The good news is 6'5 295 OT Andrew Kirkland from Portland, Oregon verballed to Washington today according to various sources. He is the 16th commit of the year so far which is pretty much a record. Makes you wonder why the NCAA hasn't adopted an early signing period for football...how do you keep these guys committed for six months?
The bad news is that Big Ben Davidson has passed away at the age of 72 from prostate cancer. Ben was a big time great guy who made a career after football acting in Miller Light Ads...he was a great Husky and he will be missed.
Davidson didn't play football until he was talked into it at East Los Angeles Community College. From there, he was recruited by then-UW coach Jim Owens and played end for the 1959 and 1960 Husky teams, winning the Rose Bowl both of those seasons. UW went 20-2 in Davidson's two seasons.
(Ben never was a starter at UW....which I always found to be quite odd...he wasn't a great fit for playing both ways which was the fashion in the single platoon days. Never the less he was a perfect fit for the NFL.)
He was then a fourth-round pick by the New York Giants in 1961. He played his rookie season with Green Bay, winning the NFL championship with the Packers in 1961.
After two years with the Redskins, he joined the Raiders, where the 6-foot-8 Davidson became famous.