George Wilson

George Wilson
Football

As a freshman at Everett High School, George Wilson played guard for the undefeated football team coached by Enoch Bagshaw. Shifted to halfback, Wilson helped lead the team to two succeeding undefeated season and two mythical national high school championships in 1919 and 1920.

When Bagshaw became the University of Washington head football coach, Wilson followed him there, becoming a UW “60-minute player”. Wilson played both offense and defense and also handled the punting. In 1925, as a junior, he was voted UW’s Guy Flaherty Award winner as the team’s most inspirational player and he joined Red Grange of the University of Illinois and Ernie Nevers of Stanford University in the All-American backfield. In Wilson’s three years at the school, Washington went 28-3-3 and he played in two Rose Bowls. His 37 career touchdowns set a school record, and his #33 jersey is one of only three to be retired by UW. He was selected to the Husky Hall of Fame in 1980.

He had a brief professional career, highlighted by his 1928 performance in leading the Providence Steam Rollers to the National Football League title.

George Wilson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and posthumously elected to the All-Time Pacific Coast Conference Team in 1958 and the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991.

GALLERY