With Washington less than 20 days from kicking off the 2026 football season, the Huskies’ countdown to Sept. 6 has landed on a number packed with history. The home opener against Washington State is still ahead, but No. 15 brings together a run of players whose careers stretched from Montlake to the pros.
Anthony Allen got his Washington career started as a quarterback and kick returner before the Huskies moved him to flanker ahead of the 1980 season. That switch changed everything.
As a redshirt freshman in 1979, he brought back 15 kicks for 376 yards and a touchdown, including a 99-yard return in a 26-14 loss to Pittsburgh at Husky Stadium. He kept handling return duties after the position change and remained a major threat there, too.
Allen finished with 99 catches, 1,372 yards and 11 touchdowns in 19 starts from 1980 through 1982, and he earned All-League honors in 1981 as a return specialist. He still sits top-6 in total returns, yardage, and total returns combined between kicks and punts.
Drafted by both the NFL and USFL, Allen chose the USFL after the Los Angeles Express bought his rights. He spent a year-and-a-half there, was traded to the Michigan Panthers, signed with the Portland Breakers the next season, and then got a shot with the Atlanta Falcons and took it.
His next five seasons came with Atlanta, Washington and San Diego. With the Redskins, he was part of the Super Bowl XXII team that beat Denver 42-10.
John Anderson’s place in Washington’s record book is everywhere you look. He is tied for the most field goals in a game with five, the most field goal attempts in a season with 34, the most field goal attempts in a game with eight, and the most points in a game with 17.
He ranks second all-time in career field goals with 68, career field goal attempts with 100, and career PATs attempted with 169. He’s also tied with Don Martin for the longest field goal in Washington history at 56 yards.
Anderson was also one of a trio of Florida recruits who eventually signed with the Huskies during the Rick Neuheisel era, along with Rich Alexis and Charles Frederick.
Jermaine Kearse arrived during the winless 2008 season, but his Washington career still became one of the most productive stretches by a receiver in program history. By the next year, a new coach had the Huskies believing again, and by Week 3 they had stunned No.
3 USC 16-13. Kearse played a major role in that win, helping Jake Locker move the offense before Erik Folk finished it with the chip-shot field goal that decided it.
The following season at California, Kearse hauled in a deep pass that helped Washington win by the same score on the play known as “God's Play.” Kearse finished third in school history with 180 receptions, second with 2,871 receiving yards, second with 29 touchdowns, and fourth with six 50-plus-catch seasons.
He went undrafted in 2012 but signed with the Seattle Seahawks as a free agent. By his second season, he had become a key part of the offense, often connecting with Russell Wilson as Seattle won Super Bowl XLVIII 43-8 over the Denver Broncos, with Kearse catching a touchdown.
The Seahawks returned to the Super Bowl the next year, and Kearse made the unforgettable catch on the final drive when the ball bounced four times off him before he secured it in the closing minute. Seattle came up short in that one, falling 28-24 to the New England Patriots.
After five seasons with the Seahawks, Kearse spent two years with the New York Jets, signed with the Detroit Lions in 2019, and broke his leg against the Patriots later that season before retiring before the start of the 2020 season. Right before Thanksgiving last year, it was announced that Kearse would return to his alma mater as a program assistant.
No. 15 also belongs to Bob Schloredt, and his place in Husky history is hard to overstate. He was the first player ever to win the Rose Bowl MVP twice, and he is arguably Washington’s most decorated quarterback.
In 1959, he was First-Team All-League, All-Coast and All-American. He remains one of only two Washington quarterbacks in the College Football Hall of Fame, alongside Don Heinrich, and he entered the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991.
Schloredt was also the first Washington player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, all while being legally blind in his left eye. From 1959 to 1960, Washington went 20-2, with Schloredt going 15-2 as a starter at quarterback while also playing cornerback on defense.
The Canadian Football League and NFL both drafted him in 1961, and he chose the BC Lions, where he played two seasons. He later returned to Montlake as an assistant coach and stayed in that role until 1973.
Before Shaq Thompson, there was Tommie Smith. He was a perfect 10 on the Long Beach Telegram's Best in the West high school recruiting list, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound athlete from Antelope Valley High School in the high desert who ran a sub-4.5 40 and made plays on both sides of the ball.
He joined a freshman class that included Beno Bryant, Hilary Butler, D'Marco Farr, Jamal Fountaine, Billy Joe Hobert, Andy Mason and Shane Pahukoa. As a starter from 1990 through 1992, Washington went 31-5, and Smith started 29 games while piling up 152 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and six sacks.
His most memorable moment may have come in Washington’s 29-14 win over Nebraska in 1992, a game remembered as the loudest ever at Husky Stadium. By then wearing No.
20, Smith delivered the first points for the Huskies with a safety when he blasted Nebraska quarterback Mike Grant from the blind side in the east end zone.
In Other News...
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Washington Mock Game Put Real Pressure On A Key Huskies Battle
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For a team getting ready to face Washington State, the bigger takeaway may be how close the Huskies are to having the full group available again. Jedd Fisch said the previously held-out players will be ready to go starting Sunday, which gives Washington a cleaner picture as it turns from scrimmage tempo to game-week prep. With rivalry week ahead, the remaining questions are less about effort than about which battles on the depth chart are going to matter most when the real lineup gets set. [Read more 🡒]