Folks who love UW football history, we are now on to the third Washington Husky to ever rush for 1000 (or more) yards in a season. It took a quarter of a century between when Hugh McElhenny first accomplished this impressive task and when Rob Rowland gained over 1000 yards on the ground in a season.
But between when Rowland accomplished that and then Joe Steele (great name, by the way, incredible name, perfect football player name, more football players should be named something akin to Joe Steele) did it, just a couple of years had passed.
And Steele was pretty impressive in his performances all throughout the 1978 season. He was, actually, more impressive than Rowland was, even though Rowland had one heck of an Apple Cup performance that was instrumental in him getting to the 1000 yard rushing mark.
Washington Husky football history: Joe Steele (incredible football name) was solid as he ran for over 1000 yards in 1978
But you know what’s great about that whole “run for a whole bunch of yards in the Apple Cup to help get your name etched into Washington Husky football records for the rest of eternity” thing? Well, we’ve got Steele accomplishing that very same thing as he managed to run for 193 yards against the Washington State Cougars.
It’s great. It seems a little petty, but it’s great. I love it.
But, it should be noted that Steele also had games like against the Indiana Hoosiers where he ran for 155 yards and against the Oregon State Beavers where he ran for 156 yards. It wasn’t just the Cougars that he beat up.
Steele was pretty impressive all throughout the season. On three different occasions, the man managed to get 30 or more carries in a game. He averaged over 100 yards per game and 21.5 carries per game. In total, he ran for 1111 yards (amazing) and five touchdowns.