BLYN — The little boy from the North Olympic Peninsula brought in two footballs with him when he met Sonny Sixkiller on Super Sunday.
Sixkiller, one of the all-time top quarterbacks to play at the University of Washington, was shown the first football, which was signed by Sixkiller and all of his teammates from the 1971 Husky football team.
“That was my sophomore year,” Sixkiller said.
The second football was blank.
“Joey wanted me to sign the ball that he plays with in his yard,” Sixkiller said.
“Joey was telling me that he won the ‘Big Hitter Award’ playing football. That’s great.”
Sixkiller says he wants to be an inspiration to smaller players. Some college football coaches wouldn’t consider him out of high school because they said he was too small.
“I was 5-10 and weighed 153 pounds my senior year,” Sixkiller said.
Sixkiller met Joey in the lobby of 7 Cedars Casino where he was the host of the casino’s Super Bowl party.
7 Cedars hired Sixkiller to be the official spokesman for the casino, said Jerry Allen, assistant general manager.
“Sonny is one of the Northwest’s Native American sports heroes,” Allen said. “He is also a great person. I have known him for a long time.”