Community Sports

Gig Harbor’s love affair with the Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks (16-3) are once again on the cusp of winning a Super Bowl title.

They face the New England Patriots (17-3) on Sunday, Feb. 8, for a chance to hoist the Super Bowl trophy in front of their beloved fan base known as the 12s.

The Seahawks have captured the hearts of so many Gig Harbor residents, including mine, over the last 50 years. The proof is all around us.

From Blue Fridays, when so many locals display their home team’s jerseys, to the kids on the elementary school fields pretending to be Sam Darnold or Jackson Smith-Njigba.

From the season ticket holders who gather for breakfast in town before heading to the stadium on game day, to the homeowners who turn on their flashing blue and green lights during watch parties.

The Seahawks and football in general are huge in Gig Harbor. We all remember the joyous Fish Bowls at Roy Anderson Field when it seemed like the whole town was there having a ball.

Blitz, the Seattle Seahawks’ mascot, and Seahawks cheerleaders at the 2025 Maritime Gig Festival Grand Parade. Photo by Larry Steagall

Heck, our local high schools colors are even blue and green and Peninsula is the only high school in the state nicknamed the Seahawks. It really doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Sea! Hawks!

I remember being at the Albertsons in Gig Harbor North on Feb. 2, 2014, a few hours before the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl. The store was packed with people stocking up on chips and dip and chicken wings before Super Bowl parties.

The mood, energy, and the smiles of the shoppers inside the store were contagious. The rush and anticipation before the start of the game felt like Christmas. Then, out of nowhere, it happened.

Someone, perhaps in aisle three, bellowed “SEA!” The chant echoed through the store, startling a few people. A couple seconds later, from around aisle 18, someone answered “HAWKS!”

Soon, everyone in the store was yelling “Sea” “Hawks!” as loud as they could. I stood there, suddenly emotional over the power of sports to bond a community.

I am a lifelong Seahawks fan who watched Steve Largent, Jim Zorn, Kenny Easley, Dave Brown, Michael Jackson and coach Jack Patera engineer improbable victories with grit, determination and a few well-timed trick plays. The underdog Seahawks started winning not long after the expansion franchise began in 1976.

In the ensuing 50 years, I have missed watching maybe 10 total Seahawk games that were on television. The total is probably closer to five. Not every road game was broadcast back in the day, but we had KIRO 710 radio tuned in to Seahawk broadcaster Pete Gross and his passionate enthusiasm. That was often even better than watching on TV.

Community of fans

But am I the biggest Seahawk fan from this area? I have met so many other super fans from Gig Harbor over the years that are just as passionate, knowledgeable and dedicated to the Seahawk blue.

I was a season ticket holder in my late 20s before a wife and two sons gave me different financial priorities. The emotion I felt at Albertsons came because I thought of the since deceased originator of the SEA-HAWK chant, Bill “The Beer Man” Scott, leading the crowd from one side of the King Dome to another during games that I attended in high school.

I recall nothing better than in 1983, walking on to the Bremerton ferry on Christmas Eve with a couple of friends and going to a Wild Card playoff game against the Denver Broncos with a ticket that only cost an unbelievable $14.99.

The Seahawks destroyed the Broncos 31-7, as Dave Krieg threw three touchdowns for the team’s first playoff win. The Kingdome was the loudest place I’d ever been. The energy of the celebrating fans was addictive.

That day Scott used his bellowing voice to orchestrate the Wave, which became a national phenomenon and further separated Seahawk fans from the rest.

Wallace Watts, aka Captain Seahawk, and his wife Cammie Watts, aka KamHawk, are perhaps Gig Harbor’s most prominent Seahawks fans.

The noise from the wave was so disturbing to visitors that in 1989, the NFL implemented an “excessive noise penalty” aimed at quieting Seattle’s crowd.

In a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers, quarterback Steve Young stepped back from the line complaining he couldn’t hear. The referee threw three penalty flags in a row that took away all of Seattle’s second-half timeouts.

The defiantly proud Seahawk fans only got louder, prompting the league to abandon the ridiculous rule before the regular season.

11 + 1

In 1984 the Nordstrom family, the original owners of the team, retired the number 12 to signify the fans’ importance as an extra player on the field — in addition to the 11 Seahawks.

And boy, could those 11 players in the early 1980s play quality ball. The team hired hard-nosed coach Chuck Knox, who brought his relentless “Ground Chuck” running attack with him. That era of the team featured a dynamic backfield duo of Curt Warner and John L. Williams.

Underdog quarterback Dave Krieg threw to reliable Steve Largent, who retired as the NFL’s leader in receptions, yards and touchdowns. Jacob Green, Joe Nash and Jeff Bryant anchored a tenacious defense.

The Seahawks got to within a game of the Super Bowl in 1983, beating Dan Marino and the Dolphins in Miami in the playoffs before losing to the eventual champion Los Angeles Raiders in the AFC Championship Game.

Save Our Seahawks

After that, the Nordstroms unfortunately sold the team to housing developer Ken Bering. The new owner tanked the team, in my opinion on purpose to move it. Sighting earthquake concerns to get out of his Kingdome lease, he packed moving vans with Seahawk equipment and had them drive south to Los Angeles in the offseason in an attempt to abandon our city.

The Seahawks of the early 90s were competitive, but not great. Talents like Joey Galloway, Brian Blades, Cortez Kennedy and Chris Warren starred. But after a few losing seasons with Bering in charge, fan support was at an all-time low.

I remember driving to F.X. McCory’s in Seattle in 1996 and seeing other Harborites there early one rainy morning at a Save Our Seahawks rally. S.O.S. founder Mark Collins organized the rally, with nearly 300 diehard Seahawk fans showing they weren’t going down without a fight.

Then-King County Executive Gary Locke stood on a table as the crowd roared, “Save Our Seahawks” over and over. That stirred the emotions of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who reportedly saw the telecast from his home.

Allen agreed to buy the team if the state would pay for a new stadium. He agreed to pay for any cost overruns if voters approved the funding.

Save our Seahawks signs went up around Gig Harbor, including on the old Span Deli sign that overlooked the Narrows Bridge and was seen by tens of thousands of commuters.

On June 17, 1997, a state referendum passed with support from 51.1 percent of voters. The Seahawks were saved and in 2002 what is now Lumen Field was constructed.

Thirteen other NFL teams have relocated over the years, but only one has been truly saved by its fans.

The modern era

In 1999, Allen hired Mike Holmgren as coach and the Seahawks drafted Hall of Fame offensive lineman Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson to block for NFL MVP running back Shaun Alexander.

Quarterback Matt Hasselback and fullback Mack Strong helped the offense while linebacker Lofa Tatupu and cornerback Marcus Trufant led a physical defense to our first Super Bowl appearance in 2005. The Seahawks lost to the Steelers, 21-10, but the ice was broken and the Seahawks would begin to soar from there.

Allen again made another wise choice in selecting the enthusiastic Pete Carroll as head coach in 2010. He and John Schneider, now the team’s general manager, drafted future stars Russell Wilson, Doug Baldwin, Golden Tate, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas and Bobby Wagner before trading for the eclectic and electric running back Marshawn Lynch.

Those players and coaches were a truly remarkable team that captured the hearts and souls of local fans and may have had the best defense of all-time. They won the team’s first and only (until Sunday?) Super Bowl trophy by crushing the Denver Broncos, 43-8, on Feb. 2, 2014, in New York.

Gig Harbor was a zoo that Sunday night. The Tides Tavern was bursting at the seams. Bars and restaurants filled with fans screaming and hollering late into the night. Sailboats had 12 flags waving from their masts in the harbor, trucks carried large “12” flags up and down Harborview Drive and downtown was a sea of blue jerseys.

The Seahawks returned to the Super Bowl the following year. You may remember what happened. We don’t need to discuss it.

Meeting Coach Carrol

Pete Carroll should be remembered as the Seahawks greatest coach with his “compete in everything you do” and “win forever” philosophies. But, like with Holmgren, eventually it was time to move on to a new and fresher era.

I was lucky to have a couple of minutes with Coach Carroll while my son and his grandson played in an AAU basketball tournament in Auburn. Coincidentally, it was on the day of the NFL draft that he suddenly was no longer a part of.

Carroll walked up and stood next to me alone, with a hat on and a hoodie pulled up high. He seemed to stare off into space while his grandson was out of the game. He appeared to be somewhere in the abyss, still somewhat crushed by his absence from the Seahawks on draft day.

I am not the autograph type, so I debated whether to say anything. But I felt compelled to tell Carroll how grateful I was that his “always compete” message translated to my sons, who had watched his teams for so many good times during their childhoods.

I wanted to point out how much his message of positivity meant to us, our hometown and the entire Puget Sound region that resonated in a way that no other public figure had ever done before.

He listened intently before saying, “I really appreciate hearing that, especially today.” He shook my hand. “There are no better fans than Seahawk fans and I will never change my mind about that,” he said.

Enjoy this

The Seahawks struck gold again by hiring defensive guru Mike McDonald as head coach in January 2024. He coached the NFL’s best defense as a defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens. John Schneider and current owner Jody Allen were wise enough to choose the rising star.

And what a team the trio have assembled. Young players like Devon Witherspoon, Byron Murphy, Jackson Smith-Njigba, Grey Zabel and Nick Emmamwori joined veterans Kenneth Walker, Ernest Jones, Leonard Williams, Julian Love, Jarren Reed and Sam Darnold to form the hottest team in football. The Seahawks have the league’s best defense and a quick-strike offense that averages 28.4 points per game.

The Seahawks beat the Rams for the division crown in a 38-37 overtime game that was a instant classic. In the playoffs, they demolished San Francisco 41-6 before eliminating the Rams 31-27 to reach the Super Bowl.

The view from Dennis Browne’s seat as the Seahawks score a touchdown against the Cardinals.

Now we have the tantalizing chance to win the NFL championship on the 49ers’ home field, in a pay back game for Super Bowl XLIX against the New England Patriots.

The script doesn’t get any better than that. It’s best not to jinx it with a prediction, but we are coming into the game rested and healthy with the better offensive, defensive and special team units, in my opinion. We have played a much more difficult schedule and should enjoy a home field advantage with 12s all over the stadium.

Whether you’re watching at the stadium in person or at home on your television sets, the excitement is high as the Seahawks are primed to win another Super Bowl title with a young team that could win even more championships in the future. But wherever you watch the game, enjoy it. Enjoy being a “12” because we are the greatest fan base in all of football. GO HAWKS!