Games with BYU were unforgettable
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Brigham Young is not a rival, but the Hawai'i football team's measuring stick.
Advertiser library photo • Dec. 1, 1990
UH's acceptance into proper football society was not complete, it seemed, until it finally defeated BYU.
Former quarterback Garrett Gabriel will always be remembered for leading UH to two straight victories over BYU.
While "Beat BYU" had become a rallying cry, it also is part of the justification, "For all you've done, did you beat BYU?"
As such, players' careers were defined by how they played against the Cougars. Here are three of them:
The Quarterback
Garrett Gabriel played 34 game for UH, including one in the postseason, but he is remembered for only two.
"People still come up to me and say, 'Thanks,'" said Gabriel, who led UH to 56-14 and 59-28 routs of BYU in 1989 and 1990. "I happened to get lucky twice."
But luck had little to do with it. Although the Cougars won 10 in a row through 1988, the gap had narrowed.
"You could tell we were getting even with them," Gabriel said.
In retrospect, the victories are viewed as twins, and as the proud parent, Gabriel cannot favor one over the other.
"It's hard to choose," he said. "Both were special."
In 1989, UH was 5-2 when it faced BYU, and it needed a victory to keep alive its hopes of a berth in the Aloha Bowl.
UH opened the game with the receivers aligned in a snake formation, which caught the Cougars off guard and sparked a 21-0 surge. The Rainbows reverted to their option sets after that.
"Afterward, we realized we didn't need trickery," Gabriel recalled. "We proved we were a good team."
As Gabriel walked off the field that night, he thought, "It was such a relief. All of the hard work paid off. For one game, it paid off."
Playing in the Aloha Bowl that year "was icing on the cake," Gabriel said. "The big thing was to go out and beat BYU."
During the offseason, Gabriel glanced at the 1990 schedule. He noticed the Rainbows would finish the regular season against BYU.
"I told myself, 'What a way to go out,'" he recalled of his senior season.
As usual, the Rainbows spent the night before the game at the Airport Holiday Inn. At the hotel, they watched the televised announcement that BYU quarterback Ty Detmer had won the 1990 Heisman Trophy. Then they watched as the Cougars tossed Detmer into the hotel pool.
"We took it as someone coming to our turf, trying to show us up," Gabriel said. "Plus, we wanted to prove the previous year wasn't a fluke. That gets you motivated."
The Rainbows won again, and after one touchdown, slotback Jeff Sydner struck a Heisman pose.
Gabriel, now 33, is married and has two sons. "I don't know where time has gone," said Gabriel, who is a social worker.
He said he doesn't mind when strangers ask him about the games.
"I'm glad we made people happy," he said. "The victories were for everybody in the state."
The Kicker
It wasn't the wind or the crowd or, even, his inexperience.
"I hit it straight — straight to the upright," Carlton Oswalt said of his missed field-goal attempt from 22 yards in a 41-38 loss to BYU in 1993.
The loss also wasn't his fault. On the previous play, slotback Brian Gordon dropped a sure touchdown pass. After Oswalt's miss, the Cougars drove downfield in two plays, setting up the winning field goal.
Still, details become cloudy with time, and even Oswalt said, "I think about it a lot. In life, you always remember the disappointments and you remember the times you mess up. You tend to always remember things like that."
Oswalt was a true freshman in 1993, and that game was the first of his collegiate career.
"It was a great hold, a great kick," he said. "It was a severe angle, but it didn't matter. I should have made that one easily."
Oswalt, who will earn a master's in physical therapy from Georgia State in May, said he remains in contact with former UH teammates Chris Shinnick and Eric Hannum. He said he plans to watch tomorrow's national telecast of the UH-BYU game.
"That's always a big game," he said.
The Receiver
Matthew Harding remembered the spaghetti-kneed feeling the first time he met the man who would become his father-in-law.
Tom Barca broke the ice by saying, "That was a nice catch you made in '92."
That year, UH beat BYU, 36-32. While Marlowe Lewis, who was not even listed in the media guide as playing that year, scored the winning touchdown, Harding is remembered for pulling in a 51-yard pass on the Rainbows' final series.
Harding was not supposed to have played. But on UH's previous possession, wide receiver Darrick Branch complained about a play selection. The UH coaches decided to bench Branch and use Harding, then a redshirt freshman, on the final drive, with the Rainbows trailing by three.
"I didn't know the play," Harding recalled. "Ivin (Jasper, the UH quarterback) told me to run a streak and get open. I knew I had to get inside the 40, because we had Jason Elam, and he could kick the tying field goal. But we weren't thinking about the field goal. We wanted to win the game."
Harding broke free behind the BYU secondary and made a diving catch. He then pointed toward the Halawa sky, a gesture for his brother Travis, who died two years earlier. Branch replaced Harding on the next play.
Four years later, Harding and his parents dined at a restaurant on the North Shore. They were told that their check had been paid.
"A man came up to me and said, 'You don't know me, but I will never forget that catch you made,'" Harding said. "That was a real cool thing to say."
Harding and his wife, Robin, live in Palm Springs, where he is director of a recreation center. He continues to follow the Warriors.
"We get 'Hawai'i Five-0' on cable here," he said, "and sometimes I'll watch the opening credits to hear that theme song. I still get excited when I hear that song."
