UNT Great Washington Sees Himself In Fine

DENTON – Ken Washington sees a lot of himself in UNT junior quarterback Mason Fine.

The UNT Hall of Famer, who starred at quarterback in the mid-1970s, took a different path to Denton than Fine, but the two gunslingers have more in common than what lies on the surface.

Washington, who went to Port Arthur Lincoln High School, was a highly coveted recruit with his pick of the litter in the recruiting process. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Kansas State, SMU, Baylor and Houston all wanted him.

North Texas got him.

"The offense had a lot to do with it," said Washington, who is still 10th on the program's all-time list for pass attempts and No. 8 on the all-time total offense list with 4,313 yards. "Up until probably the end of my senior year in high school, I thought I'd go to Oklahoma, and it came down to Houston, North Texas and OU. My deciding factor was Hayden Fry and his offense, which was more open and more of what I was used to in high school.

"I thought I was a little bit ahead of my time. Most of the schools were running wishbone, veer, I-formation, and we ran a pro-style offense [in high school] and we tried to do everything. The quarterback job was to be everything we needed to be whether it was throwing or running the option. I could run the ball, but in my mind I wasn't built for the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust type of football."

Fine, on the other hand, is playing in an era of wide-open passing attacks with four- and five-wide sets beginning as early as middle school. Passing quarterbacks now are a dime a dozen, and Fine had trouble setting himself apart in the recruiting process – so much so, that UNT was his only FBS offer.

"I'm exceptionally proud of him," Washington said of Fine, who begins his junior season against SMU on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. "I think I saw about four or five games last year. I try to see as many as I can. I've watched Mason over the last couple of years, and I see the growth in him and the confidence in him. I guess to me, sometimes, every quarterback can do well when things are going good and I'm beginning to see the growth in him that he's beginning to make bad situations good. He continually keeps his team in the game. He should have plenty of confidence and he should never let anything around him take that. He's proven he can do it. Now it's just about going and playing and having fun. I really like that young man."

Washington, 62, sees a lot of himself in Fine because of the way Fine bounces back from a rare bad series.

"He's a winner, and he keeps coming back," Washington said. "He comes back from hits and he comes back from bad series. I've never seen him have two bad series in a row. That means he's on top of his game."

While Fine has garnered national attention and is on several award watch lists after his breakout sophomore season, Washington engineered one of the most successful seasons in program history when he led North Texas to a 10-win season in 1977 – one of just two such seasons in school history and the most recent.

"Obviously, that year was very special," Washington said. "You pretty much could see it building up to that. My freshman year, our record wasn't great but every year after that we got better and better. We had a good mix of experienced players and young players and we had great chemistry. We loved playing with each other and we had one of those teams where you had to beat us. We played you until the clock ran out."

Washington said he was taken back to his collegiate debut when seeing UNT was opening this season against SMU. That game saw Washington put up 213 total yards and earn Co-Back of the Week honors from the Associated Press. He went on to earn Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year honors.

In recent years, with inductions to both the North Texas Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame just this past May, Washington said he's been able to look back on his football career with great satisfaction.

"I'm really proud of it," he said. "I was telling my kids, I'm an old man so I can tell people how I really, really feel, and I really think I had a great career. I played with great guys with a great coaching staff. From high school to college and even the short stint in the Canadian Football League, I'm really proud of what I achieved."

He didn't stop short before drawing one more comparison between himself and Fine.

As a freshman, Washington was 5-10 and 168 pounds. He grew to 5-11, 172 pounds as a senior. Fine, of course, has heard the knock on his size his entire life and is still proving doubters wrong at 5-11, 185 pounds.

"I'm sure Mr. Fine hears it, too," Washington said. "When you're not a prototypical size, everyone tells you can't do this or do that. It was a motivator, but I believed with my ability that I was going to be successful. It was just a matter of how successful."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Mason Fine

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics