Husky football legend Sonny Sixkiller will be Washington’s representative in the 2018 Pac-12 Hall of Honor class, it was announced Monday. This is the first year the Pac-12 will include non-basketball players in the Hall of Honor.
Sixkiller revolutionized the passing attack from his position at quarterback and took the nation by storm when he burst on the scene for Washington football in 1970. Under Jim Owens, the Washington Huskies – and most college football teams for that matter – had a run-first mentality on offense. But, after a 1-9 season in 1969, Owens was set to shake things up on offense and turned to Sixkiller.
Sixkiller, who was born in Tahlequah, Okla., the capital of the Cherokee Nation, led Washington to an upset at Husky Stadium over Michigan State, 42-16, in his first start on Sept. 19, 1970 to set off what would be an extraordinary three-year phenomenon on the football field. In that game, Sixkiller gained 276 yards through the air, which was the second most by a Washington quarterback at the time. It set the tone for a season in which Sixkiller would set nearly every single-season and single-game passing record.
When his Husky career was done, Sixkiller had 5,496 yards through the air and 35 touchdowns, marks which would sit atop the UW record book for 20-plus years and still rank among the school’s top-ten lists. Additionally, his 385 career completions sat atop the UW record books for a decade.
Following his UW career, Sixkiller spent two years in the WFL. He also earned a role alongside Burt Reynolds in the 1974 film The Longest Yard.
Sixkiller was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 1985. Today, Sixkiller still has his hands in Husky Athletics and is an executive for IMG Sports, the official right’s holders for UW Athletics.
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