Posted on: Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Michigan State, UH to meet in football

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i is expected to announce a three-game agreement to play Michigan State in football, resuming a home-and-home series after a 55-year "break."

The deal could be concluded as soon as this week, said Herman Frazier, the UH athletic director. A Michigan State spokesman said, "it should be any day now."

The deal would bring the Spartans here in 2004 and 2007 and send the Warriors to East Lansing, Mich., in 2005.

UH is 0-3 against Michigan State, the last meeting coming in the 1989 Aloha Bowl. The schools began a home-and-home series in 1947 when the Spartans came to Honolulu Stadium and UH played before 30,281 in East Lansing the following year.

It was to have been the beginning of a longer series, but while MSU coach Duffy Daugherty came to recruit dozens of Hawai'i players in his 19-year (1954-72) tenure and East Lansing drew a lot of students from here, UH never got back on the Spartans' schedule.

Michigan State is 4-6 this season.

Frazier said he and UH coach June Jones, "are on the same page on who we should be playing. I like his attitude on playing top teams, not just picking teams for wins. We're gonna pick teams that, I think, will also put some butts in the stadium.

"We're interested in teams that will bring a large number of their fans like Alabama. We want what is good for the athletic department, the university and the state."