Hawai'i Homegrown Report
Moanalua's Walker starting FB for Huskies
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By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ken Walker had just run for a 3-yard touchdown against Stanford Saturday, the first score of his college football career, and was trying to leave the field with as much dignity as joy.
University of Washington
But his University of Washington teammates were having none of that. Barely had the Moanalua High graduate picked himself up in the end zone when tight end Joe Collier jumped on him, followed in short order by a mounting pile that would include much of the offense.
Washington fullback Ken Walker worked his way from walk-on to starter. "It is a great story, all that he's accomplished," coach Rick Neuheisel says of the Moanalua High graduate.
For a first-quarter touchdown it was quite a scene.
But, then, as his teammates on the eighth-ranked Huskies have come to appreciate, what Walker did to get there was pretty remarkable.
Without a Division IA scholarship offer out of high school in 1997, Walker walked on at Washington and carved a career that has seen him become the school's first two-way starter in six years.
"It is a great story, all that he's accomplished in the time he's been here," said head coach Rick Neuheisel.
Indeed. The 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior has started at linebacker and fullback, earned a Rose Bowl ring, a scholarship and has already graduated with a degree in communications.
"He's never asked for a thing other than what he can do to help make the team successful," said running backs coach Tony Alford. "Ken's a guy who brings a great deal of heart to whatever he does."
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"You have to admire him for all of that," said Larry Tripplett, the Huskies' All-America defensive tackle. "It isn't easy to make the starting lineup as a walk-on. Especially at a school like this."
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When they arrived in Seattle in 1997, Tripplett, a scholarship player, and Walker were in disparate universes. The scholarship players had one locker room, the walk-ons another. Those on scholarship got meals at the training table. All others paid for their meals or went elsewhere.
"The hardest part was getting the coaches to notice you," Walker said. "When I got here, there must have been 50 other walk-ons that year. So many that Walker didn't even get a practice uniform or tryout until after two-a-days had finished.
Through dint of hard work, long hours in the weight room and attrition that claimed the less committed, he moved up from sixth team linebacker. "It took me a whole year to be able to show them what I had," Walker said. "But I finally got the chance."
Ironically, it was during Washington's 1997 Aloha Bowl practice in Hawai'i that Walker began to emerge. "I think they just took me because they looked down the roster and saw I was from Honolulu. But, while we were there, they had scrimmages for the younger guys and that's when I got a chance to show them something."
He opened enough eyes to eventually move up to second team in 1998, appearing in nine games as a linebacker, starting one.
Walker says he caught the coaches' attention during practice in Honolulu for the 1997 Aloha Bowl.
Then, when the school made a coaching change, Walker had to prove himself again, this time to a whole new coaching staff in 1999. When he came back from injuries, he found the depth chart set at linebacker, but opportunity at fullback, a position he had also played at Moanalua.
"I told the coaches, 'Hey, if you need somebody to go out there and block, I'll do it. I won't even ask for the ball,' " Walker said.
He got a look-see and by the end of the 2000 season, a start as well. This season he's emerged as the starting fullback, the man who primarily opens holes for the running backs but is averaging four yards a carry when he gets the rare call.
Still, behind the impassive, workman-like mask has been a fervent if largely unspoken goal to get in the end zone at least once before he left Seattle. "My family, my friends, they have been on me to get one," Walker said.
"So when I finally scored my teammates knew what it meant. That's why they got so excited. I felt like I was under that pile for five minutes. I was just thinking, 'don't let us get a 15-yard penalty.' "
