Excellence in athletics

"I want (the athletic department) to be thinking this is a preeminent institution which has the opportunity to win a national championship in every sport and win the Sears Cup."

When Evan Dobelle gave the University of Hawai'i athletic department its double-time marching orders, one of the first benchmarks he proposed was the Sears Cup, annually representative of the best all-around performance by an athletic program.

The Sears Cup, actually a Waterford crystal trophy, goes to the school in each division (NCAA I, II, III and NAIA) with the most overall points in a cross-section sampling of sports. In Division I, where Stanford has won seven of the eight trophies, points are awarded for finishes in national championship events and final polls in 20 sports ranging from baseball to women's water polo.

At the moment, bringing the trophy to Manoa is a beyond-ambitious goal. But as a symbolic challenge, the Sears Cup might be just the kind of reach-for-the-sky prize it takes to raise the bar on thinking. At UH, where the highest finish has been 68th in 1995-'96, it could be the type of bold target to improve across-the-board performance and interest in the 19 sports UH sponsors.

But, as a matter of reality, you wonder how attainable it is in the foreseeable future given current financial circumstances.

Or, perhaps a better question is: When will UH be able to afford the price tag of success at that level?

Consider that all of the schools that finished in the top 20 of the Division I Sears Cup this year have budgets of at least $20 million — and some double that. The Top 10 in this year's standings spend, on average, $34 million each.

Compare that with UH, which has never had a budget of more than $16.4 million and isn't due any help from general funds. It has had to look under the sofa cushions and clip coupons even to come up with that much.

Nor has any Western Athletic Conference team, most of which have budgets similar or below that of UH, ever cracked the Top 10.

Once upon a not-so-distant time UH had taken aim at the more modest goal of becoming a consistent Top 40 finisher in the Sears Cup standings. But even that was predicated upon a hoped-for annual budget of $20 million, which has also yet to materialize.

Where the money will come from to underwrite making UH the type of across-the-board contender to compete on the Sears Cup championship level is anybody's guess at the moment.

While there is room for improvement in ticket sales and creative marketing solutions are increasing the revenue stream, there is still a considerable gap between UH and the programs it hopes to rub elbows with.

While Pac-10 schools annually take home about $5 million from their share of conference television and bowl deals, UH was thrilled to get $606,000 as its piece of the WAC pie this just-concluded fiscal year.

Dobelle, who has announced an intention to meet soon with the head coaches of all the sports, said if there is a commitment to taking the program to a higher level, he'd be willing to roll up his sleeves. "I'd have to find the resources, probably externally, to give them what they need. It would be pretty hard to rationalize taking money out of the classrooms, so it would probably have to be raised externally."

If the new president is serious about UH becoming a Sears Cup contender, getting there will require him to pitch in.