Husky football fans are doing everything they can to witness history in New Orleans

[DerekJohnson]

By Shane Lantz
Seattle Times staff reporter
Whether by air, by land or over the sea, Washington football fans are doing everything they can to make it to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans for one of the most important games in program history.

When the No. 2-ranked Huskies take on the No. 3 Texas Longhorns on New Year’s Day, the winner will go on to play for the national championship. It’s a pretty big deal.

A trip to the Rose Bowl would’ve been preferable for many, but UW fans aren’t letting travel headaches keep them away. Despite a dearth of direct flights from Seattle to New Orleans, pricey hotels or some hectic travel logistics, eager Husky fans are still showing up en masse.

UW’s last season in the Pac-12 (before a move to the Big Ten next season), has been one of the most — if not THE most — memorable Husky football seasons ever. The many accomplishments during this magical 13-0 season include a Pac-12 championship, a Coach of the Year Award winner in Kalen DeBoer and a Heisman runner-up in quarterback Michael Penix Jr. But the Huskies and their fans have their gaze set on a bigger prize: a national title.

UW won national championships in 1960 and 1991 but hasn’t made a national championship game since the playoff system was created in 2014. Washington fell to Alabama in its last College Football Playoff berth in 2016, which was the most recent appearance in the CFP by a Pac-12 team.

Luckily for many fans, Alaska Airlines added several more flights to and from New Orleans in the weeks leading up to and following the game. And while some lucky UW supporters managed to snag tickets on those nonstop flights, others are having to get creative in their quest to the Superdome.

2023 UW grad Alex Grajeda said the prices for direct flights made the trip almost impossible for him and his father, Mark, to attend the game. But he found an affordable round-trip ticket to San Antonio, nearly 550 miles away from New Orleans, while Mark will fly into Austin.

By making the nearly eight-hour drive from San Antonio instead of flying direct, Grajeda estimates that they will save about $800. As for tickets to the game, Grajeda did pretty well, as verified resale tickets on Ticketmaster are currently selling for a minimum of $170 before taxes and fees.

“The tickets, I got lucky,” Grajeda said. “I’m a member of the Young Tyee Club as a recent graduate and a season-ticket holder, so I got two tickets through UW for $145.”

Renton native and UW alum Alan Nguyen might have the craziest Sugar Bowl journey of anyone: He will travel to the game from vacation in Vietnam. Nguyen’s trip will begin at 12:35 p.m. New Year’s Eve in Hanoi, with layovers in Singapore and Newark, N.J., before he arrives in New Orleans at 10 a.m. New Year’s Day.

That brings his travel day to 34 hours and 20 minutes, but there wasn’t a chance he would miss out on the Sugar Bowl. He’s been there for every UW New Year’s Six bowl game in the College Football Playoff era, and also attended the 2016 playoff game against Alabama.

 

[DerekJohnson]

To him, watching the Huskies play in the Sugar Bowl is about much more than just football.

“It means everything to our family,” Nguyen said. “When my parents and family immigrated from the war [in Vietnam], they came to Seattle and all got degrees from UW but didn’t understand the concept of college sports as a form of pride. But for my brother and I, we were raised American, and Husky sports was used as that bridge to connect between two very separate generations.”

Ian Cornwell has been a Husky fan since 1999 and decided to attend the Sugar Bowl as a way to make up for missing out on the last Husky CFP berth.

Like many fellow UW season-ticket holders, he got his tickets through the university’s ticket allotment system. The Sugar Bowl teams were allowed to distribute 12,500 tickets each, and prices ranged from $145 to $315. All of UW’s tickets have been distributed, a school spokesperson confirmed.

Because he lives in Las Vegas, airline prices weren’t as bad for Cornwell as for those coming from Seattle, but his friend is flying to Nashville and then taking a train to New Orleans. While flight prices weren’t terrible, prices for hotels in New Orleans were “astronomical.” Between lodging, airfare and game tickets, the price tag was already getting close to $2,000.

“But for me, it’s worth it,” Cornwell said. “I kicked myself for not going in the 2016 season when they played Alabama in the playoff and told myself that no matter what, I wasn’t going to miss this one.”

For others, the best way to get to the game was to avoid the air altogether. Seattle resident Brian Neville is driving more than 3,000 miles to attend the game. Neville had Christmas plans in San Diego, so he drove down from Seattle and attended the Holiday Bowl, then heads east to New Orleans for the game with his wife and two daughters, one of whom is a UW sophomore.

To them, the Huskies are a way of life. Neville’s grandmother was an undergrad from 1933 to 1937, and his mother and father met at a UW HUB dance in the 1960s. As a family, Neville and his wife and daughters will have attended the Peach, Sugar and Rose Bowls together after this year.

He called watching the Huskies play in the national semifinals “deeply emotional.” He was a freshman at UW for the 1991 national championship season, and vividly recalls watching Washington wallop Iowa in the 1982 Rose Bowl when he was 8 years old.

“I took both my daughters to games since they were born and have had Tyee seats for 20 years,” Neville said. “My older daughter and I bonded when she was 4 at a Husky home opener as I explained each position and starter. Now she is an engineering undergrad and was up at midnight for ‘Gameday’ vs. Oregon, and then rushed the field with the Dawg Pack.”

While the Huskies still need to pull off the tough task of beating the Longhorns, some UW fans are already allowing themselves to dream of what’s next. If Washington beats Texas, the Huskies will play for the national championship in Houston on Jan. 8 against either Michigan or Alabama.

Mercer Island resident Jim Sipiora will be at the Sugar Bowl and already has his family’s “Natty” championship experience all planned out, which would involve a $315 flight from Seattle to Phoenix, another to San Antonio, and a three-hour drive to Houston. On the way back, he’d do the same trip in reverse.

“I’m doing that trip on the cheap,” Sipiora said. “Except for tickets … which we bought through the UW, (the) lowest-cost seat was $450, but we bucked up for the $750 or $850 option. Because if we play in the Natty I’ll remember it for my lifetime, and I won’t worry about the additional $300.”

It would make for a complicated and “hellish” week of football and travel, but for the lucky fans who can be there, the money and travel headaches are a secondary consideration.

Seattle resident Nicole Wicks and her family will be at the Sugar Bowl. With three generations of Wicks UW alumni, beginning with 84-year-old grandfather Wayne, Husky football is a family affair.

She’ll be joined in New Orleans by her father, sister, uncle and cousins for the game. While Grandpa couldn’t make it, Wicks says, he told them it’s their responsibility to yell loud enough to ensure a Husky victory.

 

[DerekJohnson]

They plan on being in Houston if UW makes it to the national championship game, too. Husky football is in their blood and she couldn’t imagine missing out on experiencing one of the biggest weeks in program history.

“Other than a Seattle Mariners World Series (at least for my dad and me), nothing else compares to experiencing UW win another National Championship,” Wicks said. “We were in attendance when the Hawks won the Super Bowl, but if the Dawgs pull this off, that Super Bowl game will easily move down the list of the best sporting events we’ve ever attended.”

Shane Lantz on Twitter: @ShaneMLantz

 

[SECDAWG]

Awesome. Just down 59 from ol Pod.

Have fun.

 

[CFetters_Nacho_Lover]

Thanks Taft!