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Under threatening skies, Dana Hall and Shane Pahukoa were side by side again in Husky Stadium, as middle-aged men rather than University of Washington football players, sharing in a connection they’ll never lose.
They were football royalty, as good as anyone in the college game when they played three decades earlier. They were a Husky cornerback and a free safety, both 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds and bigger than now.
They formed half of the starting secondary for the UW’s 12-0 national championship team in 1991, both NFL-bound, respectively first- and second-team all-conference selections, college teammates forever.
On Thursday, while these two watched the 14th of Husky spring practices from the sideline, the new Coach Kalen DeBoer came over and warmly greeted them. They would introduce this pair to the current Huskies.
“We like what we see,” Hall said. “I’m fired up about it. I haven’t been here in several years. Coach reached out and wants to get everyone connected.”
After practice, Hall, 52, spoke passionately as a former Los Angeles-area junior college and high school coach for nearly a half hour about the tradition, the dedication and responsibility that comes with being a Husky football player.
It was also exactly 30 years ago to the day that Hall waited out a long yet memorable ordeal to become the 18th player taken in the NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers, spending six years in the league and playing for the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars , as well.
“I was just thinking about that,” he said. “There are some guys who were here last year and they’re on pins and needles. They want to see their name called on the first day of the draft, for sure. But it doesn’t matter if it’s the first day or the last.
“Anyone who gets a chance to play in the NFL from the University of Washington, that’s a win.”
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Hall was referring to UW cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon, who are projected as first-rounders.
“It’s DBU,” chimed in Pahukoa, 51, a Seattle furniture business owner and a former New Orleans Saints player. “McDuffie and Gordon.”
Pahukoa and Hall share national title rings and multiple Rose Bowl victories but they’re also members of a Husky position Brotherhood that continues to make them proud.
“You can start naming them off, the trailblazers before us and then the guys after us,” Hall said. “These guys are really good. Every year there’s a DB who comes out of U-Dub.”
And some of them come back to Montlake, too.
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