A Commemorative plaque for Gil Dobie
by Malamute

Taking his player aside, Coach Gil Dobie looked him straight in the eye and offered this rebuke, "You have a streak of yellow up your back as yellow as your dirty yellow hair." Call that a "Dobieism," for it marks Gil Dobie's character and sour demeanor. 

Gilmour "Gil" Dobie, the "Sad Scot," coached at the University of Washington from 1908 until 1916. Since his teams never lost a game, a few fans feel that the University should honor Dobie with a commemorative plaque and anchor it to Denny field, the coach's old haunt. Although it seems like a good idea, there are a few people who might object to it. If he were alive today, Pete Tegtimier, a captain and center for Dobie, might demur for one; he was the recipient of the aforementioned Dobieism.

Since Dobie is a member of the Husky Football Hall of fame,  why honor him further? The university fired him, he couldn't get along with anyone, and his eternal pessimism lent him the  nicknames "Gloomy Gil" and "The Apostle of Grief." 

If dour Dobie had written a song, he would have called it, "Accentuate the Negative." If he'd written a book on psychology, he would have called it, "The Power of Negative Thinking." If he'd chosen a nickname for his team, it would have been "The Sun Dodgers." That happened in 1919, three years after Gil Dobie left Washington. It would have been the perfect moniker for his team. The "Dour Dane" was a man who was always pessimistic, even about the weather. 

Why honor a coach who frightened his players to death? "I was always scared of him," Wee Coyle (quarterback, 1908-1912) reminisced. "For four years, every Friday night, he'd take me to his room…he always called me kid…and he'd say, 'kid, listen to me, we're going to get licked,' He'd say the opponents were 'great, big monsters…we haven't got a prayer, but we'll do the best we can.'" [Rockne, 1975]. 

One sports writer wrote, "He took no talk from his players. He was the word and his team were the listeners and doers."

Another asked him about three particularly fast running backs he coached. Gloomy Gil replied, "This means they only get to the tacklers all the sooner." After winning a game, 49-0, an alumnus approached him and said, "Now you must be happy!" The Sad Scot replied, "Happy? Why? What's going to happen to us next week." [Dallas].

He once said that his players would serve as tackling dummies in games against California and Oregon.

(What was Gil Dobie's starting salary at Washington? Answer later on.)

His teams played at Denny Field, an imperfect gridiron, a perfect metaphor for Gloomy Gil to use. "The next game will be a disaster for us--a Denny Field," he might have said. About 60 to 70 yards of the original field remains on campus today. It is located on the northeast corner of the University of Washington campus near 45th street. Tennis courts and basketball courts have filled in the ends of the field, but mostly it is still an open field.

Although the vestiges of Denny Field are hallowed grounds to fans, it was a rocky, miserable field, according to one former player. It was football served alfresco. As Wee Coyle said, "It was a terrible field. Did you ever see a field grow rocks?" They'd rake the surface to level the field, removing most of the rocks, and after the next rain, "you'd see thousands of little rocks come up out of the dirt." [Rockne, 1975].

Dobie's teams ran straight at you. There were only five plays or so in his playbook, and he worked countless hours with his team to perfect them. They played smash-mouth football back then, on a field that grew rocks.

Countless scrimmages, up the gut, all to the tune of a metronome--the honing of a finely-tuned watch, a Rolex of precision, a Timex of durability, his teams the epitome of synchronicity. "All together, boys. Hit 'em here, hit 'em there, hit 'em 'til they bend." Three yards and a cloud of dust? Nope. It was six yards and a shower of rocks. Dobie worked his players endlessly, occasionally hurling epithets, his three words to success being: practice, practice, practice. 

The cigar-smoking Dobie, the quintessential psychologist, knew that fear of failure was a strong, motivating force. He was tempestuous, vociferous, demonic--but never unfair. He was tough, but not a Bobby Knight.  

He was conservative, but not without a gambit up his sleeve.

In particular, one play is of interest, the Dobie-Bunk Play, which he inserted for the Oregon game in 1911. It went like this. The center faked a handoff to Coyle and kept the ball, while the two guards fell down in front of the center. Coyle took off his leather helmet, tucked it under one arm and bolted around end. After counting to 3, the center turned and handed the ball off to the end, who scampered in the opposite direction from Coyle and scored a touchdown. No one knew what happened. Washington won the game 29-3. Sometime later, the play was declared illegal. 

Why not take off your helmet and pretend it's a football? The uniforms and helmets, which were made of leather, didn't offer all that much protection in those days. Head protectors were not required until 1939. Numbers to identify individual players didn't happen until 1915, something Dobie abhorred, for he deplored any form of individualism. There was extra cloth padding added to the shoulders and over the thighs and knees. But that was all; there was little protection for players in the Dobie era. Due to a public outcry against the brutality of the game, the NCAA was formed in 1910, at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who argued that rules should be adopted to protect players from serious injury. [Ours, 2000].

They gave you 3 downs to make 5 yards in those years; it wasn't until 1912 that they gave you 4 to make 10. Dobie's teams didn't pass much in those days. It wasn't until 1912, when West Virginia Wesleyan College had its first undefeated season, that the pass was used with success. In 1913, Notre Dame upset Army at West Point using the pass. [Ours, 2000]. 

The ball was spherically shaped, extended along the lines of two hypothetical poles, but a specific shape wasn't decided upon until 1912. Field goals counted 4 points in 1908, but were reduced to 3 a year later. Touchdowns counted 5 points and the conversion counted 1 point. In 1912, a touchdown's value was increased to 6 points. The goal posts were set on the goal line, and weren't moved back until 1929. Try for points were attempted from the 2-yard line, instead of the 3. [Ours, 2000].

There were three officials in Dobie's days at Washington, a referee, umpire, and linesman. A field judge was added for a brief period starting in 1908, and was made a permanent part of the crew in 1915. 

Typically, his team would whip the USS Milwaukee one week and beat up on Queen Anne High School the next. His teams also played Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, Colorado, California and Idaho, as well as the Bremerton Sailors on a regular basis. Attendance varied from 2000 to 9000 fans at Denny Field. 

At Washington, Dobie went 26-0-3 against teams that would be considered NCAA Division I caliber today. Altogether he was 58-0-3, a most remarkable record indeed. The schedule his teams played was typical of college football teams of that era, including Notre Dame, which played its share of juggernauts, such as Alma, the Christian Brothers, Ohio Northern, Rose Hulman, North Division High, American Medical, Bennett Medical, and Kalamazoo. Wabash beat Notre Dame, 5-0, in 1905. Patsies, as they would be called today, weren't always easy games in Dobie's era. Yale beat Notre Dame 28-0 in 1914. Cornell triumphed over Michigan in 1916, 23-20. 

And let's remember that the weather in the Northwest benefited Dobie's opponents more than once, for inclement weather can be a 12th man for an underdog. Yet Dobie continued to win, whether it was on a soggy field or on a day when the skies poured, the winds howled or the snow fell. 

Dobie was an intense man, and winning without losing took its toll, both physically and mentally. The prescient Dobie wanted to resign in 1915, but University President, Henry Suzzallo talked him into staying another year. Dobie and Suzzallo, who was hired in 1915, had strong personalities, which produced more than one conflict between them. Not surprisingly, the subsequent year would be the last for Dobie at Washington.

During his last season, the University suspended one of Dobie's players, Bill Grimm, because of "irregularities in (taking) an examination." Because of the suspension, Dobie's players went on strike, with three games remaining on the schedule. They felt that the suspension punished the whole team unfairly. The insurrection was finally resolved and Dobie's players finished the season. 

However, University president, Henry Suzzallo, fired Dobie at the end of the 1916 season for failing to fully train character on the football field. Suzzallo thought Dobie had instigated the players' insurrection, which wasn't true. Dobie said he hadn't. Evidently, Suzzallo didn't believe him. Quarterback Ernest C. (Tramp) Murphy, Louis Seagrave (team captain) and a member of a YMCA squad instigated the mutiny. That fact was disclosed in 1949, when Tramp Murphy admitted to it.

In light of Murphy's admission, why not bestow another honor on Dobie with a plaque, simply placed on Denny Field? Consider one of Dobie's final statements as head coach at Washington, "I performed my services in as conscientious and thorough manner as was possible under the conditions. Dr. Suzzallo does me wrong, when he says I did otherwise." [100 Years].

So let's right the wrong. If Dr. Suzzallo were alive, I'm sure he would agree. 

As one fan wrote on one of the Husky web sites, "I walked up there one day (Denny Field), and it's just as described. It seems like there should be a plaque honoring the Dobie Sun Dodger's and identifying the location, which clearly is big enough for a football field (if you remove the b-ball and tennis...) The only way to know it's Denny Field from the surroundings is a very small piece of paper outlining the schedule. It would be cool if there were a plaque there honoring that 58-0-3 record. It's important to realize that the NDs aren't the only teams with history. Nobody walking by Denny Field now would know what happened there. 58-0-3... think about it!"

Why place a commemorative plaque on Denny Field, as the Husky fan suggested? 

Because: Gil Dobie, in his nine years at Washington, never lost a game. He is the founder and father of Husky fever. His team beat Cal on November 6, 1915, when the "fight" song was first played. In 1916, his team won the first ever Pacific Coast Conference championship. In addition to his membership in the Husky Football Hall of Fame, he is a member of the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame. Gil Dobie talked the talk and walked the walk. Gil Dobie was…just plain Gil Dobie. There's no way to sugarcoat him.. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. During his nine-year stint as a "Sun Dodger," his record has never been matched or surpassed by any other coach in college football history--58-0-3.

As Husky fans, we are proud of that. 

Afterward: This story is dedicated to the memory of William (Wee) Coyle, who played quarterback for Gil Dobie from 1908 until 1912. He is no longer frightened of his coach. It is said they have been seen walking across Denny Field on moonlit nights, arm-in-arm, always smiling, always laughing, always upbeat. "Run it for me, kid, just one more time. Come on, kid, just one more time, one more time for Gloomy Gil." It is said that Coyle tucks his leather helmet into his stomach and runs the Dobie-Bunk Play…over and over and over. Dobie can't get enough of it, never wanting it to end. As a cloud covers the moon, the mystical twosome slowly fades from view. There'll be another night to practice the bunk play--for it is a friendship made in heaven. 

1908 (5-0-1)

Washington HS, 23-5; Whitworth, 24-4, Whitman 6-0, Washington State 6-6, Oregon 15-0, Oregon State 32-0.

1909 (7-0)

USS Milwaukee, 52-0, Queen Anne HS 34-0; Lincoln HS 20-0; Idaho, 50-0; Whitman 17-0; Oregon State 21-0; Oregon 20-6.

1910 (6-0)

Lincoln HS, 20-0; College of Puget Sound, 51-0; Whitman, 12-8, Idaho 29-0; Washington State, 16-0; Oregon State 22-0.

1911 (7-0)

Lincoln HS, 42-0; Fort Wordon, 90-0; College of Puget Sound, 35-0; Idaho, 17-0; Oregon State, 34-0; Oregon, 29-3; Washington State, 30-6.

1912 (6-0)

College of Puget Sound, 53-0; Bremerton Sailors, 55-0; Idaho, 24-0; Oregon State, 9-3; Oregon 30-14; Washington State, 19-0.

1913 (7-0)

Everett HS, 26-0; All-Navy, 23-7; Whitworth, 100-0; Oregon State 47-0; Whitman, 40-6; Oregon 10-7; Washington State, 20-0.

1914 (7-0-1)

Aberdeen HS, 33-6; Washington Park AC, 45-0, Rainier Valley AC, 81-0; Whitman 28-7; Oregon State, 0-0; Oregon 10-0; Washington State, 45-0.

1915 (7-0)

Ballard Meteors, 31-0; Washington Park AC, 64-0; Gonzaga, 21-7; Whitman, 27-0; California, 72-0; California, 13-7; Colorado, 46-0.

1916 (6-0-1)

Ballard Meteors, 28-0; Bremerton Submarines, 62-0; Whitman, 37-6; Oregon, 0-0; Oregon State, 35-0, California, 13-3; California, 14-7.

• [huskyfan] Husky Score Archive, huskyfan.com
• [Dallas] Dallas Morning News web site 

• [Rockne, 1975] Rockne, Dick, "Bow Down to Washington," The Strode Publishers, Huntsville, Alabama, 1975. 

• [100 Years] "100 Years of Husky Football," Professional Sports Publications, New York City, New York. 

• [Ours, 2000] Ours, Robert, "An authoritative Guide to 131 Years of College Football, 3rd Edition," CD ROM edition, 2000.