Like '73, some games might be lost forever
| • | UH events affected by faculty strike |
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Back in early April, 1973, the last island POWs from the Vietnam War were returning home, a young diva named Melveen Leed was making her debut at the Sheraton-Waikiki, and the Hawai'i State Teachers Association was on strike.
Meanwhile, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association baseball season played on.
This week's HSTA teachers strike has caused a "total shutdown" of all OIA events, including organized practices. School fields are off limits, and the fate of the league and state tournaments is up in the air.
Similarly, in 1973 coaches involved in strike action were not permitted to supervise their teams. Sort of.
"They allowed athletic events to continue — however, it was left up to the district superintendents as to what (coaches) did on the days of those events," recalled Waipahu athletic director Keith Morioka, who coached the Marauders baseball team at the time. "Other districts allowed their coaches to come in and cross the (picket) lines, but the Leeward district did not."
According to an Advertiser article published April 18, 1973, Waipahu, Wai'anae, Pearl City and Campbell were forced to forfeit or postpone two baseball games each because of a directive issued by Leeward district superintendent Domingo Los Banos which suspended those schools' athletic events.
"They said, 'Once you're on strike, you're on strike,' " Morioka said. "They recommended that we don't cross the picket lines. They weren't going to allow us to coach."
But the rest of the OIA played on, and after two baseball dates, "the Leeward teams were permitted to return to the league provided their teams were handled by legitimate school officials," The Advertiser reported.
Morioka said the only way some teams avoided a forfeit was through coaches crossing the lines.
"I remember we came in on Wednesday for a game, and they said, 'You better go back out (to the picket line),' " Morioka said. "But Radford had a coach, and if we didn't have a coach we would have had to forfeit, so it just so happened one of our coaches crossed the line. The district superintendent allowed it."
Morioka said some coaches would cross the picket line just to salvage the games, and then go back out on strike afterward. But he said such a practice came at a price, and it would not be allowed today.
"This wouldn't happen now," Morioka said. "At that time it was very different, but there still was a lot of animosity and people don't forget those things. The reason for the 'total shutdown' now is to make it easier for the coaches, so they won't have to make the decisions we had to make. I wouldn't want them to go through the same things we had to go through."
Morioka also said practices were held during the 1973 strike, but only after all the people on the picket lines had gone home.
"We'd wait until 4:30 or 5 p.m., and then go to a community park," he said.
Liability apparently was not as big a concern back then as it is in today's world, with lawsuits abounding.
The 1973 strike, which lasted 17 days, did have a big impact on the spring season. All of the Neighbor Island leagues were shut down, and the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association conducted its golf and tennis championships without them.
Kaua'i High School, however, entered its golf team independently and one of the Red Raiders ended up winning the individual championship. That golfer was David Ishii, whose foundation now sponsors the HHSAA golf tournament.
Kapa'a also entered one golfer in the tournament.
HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said on Friday that he cannot forsee a similar situation occurring this year.
"It would be a board decision, but there are no present plans to allow individual schools to enter (independently) or to allow participation of individuals apart from their leagues," Amemiya said. "And I don't see us going forward with the tournaments without all the leagues involved. Either they're all in it or they're not."
Amemiya said that once the strike is over, the HHSAA will go over each tournament on an individual basis to determine what adjustments must be made, if any. For example, qualifying times for track and field may be modified to take into account the training and preparation lost due to the strike.
"We'll go over it sport by sport to see if we can determine the league champs and answer the question, 'Is it safe?' to have the tournament," Amemiya said.
Although times have changed in the past 28 years, the words written by former Advertiser sports writer Monte Ito at the strike's conclusion in 1973 ring as true as ever:
"For many high school athletes, the games they didn't play, the track events they didn't run and the golf and tennis balls they didn't hit ... are lost forever."
