Quick hits: Fall sports updates from the University of Washington
UW alumni are making waves in sports across the country.
For the 22nd time in team history, the UW Men’s Rowing Team are National Champions. Ten of those championships have come under head coach Michael Callahan. Photo by Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures
Cristian Roldan
Quotable
“I still feel like I have to earn the respect of people to think of me as a winner or high-level player, particularly with the national team.”
—Former UW soccer star Cristian Roldan, a midfielder on the Seattle Sounders who played for the U.S. Men’s National Team in the 2026 World Cup
Marcel Reece
Flying the flag
Flag football will debut as an Olympic sport at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, so USA Football turned to former Husky and NFL star Marcel Reece to carry the flag. Reece, who played wide receiver for the Huskies from 2006–2007 before a 10-year NFL career, was hired in May as senior vice president of football strategy and operations for USA Football. He was previously senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Bill Foley II
The golden touch
UW law school alum Bill Foley II, ’74, who owns the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL, is making a pitch to bring an NBA expansion team to Las Vegas. The Golden Knights have been a tremendous success, making the Stanley Cup finals three times since the Knights joined the NHL in 2017, winning it all in 2023. “We built the Golden Knights into a championship organization from the ground up and we are prepared to do it again,” says Foley, a billionaire who owns other sports enterprises.
Mary Lou Mulflur
Captain Mary Lou
The USGA’s U.S. National Development Program scored a hole in one when it named former Husky women’s golf coach Mary Lou Mulflur, ’80, the captain of Team Washington. Mulflur is a legend around these parts after spending 42 years as the head coach of the UW women’s golf program, winning a national title in 2016. She retired from the UW in 2025.
Betcha didn’t know…
Husky Stadium hosted the first game in Dallas Cowboys history, an exhibition contest on Aug. 6, 1960, against the San Francisco 49ers in front of 22,000 fans. Former UW standouts Hugh McElhenny (49ers) and Don Heinrich (Cowboys) were on opposite sides of the field that day, nine years removed from their days as Husky backfield mates. Thanks to sports history expert Dave Eskenazi for that one.