The University of Hawaii football team — led by a young first-time head coach — lost one more regular-season game than it won. But there’s excitement about what’s to come.
We could certainly be talking about UH’s current status, with Nick Rolovich, 38, heading into his second season at the Rainbow Warriors helm … and with the opening of preseason camp on the horizon, we obviously will, soon.
But today we take a look back to when 39-year-old Dick Tomey took over the reins at Manoa in 1977.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since a UCLA assistant started his decade-long tenure at Manoa that changed UH football forever.
The confluence of Tomey’s hiring, a new stadium and football conference membership for the first time — all within the space of a couple of years — spurred unprecedented statewide popularity for the program. Attendance gradually climbed, as did the Rainbows’ talent level, quality of play and overall relevance.
UH was just 5-6 in Tomey’s first season, but the wins included a 24-7 upset of South Carolina the week before a season-ending 17-10 loss to Arizona.
Lance Tominaga was a kid growing up in Waipahu. The opening of Aloha Stadium was a boon for his family.
“We could walk to the games from my grandpa’s (Richard Asamoto) house in Aiea,” said Tominaga, whose family became season-ticket holders after Tomey’s first year.
As a 12-year-old then, there was no way Tominaga could imagine he’d end up helping Tomey document his time at UH.
“Of all the books I’ve worked on this was the most fun project,” said Tominaga, author of four titles, including “The Hawaii Sports Trivia Challenge” and “Catch The Dream,” which is about Hawaii Winter Baseball.
He is Tomey’s ghostwriter for “Rise of the Rainbow Warriors: 10 Unforgettable Years of University of Hawaii Football,” set for release in October by Watermark Publishing.
“One of the neat things about the book is that we had the idea of instead of just (Tomey’s) perspective, we talked to about 40 other people, including players and assistant coaches,” Tominaga said.
Niko Noga, Gary Allen and Blane Gaison are among the stars who share their thoughts.
Tomey describes the finished work as “different than most books.”
“It’s not about anyone in particular. It’s about an era. A very special era, the time we were all there,” Tomey said. “How did this happen? Why did this happen? It wasn’t any one thing. It was a combination of things that created this unbelievable energy that surrounded the team.”
UH went 63-46-3 in Tomey’s 10 years, putting him at the top of career coaching wins at Hawaii when he left for Arizona in 1987. But, as he points out himself, in the Tomey years UH never won the WAC, never went to a bowl game and never beat BYU. There was, however, something undeniably magical going on.
“It wasn’t that we won more. Yet more people came out to watch those teams with more enthusiasm than before or after,” Tomey said. “The thing was we’d draw and it didn’t matter who we played. You can’t really find another time when that was true.”
Part of it was a penchant for playing big-name programs tough at home. Another factor was that this was way before the pay-per-view live TV era.
After Tomey’s first year, the ’Bows posted five winning seasons in a row, peaking with the 1981 team that won its first seven games and finished 9-2.
That was Hawaii’s best record until 1992. Tomey’s defensive coordinator and successor as head coach, Bob Wagner, had taken the baton and run with it, with big wins, including against BYU. In ’92, Wagner guided UH to 11-2, including its first and only mainland postseason victory, over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl.
There have been many peaks and valleys since, but it can certainly be argued that Tomey’s tenure set a stage for much, if not all, of what followed.
Sometimes fans complained about what they saw as a bland offense in those years. But they showed up anyway, often filling the stadium to see UH’s trademark hard-hitting defense.
The biggest Aloha Stadium crowd in 1976 was for the last game with Larry Price as coach, when 33,737 saw a 68-3 loss to Nebraska.
Every home game drew more than 40,000 in 1987, when UH went 7-5 in Tomey’s last season.
“It was in many ways an explosion of energy. There was so much identification with the public with our team,” Tomey said. “The heroes of the whole thing are the fans.”
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads Opens in a new tab.
