I attended the University of Washington so long ago that the Husky football radio play-by-play broadcaster was Bob Robertson, not Bob Rondeau.

Yep, the longtime voice of the Washington State Cougars spent three years (1969-71) describing the exploits of Sonny Sixkiller and his Husky teammates between stints in Pullman.

Robertson gave the assignment his considerable all and UW officials were happy with his work. But a change in broadcasting rights sent Robertson back to the Palouse in 1972.

After floundering with a a succession of lesser announcers for nearly a decade, the Huskies finally struck gold when Rondeau was promoted to the lead football job in 1980.

Now in his late 80s, Robertson transitioned from play-by-play to a somewhat awkwardly defined commentator’s role on WSU football broadcasts a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the 67-year-old Rondeau announced last week that he will retire following next fall’s UW football season.

Rondeau and Robertson were and are exceptional announcers, deserving recipients of the Chris Schenkel Award for college football broadcasting excellence. Although they made no secret of the rooting preferences, they mercifully stopped short of becoming cheerleaders for their teams — an example that many younger announcers (such as the Seattle Mariners’ Rick Rizzs) would do well to follow.

They also represent the last Northwest links to a bygone era in which college football fans followed their teams primarily via radio rather than the current alphabet soup of cable television networks.

Comparisons between the two Bobs were not only inevitable but hotly debated by their respective fan bases.

Robertson’s unique vocal cadence, his attention to seemingly minute details and frequent references to Cougar Gold cheese were wickedly parodied for years on Husky pre-game shows. Many Cougar fans considered the polished Rondeau pompous.

Despite my UW allegiance, I always considered Robertson the superior all-purpose announcer. During his prime, he was far better than Rondeau on basketball and was even a decent baseball broadcaster for several minor league franchises.

Robertson would also get the nod for professionalism in the face of adversity. During the Tyrone Willingham era of UW football futility, there was always the sense that Rondeau had to be chained to his microphone to prevent him from bolting out of the booth midway through the third quarter.

To my mind, Robertson also deserved props for overcoming the stigma of being paired with two terrible football broadcasting partners in Paul Sorensen and Jim Walden. I admired him for distancing himself from Sorensen’s array of conspiracy theories but was disappointed (although not surprised) that he evidently never told Walden to “shut up and let me call the play,” about the 40th time per broadcast that the former WSU coach interrupted him to deliver some countrified banality.

Rondeau has the better voice and a greater flair for the dramatic. He is also a master of pacing, using his voice to build excitement during critical moments.

Although Grays Harbor Radio football play-by-play announcer Ian Cope, a WSU alum, would sooner endure waterboarding than be compared to Rondeau, he and the UW announcer share a common attribute. Both have the knack (rarer than you might think) of summarizing games in 10 or 15-second sound bites between plays. A listener tuning in late to one of their broadcasts can quickly determine what transpired earlier.

Suffice it to say that Rondeau and Robertson were both ideal for their respective audiences. In addition to their broadcasting talent, they provided continuity for Northwest football fans.

That’s why I cringed when IMG Sports Network officials (the broadcasting rights-holder for both UW and WSU athletics) announced a “nationwide search” to determine Rondeau’s successor.

Thanks to the school’s football renaissance under coach Chris Petersen, the Huskies have enough of a national profile to attract prominent announcers from other areas to fly in on weekends to call the games. But that type of hired-gun arrangement seldom works in practice.

In contrast, Robertson and Rondeau both knew the territory before they landed their college football gigs. Robertson had done a variety of sports (including Seattle Rainiers baseball) for a Tacoma television station for several years. Rondeau was the sports director of Seattle’s KOMO Radio when assigned to cover the Huskies.

A better strategy would be for IMG to target an up-and-coming Northwest broadcaster who could create his own long-term identity at Washington.

Long before I set foot on the UW campus, Washington held an audition to fill another football broadcasting opening. The winner was offered the job, but declined after learning that the deal also included calling Husky basketball — an arrangement that would have conflicted with his business and family commitments.

Too bad, since the late Grays Harbor sportscasting legend Bob Hoonan would have been a worthy predecessor to the likes of Bob Robertson and Bob Rondeau.