Sid Otton ends career at top of state wins list

Coach Sid Otton is carried off the field at Connell after the 1971 Bulldogs wrapped up a 9-0 season which put them at the top of the state polls for the A division.

– Tony Overman, Tacoma News Tribune photo

Tumwater coach Sid Otton hugs his son Tim, and grandson Cade as the final seconds tick off the clock of a state quarterfinal game Nov. 19. Otton retires after a 49-year career.

The final game of a legendary run in Washington high school football went into the books on the other side of the state Saturday when Tumwater was stopped in the quarterfinal round of the 2A division of the state playoffs. Archbishop Murphy of Everett defeated the Tumwater hosts 48-10 to advance to the semifinal round.

The game has a Colfax connection because the loss was the final game for Tumwater Coach Sid Otton. Now 72, Otton coached football in Washington state for 49 years.

Otton, who tops the state for total wins, finished with a career record of 394 wins and 131 losses, according to the Daily Olympian.

At the start of the season he was 82 wins ahead of Bob Ames of Meridian.

Otton's record includes a four-year stop as the Bulldogs' coach before he went to Tumwater where he stayed for the remainder of his career, a total of 43 years.

He won his first state title in Colfax in 1971. That pre-dates the state's WIAA playoff system which now requires teams to advance through four and sometimes five elimination rounds before capturing a state title.

The Colfax win was the first of six state titles won by Otton's teams during his long career. His first state win with the Tumwater T-Birds came in 1987, 13 years after he departed Colfax. That game was played at the Kingdome.

Other title runs were booked by Tumwater teams in 1989, 1990, 1993 and 2010.

The Colfax title win in 1971 came after the Bulldogs rolled up a 9-0 season. The Gazette account for Nov. 11, 1971, notes the title was recognized at a special assembly after Otton and his players awaited the final word from the state's AP wire services.

Colfax had remained on top of the state polls for most of the season and captured the title with a 40-22 win over Connell in the last game of the season. Colfax at that time played the SE league in the A Division.

"He was kind of a quiet guy, easy going," Bob Bafus, retired Colfax basketball coach commented.

Bafus served at line coach for Otton's football teams, and Otton served as an assistant under Coach Bafus on basketball teams. The two coaches and their young families spent a lot of time together.

"I think he got a lot better as he went along, and he had a lot of good kids there over the years," Bafus said on Otton's long career at Tumwater.

Craig Cloaninger of Colfax, who was starting linebacker as a junior for the 1971 team, remembers the Connell game as the toughest of the year.

The Colfax `71 team had Moe Therrien as quarterback with Greg Brownell and Toby Hatley, then a sophomore, as running backs. Among players were Andy King, Rick VanTin and Pat Morton in the line along with Dave Entenmann, Joe Griffin, and Paul Gylling.

The Gazette's coverage of the final season game at Connell also featured a shot of Entenmann, then a junior, bagging pass.

Seniors on the team were Therrien, Brownell, VanTine, Griffin, Larry Cochran, Mark Ulrich, Dave Link, Randy Suess, Steve Miller and John Kell.

Also among the underclassmen were Ross Swan, Craig Culbertson, Rick Wells, Bob Closson and Scott Brannan.

One of the big wins for the 1971 Colfax team was a non-league clash against Medical Lake. The Cardinals went into the game with a 30-0 win string, and the Bulldogs ended it. The win drew the attention of the state pollsters.

During their 9-0 run, Colfax scored 364 points and allowed just 92. Beside Connell, other teams in the SE-A league at that time were Pomeroy, DeSales, Waitsburg and Dayton.

None of those teams now play in the WIAA's A division.

The next Colfax state title game came 10 years later at the Kingdome when Coach Dave Curtis led the 1981 Bulldogs to a title.

Now superintendent at LaCrosse, Curtis coached Colfax football from 1976 to 1997 with a two-year gap after the title season.

He became acquainted with Otton after he took over the Bulldogs helm and even visited Otton to get a few pointers on coaching.

One drawback in comparing Otton's 1971 Colfax team and the 1981 team is the absence of the playoff grid for the first team.

The 1971 Colfax title team was the second team Otton headed during his four-year stay in Colfax.

One of four Otton brothers who played football at Lewiston, Sid Otton graduated in 1962 and played two years at what was then Boise Junior College. He then played two years at Weber State where he was named a second-team all American, according to Dick Riggs of Lewiston who included a segment about Otton in his newly published "Just Another Sports Book."

After an unsuccessful tryout with the Dallas Cowboys, Otton started his coaching career at Coupeville, where he stayed two years and then studied for a master's degree at Utah before coming to Colfax in 1970.

Otton and his wife, Marjean, have three children; Tim, Brad, and Tana. Brad was born in Colfax in 1972. Tana was born in Tumwater.

Tim Otton has been an assistant coach for his dad at Tumwater since 2002, and Tana is now the volleyball coach for the T-birds.

Both Otton boys played football at Tumwater, and Brad went on to play for the USC Trojans.

A pre-season story by Lauren Smith in The Olympian noted Sid and Marjean used to catch an airplane at 4 a.m. on Saturdays after a Friday night Tumwater games to fly south and watch Brad play with USC in Los Angeles. They then flew home for Sunday night meetings with the team at Tumwater.

Two of the eight Otton grandchildren have played on their grandfather's teams. Cade Otton was a senior for the T-birds for this year. Cade has already committed to play football at the University of Washington next year, and that could signal the next football focus point for his grandfather.

He remained at Tumwater 10 years after he was inducted into the state's football coach.