The day of the Idaho game, when the group was to be honored at halftime, Grimes marveled at the energy.

“That was the most alive, energetic Saturday I think I’ve had in a long, long time,” he said.

He stood on the field with the seven other players for the first time since before they were something other than just teammates. In the stands, the fans stood and applauded. Fifty years ago, fans in this stadium had chanted Eaton’s name, had said they’d stand by him and against Grimes and the 14 no matter what. Fifty years ago, that coach had stood above a governor.

Did the university owe them this? Did it owe them more?

“Yeah, they definitely owed us an apology, first and foremost,” Griffin said. “They needed to reckon with what they’d done to us, for nothing. For nothing. For asking a question? We weren’t even given the opportunity to ask the question. Yeah, they owed us that. They owed us the celebration that was really special, they owed us that, to dispel that myth that we were malcontents, and we were a bunch of black bigots, that we were pushing back on the university. No. They needed to give us that platform. And they did.”

The university campus was more supportive of the 14 than the rest of the state, but it still took decades for UW to make amends.

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