More than all the football championships he’s won as a player and coach, more than his career achievements, Edward "Skippa" Diaz holds most dear his years at Palama Settlement, which gave him a second home that shaped his character.
He is one of the thousands of kids from one of Oahu’s poorest neighborhoods who found a haven at the community center at 810 N. Vineyard Blvd.
"I was one of the luckiest kids in Kalihi, latching on to some of the real good, supportive adults at Palama Settlement so I could stay out of trouble," recalled Diaz, whose family, which included 14 children, lived in Mayor Wright Housing, about a block away. "If you don’t get this guidance, you’ll probably go the wrong way. … I was on the border. Most kids are on the border when they don’t get any adult instruction to be good people."
Diaz and Cecilia Blackfield, who created the recreation center at Palama 24 years ago and a scholarship program for youth, will be honored as longtime supporters at the nonprofit’s inaugural "Malama Palama" gala fundraiser, 5:30 p.m. Saturday at The Modern Honolulu hotel. Proceeds will be used to reopen the house on weekends, when it is most needed in the neighborhood, and for maintenance of 1920s-era buildings. For information and reservations, email Wendy Abe at wabe@palamasettlement.org or call 848-2501 or 848-2518.
The settlement was a pioneer in public health care, tenement reform, youth sports programs and other areas of need when Honolulu offered few of the social services for working-class men and women and their families that exist today. Started as Palama Chapel in 1896 by Central Union Church, it evolved under social worker James Rath into Palama Settlement in 1905, primarily serving as a support system for thousands of Chinatown residents who lived in disease-ridden slums, according to Palama archives.
Many were left homeless when a fire set in 1900 to eradicate the bubonic plague raged out of control.
"Palama Settlement was just one of the most wonderful things I found," said Diaz, 69, in an interview. "It was like a second home. That was the place that made me the kind of person I am today."
At age 9 or 10, Diaz was overweight, winning him the nickname "Big Bamboola."
"I was 160 pounds," he recalled. "I should’ve only been 100 pounds."
He was judged too heavy to play football or other sports he liked, and Diaz could have been left out of athletics altogether.
But Nelson Kawakami, director of the swimming program, took him under his wing.
"Come do some swimming with us," he urged Diaz.
He shed no pounds but at least got a workout.
Diaz also gives credit to black-belt karate instructor Sonny Emperado, who taught him the self-discipline he needed to learn karate and other sports like volleyball and basketball. And he adds swim coaches Bertha Lee Nahoopii and Harry Mamizuka and former staffer Lorin Gill to the list of those who ingrained in him the values that have served him well through life.
EVENTUALLY Diaz got to play his beloved football, becoming a standout at Farrington in the class of 1962. He went on to become an All-Pac-10 defensive tackle at Oregon State University and a professional in the Canadian Football League.
He returned to Farrington for 21 years, 17 years as head coach, leading the Governors to the playoffs 12 times.
Diaz acquired his signature slogan "Bite down and go hard" from Farrington coach Tom Kiyosaki, who demanded every drop of determination from his players, he said.
"Lo and behold, I became a teacher and a coach. I used the tactics I acquired from these people, and a lot of good things happened to me and the kids that I coached and taught at Farrington and Mililani High School, and Waialua, in my 32 years," said Diaz, also a former deputy director of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
His voice quivered as he attempted to hold back tears, recalling, "A lot of kids, hundreds of them, went on to college and became good, outstanding people in the community. Even till today there are grandkids of the kids I coached who come up and say, ‘My grandpa told me about you.’ Money cannot buy the good things I got from the kids I taught, who became good adults and parents when they got older. That’s what life is all about."
Palama is also recognizing Blackfield, 98, for her five decades of community service in Hawaii since stepping off the Lurline ocean liner in 1958. She is past president of the Outdoor Circle, an organizer with the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society and a founding member of Scenic Hawaii, among other environmental and anti-development projects. Blackfield served on the advisory board of the city Parks Department and has been instrumental in the upkeep of the McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park.
But closest to her heart has been the establishment of the Leland Blackfield Youth Activity Center in 1989 at Palama to honor her son, who died of a heart attack at 46. A baseball scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, Leland Blackfield loved sports of all kinds and volunteered to work with underprivileged kids. Her son always brought back balls and shirts for Little League kids he umpired, she said.
"Leland didn’t have the skills to play, but he had the knowledge to make a team and what goes into friendship and kindness and growth," she said.
Blackfield wanted to build a baseball field in his honor after her son died, but there wasn’t enough space at the time, so she ended up providing batting cages for practice and creating a recreation center that was supervised.
"It seated 50 people, with a big TV and pool table," she added. After looking into different organizations in need, "Palama just seemed to be the place," she said.
Every year, she funds Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and presents for children, but "the loveliest thing of all is I started a scholarship fund" in her son’s name. Since 1998 Blackfield has awarded 139 students for a total of more than $160,000, according to Abe, Palama’s executive director.
