It was love at first light for Charles "Chuck" Leahey and Elizabeth Louis. They met during an event at the Alexander Young Hotel (now Tamarind Square) in downtown Honolulu. He asked her for some matches, sparking a romance that led to their wedding on Christmas Eve in 1941.
It turned into a double ceremony. For the rest of his life — he died on Sept. 28, 1982 — he used sports to foster the marriage between Hawai'i's military and civilian populations. The Tacoma, Wash., native married to the local girl wanted to "tear down the fences between the military and local communities," said his son, sportscaster Jim Leahey.
Chuck Leahey was a citizen of both worlds. He was living aboard the USS Dobler, a destroyer that was 500 yards from the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. He served in the battles of Midway and Iwo Jima. Later, he worked as the chief journalist at Pearl Harbor, doubling as the "athletic director." But he also became immersed in local culture, an Irishman with a fondness for saimin and all things teriyaki.
At Pearl Harbor, he set up sports leagues, then provided the play-by-play on KGU-AM.
In football broadcasts, he would describe distances not by yards, feet or inches, but by the length of a manapua.
As an organizer, he helped provide opponents for the growing University of Hawai'i teams. That led to his role as co-founder of the Rainbow Classic, an eight-team UH-hosted tournament that is in its fourth decade, and the Rainbow Easter baseball tournament.
After his mother's difficult divorce, she changed the family name from "Leahy" to "Leahey." Now through the legacy maintained by his son, Jim, and grandson, Kanoa, KHON's sports director, the Leahey name is synonymous with Hawai'i sports for the present and future.
