ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington University Athletics has announced its 2025 Hall of Fame Class to be inducted on May 3 inside Nicholson Arena. To purchase tickets, click
Among those being inducted is former Wildcat Football Player and All-American Jason Patterson.
Patterson was a member of the CWU Football Team from 1998 through 2001, during which he built one of the most decorated careers Wildcat football history. He has since embraced a career in education and currently teaches math at Enumclaw Middle School in his hometown.
Patterson's illustrious career places him among CWU Football's all-time greats, with his name appearing in 15 different top 10 categories. He is the program's all-time leader in career pass breakups with 49 and is tied for the most passes defended in a single season with 20 in 2001. His record of 22 career interceptions stood until this past fall. Patterson ranks second in career interception return yards (306), second in career interception return touchdowns (3), and is tied for second in single-season interception return touchdowns in a season (2 in 2000). Additionally, he ranks third in single season interceptions (11 in 2001), is tied for third for the longest interception return (99 yards vs. Western Oregon) and is tied for third in single-game punt returns (6 at Montana Western). He also ranks fifth in career kick return yards (838), sixth in single season kick return average (30.38 yards per return in 1999), tied for sixth in career punt (44), eighth in career punt return yards (416), eighth in career yards per kick return (23.28), and ninth in single season passes defended (13 in 1999).
Patterson's stellar 2001 season earned him First Team AP All-American honors, as well as First Team Don Hansen's Football Gazette All-American, Second Team Daktronics All-American, and Third Team D2Football.com All-American recognition. He was named the first-ever GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, earned First Team All-GNAC honors, and was selected to the D2Football.com All-West Region Team.
Below is a Q&A with Jason about their time, thoughts, and memories with CWU and the Ellensburg community:
Q: What does being inducted into the CWU Athletic Hall of Fame mean to you?
Jason: I think it's a pretty cool accomplishment. I remember part of my pregame when I was in Nicholson before home games they used to have the plaques down towards the basketball gym. I'd always walk through there as part of a pregame tradition to look at all of the people in the Hall of Fame. I knew that one day I wanted to be in there.
Q: You had one of the most illustrious football careers here at CWU, what is it like to be able to look at the CWU record book and see that you are still the record holder in multiple categories currently?
Jason: I think it's fun; I think it's the competitive part of all sports. It's just fun to get to see your name still in record books. Throughout the years I know there was a guy right after me that was getting pretty close and some of my buddies were joking around making fun of it. It's fun to be able to still see your name up there and all of the accomplishments that I was able to do over there.
Q: You are currently tied for the third longest interception in a single game, running back a 99-yard interception against Western Oregon, can you walk me through what that was like and what you were feeling when you were running it back?
Jason: We were playing at home, and we had just stopped them on third or fourth down, but a penalty was called so we had to redo it all over again. So, it was like seven or eight plays total since they went for it on fourth down, so eight plays in a row we were down within the 10 yard line. I think we were running Cover 2, and the guy threw it right to the flat and I picked it off and ran it back and I just remember as I was running by some of their players since it was down on their sideline that they were all yelling stuff like "fall down!" or "trip!" and different things like that. It felt good at the time.
Q: Who was the team you loved playing against the most and why?
Jason: I think it's between Western Oregon and Western Washington. I know WWU was our big rivals. It was always fun to get to play against other Washington kids. WOU, they always talked a bunch, it was always fun to play against them and try and beat them. Those were the two big rivalries that we had when I was playing.
Q: How often are you able to get over to Ellensburg to see some of the games?
Jason: My brother-in-law played after me. So, we went to a bunch of games when my kids were young. In recent years I haven't been back very often because I have kids that are playing every weekend in everything so it's just hard to make it back. My oldest son's actually a freshman and I dropped him off at the Central Football Camp last year, so it was kind of fun to get to walk back through, drop him off at the dorms, and then walk back to the field a little bit and see all the different things from when I was there. I dropped him off at the exact same dorm that I lived in as a freshman.
Q: Lastly, do you have any stories that you're willing to share from your time here at CWU?
Jason: A lot of the stories we had was just kind of being around the football team, hanging out with my roommates. I think mostly just gamedays and getting to hang out with my roommates who were all football players. I have one funny memory. I forget the name of the building right next to Nicholson, it was like the health department, I don't even know. However, during fall ball when it was like 95 degrees outside, that's where we had all of our meetings. We'd always have our team meetings at night after practices and go through film. We were getting ready for our team meeting, and I think I was talking a bunch of crap to a bunch of the linemen or something. In one of the rooms next door was a bunch of cadavers and they grabbed me and threw me in there and shut the door and I was freaked out of my mind and all the horror story thoughts were going through my mind. I was screaming and kicking the door and trying to get out of there as much as I possibly could. It's one of those things that wasn't funny at the time, but it's a funny story now looking back at it. Those were the fun things back in the day, just getting to hang out, just having different experiences. Getting to experience the funny moments, the joking around, just being around at least 100 guys all the time.
