In its third season under head coach
Jim Owens, Washington was 9–1 in the regular season and 3–1 in the
Athletic Association of Western Universities, one of three co-champions of the five-team AAWU (Big Five) in its inaugural year. The
Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) had disbanded in the spring, and the AAWU consisted of the four teams from state of
California and the Huskies. The other four PCC teams from the north (
Oregon,
Oregon State,
Washington State, and
Idaho) were
independent for several years. (Washington defeated all four this season.) The Cougars joined the league in
1962 and the Oregon schools in
1964; it was later renamed the Pacific-8 Conference.
Led on the field by junior
All-American quarterback
Bob Schloredt,[1] the Huskies started the season unranked and gained the
Rose Bowl berth.[2] Eighth-ranked, they were a 6½-point underdog to the #6
Wisconsin Badgers (7–2), the champions of the
Big Ten.[3] On New Year's Day in Pasadena, Washington jumped out to a 17–0 lead in the first quarter and won in a 44–8 rout to finish the season at 10–1.[1][4][5] The Rose Bowl victory was the first for a West Coast team in
seven years,[4] and only the second since the end of World War II; the loser both times was Wisconsin.[1][6]
Washington outscored its opponents 253 to 73,[7] and outside the sole loss to
USC,[8][9] they allowed no more than twelve points in each of their other ten games, with four shutouts. The
final rankings in this era were released in early December, at the end of the regular season and prior to the bowl games.[10][11][12]
No University of Washington Huskies were selected in the
1960 NFL draft, which lasted twenty rounds with 240 selections.[31] or in the inaugural
1960 AFL Draft, which lasted thirty-three rounds with 264 selections.