Dawg Daze

I wish people—sports fans here in the Seattle area—would stop picking on the University of Washington Huskies football team and their beleaguered coach, Ty Willingham.

I mean, they totally suck and all, and Willingham, in spite of apparently being a pretty class act, couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, but is this really something to get all exercised about? After all, the economy is tanking, the environment is decaying, and even worse, Celine Dion continues to rack up huge concert grosses wherever she goes, so who cares if a college football team goes through the season without winning a game?

On my ride home this evening, I passed by Husky Stadium, and in the practice facility, the marching band was belting out a rousing rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Steppin Out With My Baby,” and it seemed to me this was a much better example of what’s important in college athletics than whether the team wins or not.

Of course, I’m not one to talk; in my decade and a half as a student and alumnus of our local research 1 university, I’ve never been to a Husky football game at all and the only athletic event I ever attended was a baseball game a couple years ago to see the phenomenal Tim Lincecum mow down visiting Oregon State batters. (I have, though, been to a football game at Husky Stadium, but that was about a decade ago when the Kingdome was being repaired and the Steelers were playing the Seahawks at the Montlake facility.)

In any event, you’d think—from listening to sports talk radio—that the University of Washington was failing in its overall mission as an educational institution just because the Dawgs are currently 0 and 4 with no real prospects for victory anytime soon. I say “so what, my alma mater is home to half a dozen Nobel laureates.”

And besides, I’m sure they’ll beat the Cougars in this year’s Apple Cup.