As a six-year-old boy, Burr Odell cheered on the Husky football team in its first-ever game at Husky Stadium—a 28-7 loss to Dartmouth in 1920. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as Odell went on to cheer for the Huskies for another 90 years until his passing in December 2010.
Odell’s family believes he could have been the last living person to attend the Dartmouth game in 1920. He followed the UW all his life and talked about that game right up to the end, they said. All told, Odell attended roughly 330 Husky football games, including six Rose Bowls in Pasadena.
Above, cars surround Husky Stadium on the day of its opening in 1920.
Odell and his father went to the Dartmouth game in support of the visitors, not the Huskies. Together, they walked across the temporary “pontoon” bridge that was later replaced by the Montlake Bridge, to the brand new Husky football stadium. It was familiar territory for Odell’s father, whose construction company had poured the concrete on the sides of the Montlake Cut a few years earlier.
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