The passing of former UW coach Jim Owens deserved more than a simple obit, and Bud Withers of our staff provides that with this column on his legacy for the Monday edition of the Times.

Owens' career was far from perfect, and Withers touches on the racial controversy of 1969 that marred the end of his UW tenure.

But he's also probably the second-most important figure in UW football history behind Don James, unless you want to make a case for Gil Dobie.

I was just becoming a fan near the end of Owens' tenure and I never saw a game he coached and only talked to him a couple of times for where-are-they-now type stories --- and I also attended the press conference he gave here in 2003 when his statue was unveiled and he apologized for what happened in the late '60s.

But in something Withers points out as well, I've talked to a lot of people who were around in that era and have mentioned the hold the Owens' teams had on the Seattle sporting community, especially in that early '60s era when the Huskies won two straight Rose Bowls. With no pro sports, the Huskies were it --- Bruce King once told me the two biggest things back then were UW football and hydros and he could pretty much talk about one or the other every day of the year on his sportscast.

Tom Porter's book on the 1959-60 seasons --- A Football Band of Brothers --- described a scene following the 1960 Rose Bowl win that for its time, sounds like it borders on anything that has happened since. Porter wrote that upon their return from Pasadena, the Huskies wove their way through the streets of Seattle in "a 'Presidential-style motorcade,' led by the police motorcycles from the city and county police departments (who) gave escort to busses filled with Husky players and their wives.'' The procession went up Highway 99 and through the city to UW and Porter wrote that "all along the route, people lined both sides of the route waving and cheering.''

According to Porter, Keith Jackson, who spent much of the early part of his career broadcasting UW sports and working with Owens on a coaches show, said the reception "was like we won the war. It was the first time in my life that I fully realized how a college football team could pick up an entire state and region and revitalize it.''

Owens had his struggles on and off the field later in his career --- he had just three winning seasons in his last eight years along with the racial turmoil that gripped the program.

But his defenders will say he showed a willingness to try to adapt. On the field, for instance, he changed philosophies wildly in the early '70s with the high-flying Sonny Sixkiller teams --- the complete opposite in offensive style of the 59-60 teams. The 1970 team still ranks third in school history for pass attempts (while his 60-61-62 teams all rank among the top 10 in fewest. The 1970 team also ranks third in average passing yards per game with the '71 team also in the top 10.

Maybe the ultimate point is simply that it's taken a lot of people over the last century to make UW football what is, and Owens was as influential in his time as any.

For more on Owens' life and career, here's a story from GoHuskies.com.

LOCKER ON Q IT UP SPORTS TONIGHT: UW QB Jake Locker and UW softball player Lauren Greer will be on Q It Up Sports tonight at 10:30pm on Q13 Fox.

Locker is scheduled to talk about UW coach Steve Sarkisian, Tyrone Willingham, Jake Heaps' decision to go to BYU, and playing against cousin Casey in next year's Apple Cup.