At Washington, John Mills carries a family legacy
On tunnels and five generations of UW ties.
SEATTLE — Joe Ryan remembers the old Husky Stadium tunnel in simple terms, which is fitting for what that unique fixture represented: the final march from the locker room toward game day, nothing left to do but hit somebody.
“It was a long, dark walk,” Joe Ryan said. “Not like today’s.”
Ryan grew up in Wenatchee, graduated from high school in 1960 and played football for Jim Owens at Washington. In 1963, Ryan’s senior season, the Huskies won their league and played in the Rose Bowl against Illinois and Dick Butkus. Ryan met his wife, Kathy, at the school, and her UW ties run even deeper; her grandfather graduated in 1903, and her parents both went to UW, too. So did two of Joe and Kathy’s three children, and they’ve added grandchildren to that list, including Jack Enger, who pitched for the Huskies baseball team.
Another will run out of the Ryan Family Tunnel with his teammates for a football game on Saturday.
John Joseph Mills, Washington’s starting left guard, turned 18 years old last month.
John Joseph Ryan, now 83, can’t quite describe what it’s like to watch his grandson play football for his alma mater.
Aside from births and weddings, Joe said, “I don’t recall anything that emotional or that impactful that has ever happened to me in my life.”