Anthony in The Seattle Times: Husky Notebook — For UW’s Towns, Kelley, Pasadena Is A Home Game

The games are big for the Huskies these days. They’re even bigger for some of the Washington players, like Lester Towns and Anthony Kelley.

Towns and Kelley play this weekend against UCLA in the shadow of their homes in Pasadena. The prospect of winning a Rose Bowl berth and returning on Jan. 1 is almost too tantalizing.

“Every week is the biggest game of my life now,” said Towns, the fifth-year Husky senior linebacker who attended Pasadena High. “If I go, it would be the perfect ending to my career.”

Towns lives five minutes from the Rose Bowl. He used to ride his bike there and worked a couple of the Jan. 1 games as a barricade monitor or parking attendant, including the Huskies’ last appearance in 1993 against Michigan.

The prospect of a Rose Bowl has come much faster for Kelley, a John Muir High graduate who arrived only in midseason 1998. A hurdler, he used to accompany his track team on runs to the Rose Bowl for an occasional practice there.

“If you get up on the roof of my house,” Kelley said, “you can see the Rose Bowl.”

Kelley, who won a Husky weekly award for his play in the Arizona game, likely will see increased action this week, with the starter at outside linebacker, Jafar Williams, nursing an abdominal strain.

As for the Huskies’ lead position in the Rose Bowl race, Kelley said, “I always talked about it and wanted it to happen, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast.”

KOMO to Air Apple Cup

After ABC-TV announced this week it would carry the USC-UCLA game next week, KOMO-TV decided to pick up the Apple Cup game between Washington and Washington State. A provision in the Pac-10 contract with ABC allows telecasts of local rivalry games.

Notes

— For the first time since the Arizona State game Oct. 16, four tailbacks appear ready to contribute Saturday for the Huskies, although Maurice Shaw, the biggest factor of late, missed some practice time yesterday with a sore lower leg.

— Wide receiver Gerald Harris (thigh bruise) didn’t practice again yesterday. Neuheisel said tackle Kurth Connell is similarly questionable, although Connell (ankle) saw workout time.