It’s the offseason, so now is the perfect time to start doing some deep dives through the Washington Husky football record book. I enjoy niche, odd things about college football and there are plenty of great tidbits from history that we can explore and learn about.
Like how a man named Hugh McElhenny was the first Husky recorded to ever run for 1000 yards in a season.
That seems like a fairly noteworthy thing to talk about.
And so, that’s what we’re going to explore. Let’s take a look at how McElhenny ran for over 1000 yards all the way back in 1950. Quite frankly, he came pretty close to not getting 1000 rushing yards in 1950. So, let’s explore that.
Washington Husky football history: Hugh McElhenny was the first UW player to ever run for 1000 yards in a season
Throughout the entirety of the 1950 season, the Huskies relied pretty heavily upon McElhenny to get the offense moving. And it generally worked pretty well. In the season, McElhenny racked up a total of 1,107 rushing yards on 179 carries (which is good for an average of 6.2 yards per carry). Oh, and he scored 12 touchdowns in 10 games.
Adjusting for inflation for a moment, we need to acknowledge how that’s really impressive for a college football player to do back in 1950.
And since he ran for over 1100 yards, you might be asking why I mentioned that he came close to not getting 1000 yards in a season.
Well, he had to run for just shy of 300 yards against the Washington State Cougars to be able to get to that threshold. We’re talking about a herculean effort to end the season and to get 296 yards ON JUST 20 CARRIES against Wazzu. That’s just incredible. There’s no other way to describe it.
McElhenny had an 83-yard touchdown run against Washington State and a 91-yard touchdown run against Kansas State. The dude was really good at running the ball.