The 1959 Washington Huskies football team represented the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

during the 1959 NCAA University Division football season. Home games were played on campus in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

at Husky Stadium. In its third season under head coach

Jim Owens James Donald Owens (March 6, 1927 – June 6, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1957 to 1974, compiling a record of in 18 seasons. Owens played college football at the U ...

, Washington was 9–1 in the regular season and 3–1 in the

Athletic Association of Western Universities The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

, one of three co-champions of the five-team AAWU (Big Five) in its inaugural year. The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) had disbanded in the spring, and the AAWU consisted of the four teams from state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and the Huskies. The other four PCC teams from the north (

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

) were

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for several years. (Washington defeated all four this season.) The Cougars joined the league in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

and the Oregon schools in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

; it was later renamed the Pacific-8 Conference. Led on the field by junior All-American quarterback Bob Schloredt, the Huskies started the season unranked and gained the Rose Bowl berth. Eighth-ranked, they were a 6½-point underdog to the #6

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin). They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivis ...

(7–2), the champions of the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. On New Year's Day in Pasadena, Washington jumped out to a 17–0 lead in the first quarter and won in a rout to finish the season at 10–1. The Rose Bowl victory was the first for a West Coast team in seven years, and only the second since the end of the loser both times was Wisconsin. Washington outscored its opponents 253 to 73, and outside the sole loss to USC, they allowed no more than twelve points in each of their other ten games, with four shutouts. The final rankings in this era were released in early December, at the end of the regular season and prior to the bowl games.

Schedule

All-Coast

Professional football draft selections

No University of Washington Huskies were selected in the

1960 NFL Draft The 1960 National Football League Draft in which NFL teams take turns selecting amateur college American football players and other first-time eligible players, was held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on November 30, 1959. Many players, in ...

, which lasted twenty rounds with 240 selections. or in the inaugural

1960 AFL Draft The 1960 American Football League draft was held on November 23–24, 1959, in Minneapolis, shortly after the organization of the league, and lasted 33 rounds. An additional draft of 20 rounds was held by the AFL on December 2. Teams were requ ...

, which lasted thirty-three rounds with 264 selections.

References

{{Pac-12 Conference football champions

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Washington Huskies football seasons Pac-12 Conference football champion seasons Rose Bowl champion seasons

Washington Huskies football The Washington Huskies football team represents the University of Washington in college football. Washington competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Husky Stadium, located on camp ...