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Iowa and Washington are playing a Big Ten football game at Husky Stadium in Seattle this season. 

That may be a strange sentence for longtime Hawkeye fans to get used to, but in 2026, anything is possible. 

This will be the second meeting between the Hawkeyes and Huskies as Big Ten foes. The previous matchup came two years ago in Iowa City, where Kaleb Johnson ran all over UW en route to a 40-16 triumph at Kinnick Stadium. 

The Huskies now get the chance to return the favor inside the comfort of their own home this season. Iowa fans probably assume this will be the first time their team has played a football game at Husky Stadium, but that's not the case. 

This will be the third time the Hawkeyes have ventured to the Emerald City. The first matchup was way back in 1937, but the second in 1963 featured a surprising result, so let's turn the dial back nearly 63 years and take a look at what happened. 

The Rundown 

Iowa was only three years removed from a claimed national championship by the turn of the 1963 season, but you wouldn't have known it at the time. 

Legendary head coach Forest Evashevski departed after the 1960 campaign to serve as Iowa's athletic director and turned the job over to longtime assistant coach Jerry Burns. 

The Hawkeyes entered Burns' first season ranked No. 1 in the country, but the disappointing 5-4 season (2-4 in Big Ten play) triggered a losing mark (4-5) in 1962. No one knew it at the time, but that 5-4 campaign in 1961 would be Iowa's last winning season until 1981.

So not much was expected of Iowa in 1963, and a 14-14 tie to measly Washington State in the season opener didn't help matters, either. 

The Hawkeyes would then have to travel to Seattle to take on Washington, which was in the midst of a surprising 0-2 start. The Huskies were still heavily favored to take down Iowa despite all of this, but the Hawks had other ideas. 

This game was played in a classic Pacific Northwest rainstorm, so there wouldn't be a ton of offense on this October day. Iowa struck first in the second quarter on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Fred Riddle to Paul Krause, but Washington responded in the third with a score of its own to tie the game. 

Iowa faced the daunting task of driving 94 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, but it did just that. Fullback Bobby Grier tallied 408 rushing yards in 1963, and 63 of them came on this drive. 

After Grier jumpstarted it, Riddle finished the remarkable drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak to give the Hawkeyes the lead. Iowa would seal the deal with a 39-yard Jay Roberts field goal, which according to HawkeyeRecap.com was the then-longest field goal in program history. 

Aftermath 

The Hawkeyes improved to 1-2 with the 17-7 win, but there wouldn't be much celebrating in 1963, as Iowa finished 3-3-2 overall and 2-3-1 in conference play.

Washington dropped to an inexplicable 0-3 with this defeat, but would turn things around thereafter, finishing the regular season on a 6-1 run to claim the Athletic Association of Western Universities (later known as the Pac-12) conference crown. 

The Huskies were sent to the 1964 Rose Bowl as a result, but lost to Dick Butkus and Illinois to finish the year at 6-5. 

You Can Win FREE Tickets To Iowa's Season Opener! 

HawkeyeRoundtable is giving away TWO tickets to Iowa's season opener against Northern Illinois on Sept. 5! 

This is easily the biggest giveaway we've ever done on this site, and it's a great opportunity for two lucky fans to experience the joy of attending a Hawkeye football game at Kinnick Stadium. 

Click here to automatically become a member to enter the contest! Additional contest details can be found in our community section, too! 

HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io

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