Bob Schloredt, the quarterback who led the University of Washington to Rose Bowl victories following the 1959 and 1960 seasons, helping transform West Coast football, has died at 79, according to his family via UW athletics.
The 1959-60 Huskies under coach Jim Owens outscored 22 opponents by a combined 525-180, including the Pasadena defeats of Big 10 champions Wisconsin, 44-8, and Minnesota, 17-7.
He was the first player in history to win Most Valuable Player honors in two Rose Bowl games, sharing as a junior the honor with teammate George Fleming.
In addition to going 15-2 as a starter (he missed games as a senior due to a broken collar bone, from which he recovered prior to the Rose Bowl), he gained national fame due to being almost entirely blind in one eye due to a childhood accident.
As a junior in 1959, he earned first-team All-America honors from the Associated Press as a two-way player, leading the Huskies on defense with six interceptions.
In the win over No. 1 Minnesota on Jan. 2, 1961, which earned UW a share of the national championship, Schloredt threw for one touchdown and ran for the other.
Owens’ Rose Bowl teams received much of the credit for the rejuvenation of West Coast football. After Washington’s 1961 victory, West Coast schools won 13 of the next 20 Rose Bowls.
Following his UW career, Schloredt played for the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League before returning to Seattle, where he served as an assistant coach under Owens from 1963 to 1973.
Schloredt was a member of the third Husky Hall of Fame class, earning induction in 1981. He took his spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989 and was inducted to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991.
Born in Deadwood, SD, in 1939, Schloredt graduated from Gresham High in Portland before coming to UW.
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Rest in Peace Bob Schloredt. I enjoyed your Husky Career as a kid and was honored to have met you my senior year in HS.