Bow Down To Willingham – Book Review
The Seattle Times has been revisiting the 1991 co-national championship season with weekly flashbacks this year. Today the newspaper featured Washington’s 56-21 win in the Apple Cup.
Because I’m pretty much a smart-ass if nothing else, I’m revisiting my favorite Husky season of all-time, the one in 2008 when Washington went winless. As you recall, that was a beautiful year, filled with one huge loss after another.
On this week in 2008, the Huskies had a bye and were licking their wounds from a double-overtime defeat in Pullman in the Apple Cup. They were also preparing to get ripped apart by Cal in their season finale.
So this week in place of game details from 2008, I’m reviewing Derek Johnson’s book: “Bow Down to Willingham.”
Johnson went behind the scenes to get all of the details from The Paint Dry Ty Era. In Johnson’s book, we learn that most of the players either disliked Willingham or hated him.
I was going to write a full-fledged book review for seattlepi.com last summer after I interviewed Johnson. But seattlepi.com dusted me in June, so that went by the wayside.
Then I was going to write a review for 710Sports.com, the KIRO radio website, but thought it was more appropriate to write it here on my website, where anything goes.
Johnson’s book has been controversially received. Some people like it; some people don’t. Part of the problem stems from the subtitle of the book: “How White Guilt Enabled a Secretly Malicious Coach to Destroy the Once-Mighty Washington Huskies.”
It is intimated that Willingham got a fourth season at the U Dub because there were fears of racial repercussions if he had been fired after season No. 3. Looking back, we all know he should have been fired after his third season, especially if U Dub President Mark Emmert and athletic director Scott Woodward had merely talked to the players like Johnson did. If they had, they would have found out that no one wanted him back.
In Johnson’s book, we learn that players were in disbelief when the announcement was made that Paint Dry Ty was returning for another season in 2008.
Johnson took a lot of heat for suggesting that Willingham got the fourth season because he was black. Yet Johnson said: “I was defending dozens of black players” who didn’t want Willingham back.
“The testimonials from players were such an eye-opener,” Johnson said.
If I were Johnson, I wouldn’t have written the book simply because I can’t imagine there being a big market of people who would want to read about one of the worst eras in Husky football – aside from snarky Cougs like me who would enjoy the heck out of it.
I mean, come on, if I wrote a book about “The Paul Graham Era” of Cougar basketball, would you read it? Didn’t think so.
But Johnson said two boosters encouraged him to write about Willingham. “I know it was a time of joy for you,” Johnson said. “But the whole thing was so distasteful.
“There was so much talk in the media about Willingham being a great man of integrity and that he had the best interests of student-athletes at heart, but it was really 180 degrees different from that.”
Johnson lists several cases in point: Kicker Michael Braunstein said: “We loathed everything about playing for him.” Defensive end Caesar Rayford said: “Things changed. We went from Dawgs to puppies.” Roy Lewis was so disillusioned that he wanted to stop playing football. Late in the 2007 season, the Huskies wanted to lose so they wouldn’t go to a bowl game because they didn’t want an extra three weeks of practice with Willingham.
I sped-read the book and was never bored. Every Coug I know would enjoy it. Some Huskies I know wouldn’t enjoy it, but they’d get some behind-the-scenes dirt that helps to explain what went so, so wrong – or in my book, so, so right – during the Willingham era.
Derek Johnson’s book can be found at Barnes and Noble, University Book Store, Third Place Books, amazon.com and derekjohnson.com. It sells for $26.47.
As a Husky I enjoyed the book to see why Ty sucked so much