Only a true fan could ace this test on rivalry known as: UH-BYU
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Perhaps you grew up with the University of Hawai'i-Brigham Young University football series.
Maybe you've booed BYU until you were blue in the face or, taking your life in your own hands, even rooted for the Cougars at Aloha Stadium.
But, after 25 games, how well do you really know this rivalry?
Take the UH-BYU trivia test and see how you stack up before Saturday's game at Aloha Stadium.
Remember to look only at your own paper. Get 20-25 correct and you're da fan. Twelve to 19 means you've been around. Eight to 11 isn't bad. Anything less means you must be from Utah.
1. It wasn't why they named a gym after me, but I was the first UH football coach to beat BYU.
2. I'm in the College Football Hall of Fame as a quarterback, but anybody who saw the 1980 game knows me for my left-footed punt to the UH 1-yard line.
3. The Rainbows won 17 games with me as their quarterback, but the ones people always remember took place against BYU in 1989 and '90.
4. Born and bred in Hawai'i, people thought I was a traitor for recruiting players to BYU and coaching there. It used to get so bad when the UH-BYU game rolled around that even my mother's hairdresser gave her heat.
5. I struck a Heisman Trophy-like pose in the end zone on the way to our win over BYU in 1990.
6. After winning the Heisman Trophy on one of the happiest days of my life, I had one of the longest nights of my career at Aloha Stadium.
7. BYU's streak of domination was so long (13 games) that when I became head coach at Hawai'i a long-time fan who was getting on in years begged me to beat the Cougars before he died.
8. I've been part of the UH-BYU series for the last 21 games, but I'll watch this one from New York where I'll be on a trip.
9. I'll quarterback BYU Saturday but with a church mission and redshirt year, I have been around so long that when I came out of high school in 1995 Hawai'i recruited me to run the option.
10. I was so frustrated by losing to Hawai'i that I vowed if they beat us a third time in a row, this time at home, I'd jump off Mt. Timpanogos in 1991.
11. BYU didn't recruit me out of high school, but after we rang up 56 points in 1989 and 59 in 1990, the Cougars offered me a coaching job to try and get the secrets of the spread offense.
12. I played for June Jones and I wanted to play for UH, too, but they wouldn't offer me a scholarship. So, I went to BYU, got national championship and Super Bowl rings and had a 15-year NFL career.
13. I was a doubtful participant for the 1980 game because of a sore shoulder. But after a visit to a Chinatown acupuncturist on game day, I threw a then-NCAA record 60 passes for 389 yards and a victory.
14. I beat BYU with five field goals at Honolulu Stadium.
15. We had sent a reporter and photographer to Hawai'i and were all set to do a big spread on the Rainbows in 1981 — until they lost to BYU.
16. Until Ashley Lelie came along, I was UH's career pass reception leader. But the pass most people remember me for is the one I dropped in the end zone in 1984 that would have kept BYU from winning the national championship.
17. My field goal try that bounced off the left upright was the closest UH ever came to winning in Provo.
18. I wanted to beat BYU so bad and end the losing streak that when we scored with 2 minutes, 23 seconds left, I went for the two-point conversion and the win instead of the tie. When it failed, we lost 24-23.
19. I beat LaVell Edwards on the golf course but, despite some close games, never on the football field at UH.
20. When I played linebacker for BYU in 1990, I was seven years older than some of the UH players I lined up against.
21. Until I came to Manoa, UH had gone 13 consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown against the Cougars. With my offense, we averaged 35 points a game against them.
22. I quarterbacked BYU for two years while dating — and later marrying — a girl whose family was from Hawai'i.
23. Before this meeting, both UH and BYU were nationally ranked.
24. I got so frustrated about losing recruits from the North Shore to BYU that I compared Lai'e to "Guantanamo."
25. Sportswriters called it the "Leap of Faith" when I dived over the offensive line at the snap and sacked the UH quarterback on the 1-yard line in the fourth quarter of our 18-13 win in 1984.
Answers: 1, Otto Klum. 2, Jim McMahon. 3, Garrett Gabriel. 4, Norm Chow. 5, Jeff Sydner. 6, Ty Detmer. 7, Bob Wagner. 8, LaVell Edwards. 9, Brandon Doman. 10, LaVell Edwards. 11, Ken Niumatalolo. 12, Kurt Gouveia. 13, Jim McMahon. 14, Reinhold Stuprich. 15, Sports Illustrated. 16, Walter Murray. 17, Carlton Oswalt. 18, Bob Wagner. 19, Dick Tomey. 20, Alema Fitisemanu. 21, Paul Johnson. 22, Steve Sarkisian. 23, 1981. 24, Bob Wagner. 25. Kyle Morrell.
