the Cornhuskers, kickoff didn't come until 6:45 p.m. Pacific Time.
All the ingredients were there for a special evening on Montlake. In the Seattle Times on the day of the game, longtime beat writer Dick Rockne suggested it may be the game of the decade for the UW. He wasn't wrong.
What most of the 73,333 fans who attended, and many more on television, remember is how loud it was. Records are by no means official, but to this day, it is frequently considered the loudest college crowd ever (a claim probably made by several other contenders, to be fair). ABC sideline reporter Adrian Karsten brought a sound-level meter to the sideline and said that it peaked at 133.6 decibels.
The frenzy probably hit its peak with 3:14 left in the first quarter of what was still a scoreless game. Backed up in his own, east end zone, Cornhuskers quarterback Mike Grant dropped deep into the backfield. From his blind side, Husky safety Tommie Smith came charging straight for him, as nearly everyone in the stadium other than Grant could see coming.
Smith blindsided the Nebraska QB, several yards deep into the end zone, as clear a safety as you'll ever see. The stadium erupted. To this day, media and staff working in the press box can recall the level of fear that rose in them due to the shaking that swayed the entire stadium.
Washington vs. Nebraska - 1992
The safety gave the Huskies' just a 2-0 lead, but a win was in the works for the Dawgs that night, with turnovers (four for the Huskers to just one for the UW) were the main statistical difference.
Beno Bryant and Napoleon Kaufman each scored rushing TDs for the Huskies and Billy Joe Hobert connected with old Puyallup High teammate Joe Kralik for a 29-yard score.
The game had lived up to its billing, at least from the purple point of view. Washington looked well on its way to continuing its reign atop the Pac-12.
In the Sunday Times, Blaine Newnham opened his column with the following:
"Given his chance, D'Marco Farr took on his questioners with the same relish and results he did Nebraska's inside running game.
"'I think we put the '91 team to rest tonight,' he said in the aftermath of Washington's 29-14 win last night over Nebraska. 'The old comparisons are over. Now everyone can look forward to what this team can do.'"
Newnham's piece also included a rare public display of scorn from head coach Don James, who had remembered how the previous season, former Nebraska coach and athletic director Bob Devaney had said that Miami was more deserving of the national title than Washington (Nebraska had played both co-champs in '91)
Newnham wrote:
"Even Don James got caught up in a football program receiving its recognition.
"'I want to give Bob Devaney (Nebraska's retiring athletic director and former coach) a game ball,' said James. 'He really helped us when he said at the Orange Bowl that we weren't in the same ballpark with Miami. We've had that on the locker room wall for a long time. He should have had more respect for us.'"
And a little later in the column:
"Where do you start explaining Washington's victory?
"The crowd. As tough as the Huskies were a year ago in Lincoln, they were easily as tough - if not spectacular - in the din of Husky Stadium, where Nebraska quarterback Mike Grant looked as if he were directing traffic on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Nimitz instead of his team.
"Lincoln Kennedy came out of the tunnel flapping his hands like a seal, asking the crowd for noise, a plea his coach had made earlier in the week.
"'If we're up there shifting and disguising defenses, and you add noise . . .,' said James, his voice trailing off."
The game proved to be Grant's last as the Cornhusker starter as the following week against Missouri, freshman Tommie Frazier took over the reins. Frazier went on to earn Big Eight Freshman of the Year, finished as Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1995, and was the star of Nebraska's 62-24 rout of unbeaten Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, the de facto national championship game that year.
November 8, 1992 – Washington 1, Stanford 0 (OT)
Prior to the 1992 season, the UW men's soccer team took a major step up. The athletic department hired the program's first-ever, full-time coach, Dean Wurzberger, and the Huskies moved from the Northwest Collegiate Soccer Conference – which consisted largely of non-Division I programs — to the newly formed Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The MPSF was created by joining men's soccer programs from the Pac-10, Western Athletic and Big West Conferences. There were two, eight-team divisions, with Washington in the north alongside Stanford, Oregon State, California, Fresno State, Air Force, Sacramento State and San Jose State.
Washington, which had one year early shocked West Coast power UCLA, was ready for the new level. They ran through the regular season with a 12-2-3 record, 6-1-0 in MPSF play, good enough for first place in the North. By virtue of that division title, the UW was selected to host the first-ever MPSF Tournament, featuring the top two finishers from each division.
In those days, Washington played soccer at Husky Stadium. Despite the crowned field and the old-style AstroTurf, the stadium had served as the UW's primarily field for the majority of the matches the Huskies played since starting a varsity program in 1962.
The tournament, played on Friday and Sunday, Nov. 6 and 8, would feature UW and Stanford from the north and UCLA and Cal State Fullerton from the south. In the semifinal round, played in a rainstorm Friday evening, both matches went into overtime.
In the first, Stanford and UCLA (coached by future Sounders skipper Sigi Schmid) played to a 1-1 tie, and given that it was a tournament, the two teams went to penalty kicks. Despite UCLA having future U.S. National Team goalkeeper Brad Friedel (the Bruins' lineup also included future stars Cobi Jones and Joe-Max Moore), Stanford prevailed, 4-3.
Washington and Fullerton had to wait for that marathon to end. The Huskies prevailed, 3-1, also in overtime (overtime periods were played to their completion) with Husky star Jon Marshall scoring all three Husky goals, including both in OT.
Two days later, Washington took on Stanford. Earlier in the season, the Huskies had won in Palo Alto, 1-0, in overtime.
That Sunday, with so much rain having fell that the turf was bubbling up in numerous places, the two teams played to a 0-0 draw through 90 minutes, forcing yet another overtime.
Just 53 seconds into the extra time, defender Paul Hurme centered a free kick for 6-foot-2 freshman Bryan McNiel, who headed the ball home for the match's only goal. Washington hung on to the lead, behind All-America goalkeeper Dusty Hudock, and won the first-ever MPSF Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Washington beat long-time rival Portland, 2-1, in the first round, for the first NCAA Tournament win in program history. The Huskies lost in the next round, at perennial power Indiana, in a match that included a lengthy lightning delay.
Following the 1992 season, the UW men's and women's soccer teams played their matches elsewhere, on grass fields. Both teams found a variety of temporary homes both on campus and off until Husky Soccer Field, the two programs' dedicated facility, was opened in 1997.
September 4, 1993 – Washington 31, Stanford 14
As any Washington fan is well aware, the Huskies' ride atop the college football world – one that saw the Dawgs win three straight Pac-10 titles and the 1991 National Championship – came to an abrupt stop late in the 1992 season.
We won't detail it all here, but after news broke that UW quarterback Billy Joe Hobert had been declared ineligible due to a possible NCAA violation just two days before the Huskies traveled to face Arizona, things went downhill fast. The Huskies lost that game at Arizona, and the Snow Bowl two weeks later in Pullman, breaking what had been a 22-game win streak.
Washington still won the Pac-10 in 1992, but lost to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
By the time the next fall rolled around, the Huskies had been handed a two-year probation by the Pac-10, due mainly to NCAA violations other than Hobert's. The biggest news of all came on Aug. 22, 1993, when head coach Don James resigned in protest over the sanctions. Longtime defensive coordinator Jim Lambright was named the Huskies' new head coach with just two weeks before the season opener vs. Stanford.
Washington, now ineligible for the Pac-10 championship, would begin the 1993 season in an environment of anger and uncertainty. A popular T-shirt in Seattle featured the following words in purple and gold: "PAC9 – If You Can't Beat 'Em, Disqualify 'Em."
The game looked like one where the Cardinal would be the unfortunate opponent of a UW team with a lot of pent-up frustration and rage, ready to be unleashed on whomever was on the other side of the field.
It didn't help that Stanford head coach Bill Walsh had added fuel to the fire the previous May. After a speech at an alumni gathering, Walsh was quoted in the Sacramento Bee as having taken several swipes at the UW program and Coach James, calling the Husky players mercenaries who lacked academic qualifications.
From the Seattle Times:
"'The football players there have almost no contact with the rest of the student body,' Walsh was quoted as saying in his speech. 'They have an athletic department compound, and that's where they spend their time. When they use up their eligibility and are expected to return to society, they have none of the skills you are supposed to gain in college.'"
Walsh publicly apologized back in May, but in September, many Husky fans still weren't ready to forgive him.
Before the game, when the Huskies came out of the tunnel, they did so in a slow march, rather than the traditional sprint. Led by Lambright, the UW players walked out and looked up to the press box, where James had stationed himself to watch the first Husky game since 1974 for which he wasn't on the sideline.
Washington rolled, piling up 500 yards of total offense to the Cardinal's 274. The Huskies actually trailed in the second quarter, but two touchdown passes from Damon Huard to Mark Bruener on either side of halftime opened the gates in the 31-14 win. Napoleon Kaufman rushed for 195 yards and Huard, making his first start, threw three TD passes in the game, while rushing for another.
In the Sunday Seattle Times, columnist Steve Kelley opened with this: "A funny thing happened on the way to the riot yesterday. A college football game broke out." Kelley went on to write about how despite all the vitriol and build-up, the game ended without incident.
Fellow Times columnist Blaine Newnham's column took a similar tone:
"In the moments after Mark Bruener scored on a 66-yard reception, Don James entered the small press box booth of Washington's offensive coaches. 'He just wanted to know what defense Stanford was in,' said Jeff Woodruff, the offensive coordinator.
"And while James was the focal point of a pregame salute by the Huskies, and though he couldn't stay away from the coaching nitty-gritty, the day belonged more to Jim Lambright than anyone else. Talk about taking control of the situation: Lambright started the afternoon by walking across the field to introduce himself to Bill Walsh.
"So there.
"''There is a way to marshal emotion,' Lambright said later, 'a way to use what you're given - and we were given a lot by Don James retirement, by the Pac-10 penalties and by Bill Walsh. But there is also a way to retain control of what you do, and to win with class.'
"The Huskies did that, playing hard but clean, relying more on ability than rage."
Bruener went on two a 10-year NFL career with Pittsburgh (seven years) and Houston (three), and currently works as a scout for the Steelers. His eldest of two daughters, Allie, was a member of the UW cheer squad, and the oldest of three sons, Carson, is a freshman linebacker at the UW.
Huard also spent a long time in the NFL, despite not being drafted. He played 12 years in the league with Miami, New England and Kansas City, winning two Super Bowl rings. In 2013, he was hired to the UW athletics department staff, where he has held several different roles. Huard serves as the color analyst on UW football radio broadcasts and also, along with former Dolphins teammate Dan Marino, owns a highly-regarded winery called "Passing Time."
Kaufman left the UW as the program's all-time leading rusher, and was the Oakland Raiders' first-round draft pick in 1995. He played six seasons in the NFL and still holds the Raiders's single-game rushing record (227 yards). Since retiring, he's served as a pastor, and this past offseason resigned his job as head football coach at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School to spend more time on his ministry.
Lambright, who spent nearly four decades as a UW player, assistant and head coach, coached the Huskies through the end of the 1998 season and remained close to the program afterwards. Among other post-coaching ventures, Lambright worked for Turner Construction, one of the companies that built CenturyLink field and renovated Husky Stadium. He passed away on March 29, 2020.
August 10, 1996 – "Prefontaine" Returns
It takes an athlete the level of Steve Prefontaine, and an event as big as the 1972 Olympic Games for the exploits of a University of Oregon legend to warrant mention in our list of great Husky Stadium memories.
In the late 1990s, coincidentally, two Hollywood films were produced detailing the life and premature death of Prefontaine. One of them, "Without Limits" starting Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland, would come out in 1998. The other, titled simply "Prefontaine," was released in 1997. That film starred Jared Leto in the title role, and also included Ed O'Neill and R. Lee Ermey.
Prefontaine was a world-class distance runner who won the NCAA 5,000-meter championship four years in a row. He competed at the 1972 Olympics and was training for 1976 when he died in an automobile accident at the age of 24.
In '96, with both films documenting his life being made, the producers of the Leto-led movie decided to cast Husky Stadium as the Munich Olympic Stadium. Other Seattle-area venues, including West Seattle Stadium and the Buckaroo Tavern in Fremont were used as well.
On the day of the filming at Husky Stadium, which had the walls around the track painted light blue to mimic Munich's track and field venue, producers called for members of the public to attend and serve as extras.
An announcement in the July 30 Seattle Times began: "On Aug. 10, thousands of people are needed to recreate the 1972 Munich Olympics at Husky Stadium, starting at 10 a.m.
Extras should wear 1972 fashions, with no neon and no logos. Free food and soft drinks will be available. And prizes, including a trip for two to Paris, will be offered."
With the filming having taken place in Seattle, a number of area journalists were given roles as reporters covering the Games, among them Dave Grosby, Kevin Calabro, Steve Kelley, Eric Johnson and Tom Glasgow. Even UW assistant track coach Brad Upton (now a successful stand-up comic) and gymnast Starr Lajoie were given minor roles.
It's worth noting that Prefontaine won the second of his four NCAA 5,000-meter championships on the Husky Stadium track as the UW hosted the 1971 NCAA Track & Field Championships.
"Prefontaine" Movie Trailer
November 16, 1996 – Washington 53, San Jose State 10
At first glance, it would seem odd to include a late-season blowout win over an over-matched, non-conference opponent in a list of great moments. But any one of the 70,063 individuals on hand to witness this game know better. They saw what has to rank among the most dominant performances ever by a Husky football player in a single game.
On November 18, 1996, UW tailback Corey Dillon put on a show that may never be equaled, rushing for 222 yards and three touchdowns, while also catching an 83-yard screen pass for a score in the Huskies' 53-10 win over San Jose State.
Not bad, right?
Did we mention he did that in the first quarter alone, and didn't play another snap in the second, third and fourth?
Dillon had graduated from Seattle's Franklin High School, where he was a two-sport athlete, and was even drafted as a catcher by the San Diego Padres in the 1993 Major League Baseball Draft .He spent his first two years after high school at Garden City (Kan.) Community College and Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, piling up eye-popping stats at both, before enrolling at Washington in the fall of 1996. He opened the year as a back up to Rashaan Shehee, but took over the starting job in game four after Shehee suffered an injury.
Dillon had already made a splash long before the San Jose State game, rushing for 145 yards and a modern school-record five touchdowns vs. UCLA, before piling up 259 yards and three scores in a win over Oregon in Eugene.
A few weeks later against San Jose State, Dillon broke numerous records. He scored on a runs of four, 48 and 78 yards and for good measure, took a short swing pass from quarterback Brock Huard and ran 83 yards for a fourth score. After the opening quarter ended, he informed UW head coach Jim Lambright that his work for the day was done.
He'd broken NCAA records for both rushing and all-purpose yards (305) in a quarter. In the meantime, he'd also moved into first place on the UW single-season rushing yards and touchdowns list. Dillon finished the game with 1,400 yards on the dot for the season, breaking Napoleon Kaufman's record of 1,390. He finished the game with 20 total touchdowns for the year, breaking Mario Bailey's record of 17.
Not surprisingly, the coverage in Sunday's Seattle Times centered on Dillon, who did not speak to the press afterwards. Offensive lineman Bob Sapp, not usually one for understatement was quoted by the Times:
"We had an explosive running back in Corey Dillon. He came out and hit the holes and really did some fine running. As a matter of fact, I think he's still running right now."
The record Dillon had broken for rushing yards in a quarter had been held by Andre Herrera, of Southern Illinois, who had banked 214 rushing yards in a 1976 game.
Reached by telephone by Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Bud Withers at his home in Southfield, Mich., Herrera said he'd seen in the newspaper that Dillon had broken his longstanding record. "The nerve of him! " he joked.
"Absolutely, I felt a lot of pride over it,'' Herrera also told Withers. "I was extremely proud of the record. It stood for over 20 years. But records are made to be broken.
"If somebody can also complement physical talent with being a professional, good, human being, it makes it that much better. Send my regards to the athlete. I hope he continues to have a fabulous year.''
Dillon went on to finish the season with 1,695 yards and 24 rushing touchdowns. Bishop Sankey broke his UW yards record in 2013 (1,870), but his rushing TDs and total TDs (25) records still stand, as does his record for rushing touchdowns in a game (5). The rushing touchdowns record stood as a Pac-12 mark until Toby Gerhardt of Stanford broke it in 2009, with 28.
Corey Dillon UW Highlights
After the season, Dillon opted to move on to the NFL. He was drafted in the second round by the Cincinnati Bengals and played 10 seasons in the NFL – seven with Cincy and the last three in New England.
Dillon was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and won a Super Bowl with the Patriots in 2005. He rushed for 11,241 yards and 82 touchdowns in his 10 seasons. During his first season, he broke a NFL rookie record for rushing yards in a game, with 246 vs. the Oilers, breaking a mark set 40 years early by the great Jim Brown.
In 2000, he broke the all-time, NFL record for single-game rushing yards, with 278 against the Broncos, beating a record previously held by Walter Payton. His 11,241 career yards current rank 20th in NFL history, one spot ahead of O.J. Simpson.