UH football - Heart-Attack-Game!!!

Along with the million plus residents of Hawaii, and the unnumbered expatriates like us, I was thrilled as the UH football team began its 12th and last regular season game last Saturday night.

“All” they needed to do was beat a 4 and 8 Washington team to have a PERFECT season and thus achieve something NEVER before achieved by a UH football team—receive an invitation to a major BCS bowl and gain nationwide recognition and respect.

And we were playing at home in the Aloha Stadium, packed with ti leaf waving fans ready to witness history being made.
I think you need to have some background to appreciate this story. Those of us who lived in Hawaii where there are no professional sports, know that UH football is the only serious game in town. Over the years the faithful fans have suffered through opponents reluctant to put UH on their schedule, top Hawaii high school football players going to mainland colleges to play, rather than UH, and mediocre coaches that produced sad teams, winning only occasionally. Then came Head Coach June Jones, former NFL quarterback and head coach, willing to come to Hawaii and endure those conditions at a meager salary, far below that of mainland coaches. Could this be the Solution?? We all hoped so.
Jones’ is a long story, but for today it’s enough to know that he slowly rebuilt the program over several years to the point that UH had gone Undefeated this year, which brings us to Saturday’s game.


On the West Coast, where I was going to watch it, the game started at 8:30 PM. Washington scored first, then second, then third! UH fumbled and stumbled like the sad teams back in the day. I could barely stand it. By the end of the first quarter it was 21 to nothing. No team could overcome that, I thought. Mom was recording the game, so after the third UH turnover I turned it off and wearily went to bed.
The next day there wasn’t time to watch the rest of the game before we went to church and I didn’t know if I even wanted to see it. Might as well learn the score, so I turned on ESPN. The score came across the bottom of the screen as a crawler “Washington 28 (groan) University of Hawaii 35 “ WHAT? WE WON?? The other team must have left at half time and went home.

After church I watched the DVD. The poor crowd. 2nd qtr UH finally scored then Washington scored again. At the end of the half it was Washington 28, UH 7. Auwe. Since I knew the final score I realized two things: Washington would not score again in the game and UH would score 28 unanswered points in the second half. Must be a blow out. But it wasn’t. It was a hard fought battle on both sides. UH didn’t tie the game until late in the 4th quarter. The fans were hoarse (and probably taking Maalox)
Could Heisman hopeful QB Colt Brennan* do it one more time?? If I hadn’t known the final score I would have been taking Maalox. There was only 44 seconds left in regulation time when Brennan’s five-yard pass to Grice-Mullen put UH ahead and bring the victory home!!
*He’s the one who bleached his hair blonde and had the map of the Hawaiian Islands sculpted into the hair on the side of his head.

Well, now we know UH, with a final ranking of 10th in the nation, 12-0, will play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, in New Orleans and win or lose, will receive a 4 million dollar pay day (twice the annual UH football budget)
The Star Bulletin used an immense font to announce the story “PERFECT”. Next to becoming a state, there may not have been a bigger story in Hawaii’s history. For many UH fans June Jones could be Governor and Colt Brennan Mayor. But of course Jones and Brennan are needed for important work. Bring on the Bulldogs!