Asleep in Seattle : For First Time in Four Years, Husky Fans Greet New Year’s With a Yawn

The waitress at the University Sports Bar and Grill near the University of Washington campus wore a Rice sweatshirt and killed time by slowly wiping holiday flocking off the windows.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer filled much of the top of its Page 1 with a photograph of a Hawaiian resort where local software billionaire Bill Gates was getting married.

Fraternity row at the university was as quiet as if there had been a sudden brewery strike.

Anyone could see, this was a different kind of New Year’s Day in Seattle. Way different.

The Seattle Times put it in perspective with a five-column headline Saturday morning on a tournament victory by the red-hot Garfield High basketball team. Right next to that was a one-column story with this headline: “Rose Bowl gets key makeover.”

As in, the Huskies are out.

Indeed. For the first time in three years, the Pacific 10 Conference team did not wear the purple and gold in Pasadena. Worse, the Californians, the Los Angeles Californians, were back in it, nevermind their fumble-fingers.

So, do we color Seattle blue?

Perhaps, a little. After all, few cities have ever indulged themselves in the kind of civic tantrum Seattle threw last year when the Huskies were stripped of their television revenues and banned from bowl appearances for two years for violating Pacific 10 rules governing alumni support of players.

You might remember something of those events: Coach Don James quit in a snit over the punishment, and alumni called for the head of university President William Gerberding. Practically any fan who could say something outrageous was considered a legitimate newsmaker. Like those who said, let’s get out of the sissy Pac-10; those teams aren’t in our league anymore, anyway. Or, the Pac-10 has ruined our life. Or, let’s see if the NFL will take us.

Oh yes, and there were the promises to run up the score on an 11-0 season and make the Pac-10 send some also-ran to collect the roses.

But then came the disappointment of a 7-4 Husky season.

The hot-heads cooled off, or at least the public stopped listening. The sanctions against the Huskies seemed to accomplish one of the things they are supposed to: Bring on civic reflection about a sports program where winning had become so common that it was demanded, and where the means were not necessarily the only consideration.

“It’s kind of nice to see someone else down there this time,” said John Dolecki, owner of the University Sports Bar and Grill, one of the principal hangouts near the campus. Even as he spoke magnanimously, however, he was paying the price of the Husky decline. His saloon was quiet and barely a quarter filled Saturday for the Rose Bowl kickoff. Last year, you would have needed a blocker to get inside.

“A lot of people were spoiled by victory. Today I guess there are pockets of hard-core Husky alumni who still think it was a vendetta. But that has subsided with many of the students,” Dolecki said.

Rod Jones, a teacher and Washington alumnus, agreed: “Those sanctions seemed so harsh at the time. But in retrospect, everybody has calmed down a little.”

Calmed down in some cases to near stupor.

“This year, in Washington, I’d say there is about as much interest in the Rose Bowl as in the Peach Bowl. The interest level I’d say is zero,” said Dave Grosby, who is the host of a nightly sports call-in show on radio station KIRO.