Doug Martin, Husky football star and Rose Bowl champ, dies at 68

Doug Martin, the former UW defensive end who helped the Huskies win the 1978 Rose Bowl before playing 10 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, died Saturday morning after multiple medical complications. He was 68.

Martin's death was confirmed to The Seattle Times by several of his former Husky teammates, including Bruce Harrell, Stafford Mays and Cliff Bethea.

You'd be fortunate to know Doug," Bethea said. "And that's no joke. That's real. That brother was real. That's all we can say. And I'll always feel that way about Doug."

Martin spent four years leading Washington's defensive line from 1976-79, earning first-team All-Pac-10 honors and All-American consideration during his junior and senior seasons. His 323 total tackles still ranks third among all UW defensive linemen. The Huskies won 29 games during Martin's time on Montlake, including the Rose Bowl and the 1979 Sun Bowl.

Following his standout tenure with the Huskies, Martin was drafted No. 9 overall in 1980 NFL draft by the Vikings. It was the earliest a UW player had been selected in any football draft since running back Hugh McElhenny was taken ninth by the San Francisco 49ers in 1952.

Martin played in 126 career regular season games - making 94 starts - during his decade with the Vikings, registering 61.5 sacks, seven forced fumbles and an interception. He earned first-team All-Pro honors after his 11.5 sacks led the NFL during the strike-shortened 1982 season.

"He could rush the passer," Harrell, the former mayor of Seattle, said. Move laterally. He was the real deal, athletically."

The accolades and professional success, however, never inflated his ego, his former UW teammates said. Instead, they remember Martin as a devoted husband, father, brother and son, who became the social glue for the late 1970s Husky teams as they aged beyond football. Martin was a devoted outdoorsman, they said, whose deep love of fishing and cooking paved the way for his second act as a restaurateur.

More than anything, however, Martin was the kind of person who was consistently lending a helping hand, Harrell, Mays and Bethea agreed. Whether it was asked for or not. The friend everyone called when they needed to borrow a truck, were looking for help with a construction project or wanted a kindhearted ear to listen to their problems.

"He did a lot of things low-key," said Audrey Martin, Doug's wife of 44 years. "And I'm finding he did a lot of special things for people without acknowledgment. He never wanted to seek the spotlight, but just wanted to do good.

"He was a good man at a time where good men are fewer in number."

Douglas Martin was born in Greenville, S.C., on May 22, 1957, the fourth of George and Janie Martin's five children and their second son.

His elder brother, also named George Martin, was drafted to the New York Giants in 1975 where he became part of the famed Big Blue Wrecking Crew, winning the 1987 Super Bowl.

The family headed west when Doug Martin was around 7 years old, settling in Fairfield, Calif., halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.

In 1972, Martin enrolled at Armijo High School, where he was a standout football, basketball and track and field athlete. The Royals, coincidentally, also wore purple and gold.

Armijo is where Martin met Audrey King, too. The pair met in a biology class as 14-year-old freshmen. It was the beginning of their 52-year relationship.

Martin's high school athletic prowess quickly attracted some of the biggest college football programs on the West Coast. And while his brother made his name at Oregon, Doug chose Washington.

His decision, at the time, represented a significant gamble. Longtime UW coach Jim Owens resigned after the 1974 season. The Huskies won just six games in 1975 under his successor, Don James, a relatively unproven coach and an Ohio native who'd never coached farther west than Colorado.

Martin's faith in James paid off quickly. He started five games as a freshman in 1976. He was a crucial part of the resurgent 1977 Huskies, earning second-team All-Pac-8 honors as UW won eight games, the Pac-8 conference title and defeated Michigan 27-20 in the Rose Bowl.

A seven-win season followed in 1978, and Martin was named a captain during his senior season in 1979, guiding UW to a 14-7 victory against Texas in the Sun Bowl. He was undefeated in four Apple Cups.

Yet his teammates remember Martin's softer side away from the field. Harrell called him "a gentle giant." Bethea, who roomed with Martin during the Rose Bowl, treasured the memory of watching his 6-foot-4, 250-pound teammate leap onto his bed in terror after they found a mouse in their hotel room.

Martin's next step was Minnesota, but his NFL career was nearly delayed when the former UW defensive linemen held out on the advice of his agent, Howard Slusher, for a better rookie deal. The two sides finally agreed to a contract just four days before the season started.

"I'm glad it's all over," Martin told reporters at the time. "I'm happy with my contract, and I'm glad to be here. Now I can think about one thing. Playing ball."

Martin spent a decade with the Vikings, helping them make the playoffs four times. In 1987, Minnesota reached the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the Purple People Eaters in 1977.

During the offseason, Martin frequently returned to Seattle. His family began to grow, too. He married Audrey on Feb. 12, 1981, and their first child, a son named Kyle, was born in 1983. Two years later, their second son Corey was born.

Doug played his final season in the NFL in 1989, just one year after his brother George Martin retired. He and Audrey eventually returned to the Pacific Northwest, where he began working in the restaurant industry. He owned two restaurants: the Juanita Beach Broiler and the Rib Rack in Factoria.

His restaurant ownership was an extension of his passion for cooking. His former teammates said Martin was the team's chief grill master at get-togethers. Harrell, who spent decades fishing throughout the state with Martin after his NFL retirement, said his friend's seafood gumbo was particularly legendary.

But Martin's football career took its impact on the latter years of his life. He dealt with knee, hip, wrist and hand issues. His back caused him so much pain, Harrell said, that they often had to interrupt fishing trips to allow him to lie on the ground until the pain subsided.

And recently, Harrell said, Martin had begun displaying forgetfulness and confusion. Symptoms the 10-year NFL veteran worried might've been connected to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Martin sold his restaurants after taking on a primary caretaker role for his mother, Janie, until her death in 2022 while battling his football injuries.

That didn't stop him, however, from continuing to plan fishing trips and team reunions throughout his final years

"This wasn't expected," Harrell said. "We were literally, he and I, lining up a fishing trip the day before he passed away."

Martin was preceded in death by his sisters Lori Martin Evans and Helen Martin Cannon. He is survived by his wife Audrey Martin, their sons Kyle Martin and Corey Martin and his siblings George Martin and Brenda Thompson.

"Doug was an amazing athlete and accomplished things that a lot of people only dream about," Audrey Martin said. "But the thing that truly made him exceptional, in my opinion, is that he was a really good man, a good friend, a great husband and an amazing father."

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 6:32 AM.