HAVE A BLAST WITH OUR PAST
UH pulled upset of ages

Learn about Hawai'i sports history and those who figured prominently in it in this feature. We'll ask a question Wednesday and present the answer in an in-depth profile on Thursday
Hartwell Freitas Fullback and linebacker • • • Ed Kawawaki Quarterback and halfback • • • Charles Araki Offensive and defensive line	Q: On Sept. 17, 1955, he scored the game's only touchdown in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in Hawai'i football history, the Rainbows' 6-0 victory over Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb. Who is he?

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

A: Fullback Hartwell Freitas plunged over from the one-foot line, capping Hawai'i's 6-0 upset over Nebraska. The year before, UH, composed of mostly the same players, lost at home to the Huskers, 50-0.

Hartwell Freitas plunged over the goal line for Hawai‘i’s touchdown in this picture that appeared in the Lincoln Journal and Star Sunday, Sept. 18, 1955. NOTE: Photos and article clippings from that era were provided from the scrapbook of James Shizuru, who was a center on the 1955 UH team.

An impossibility was becoming possible right before their eyes.

Little University of Hawai'i, the team Nebraska had abused 50-0 in Honolulu the previous November, was locked in a scoreless tie with the mighty Big Red.

And the Rainbows, outweighed and outgunned at every position, were threatening to score midway in the fourth quarter.

Freshman Bill Taylor, just out of Kaimuki High School, raced 37 yards to the Nebraska 6.

Ed Kawawaki, subbing at quarterback for injured Fred Nagata, fumbled but picked up the ball, tried to pass, and battled to the 1-foot line.

On the sideline, coach Hank Vasconcellos said, "Give it to Hardy and let him dive over."

Fullback Hartwell Freitas, who had replaced Clayton Ching on the previous play, took a handoff from Kawawaki. "I stepped on top of our guard and dove over," Freitas recalled this week.

"I landed on my head and I was in the touchdown zone."

Charlie Araki, who played tackle on both offense and defense in those years of one-platoon football, remembers:

"He went right up my hole. ... The play he scored on was the 31 fly trap. That's the fullback right up that hole. You trap the tackle. He blasted right in."

Freitas, a senior who had played high school football for St. Louis, told sophomore place kicker Don Botelho, a Roosevelt grad: "You better make that point or nobody's going to remember you."

But Botelho's kick was wide to the right. "That was the only miss I ever had in my career," Botelho said.

Nebraska had time to rally and salvage its reputation, but the Cornhuskers had major problems.

"After we scored, I told our guys, 'We got 'em already,' " Kawawaki said. "They were not a passing team. Our coach came out with a nine-man front and they wouldn't throw. And anyway, they were against the wind (which was gusting to 26 mph)."

Nebraska did reach the Hawai'i 26, where a steadily moving clock forced the Huskers to resort to passes. One skipped off the fingers of an open receiver in the end zone, and the drive stalled.

Nebraska had threatened once earlier, reaching the Hawai'i 7 on the opening drive of the second half. Halfback Skippy Dyer, the Rainbows' best running back, cut down the Huskers' best running back for no gain on fourth down.

The stadium was "a sea of red," Botelho recalled. After Hawai'i took control of momentum, Cornhusker support wilted along with the 20,000 vanda orchids that the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau shipped to Lincoln to be given to fans.

Kawawaki had been "a dazzling halfback all afternoon," a Nebraska reporter wrote. But he had to move to quarterback at the start of Hawai'i's winning, 62-yard drive because starting quarterback Nagata was hurt returning a punt.

"That was my fault," Kawawaki said. "My eyes are real bad. (Sports writer) Bill Kwon calls me 'the half-blind halfback.' "

Kawawaki was blocking for Nagata on the punt return. "I didn't see these two guys and they crushed him," Kawawaki said. Nagata was taken to the hospital with a concussion.

Kawawaki was so nervous that he called plays that were slow developing so that "I could get hold of the ball. The first couple of plays I fumbled under the center.

"I called the same play three times in a row, from different formations. Fake to Jerry Stothers, fake to Clayton Ching, and give it to Bill Taylor. On the third one it worked." Taylor broke loose to set up the touchdown.

"That was practically the same team that gave us a dirty licking in Hawai'i" and went to the Orange Bowl the year before, Kawawaki said.

"I think they were thinking about the game after us (against Rose Bowl champion Ohio State and Heisman Trophy winner Hopalong Cassidy). They weren't paying attention to us and that was good for us," Kawawaki said.

There appeared to be little to fear from the Rainbows. Their only previous game was against a team of former high school all-stars in Honolulu.

Hawai'i brought only 28 players on the trip. First-string quarterback Dick Hadama was injured.

The Rainbows were small. "I put down 185 or 190 on the roster sheet, but I really weighed 165," Kawawaki said. "The biggest guy was not more than 220."

Although he scored the only touchdown, Freitas felt he made a bigger contribution on defense. "Coach (Vasconcellos) and Kayo (assistant Kayo Chung) came up with a 6-3 defense to stop their option," he said.

"I played middle linebacker and I hit the quarterback every play, whether he had the ball or not. That was my sole job."

Nebraska gained 157 yards rushing to Hawai'i's 264.

"They hadn't seen that type of defense," Freitas said.

Sportswriters in Lincoln excoriated the Huskers — and praised the Rainbows — the day after the game.

Dick Becker of the Lincoln Journal and Star wrote, "The Rainbows played brilliantly. They showed skill, guts and an extreme will to win. No team has ever been more of an underdog and won a more clean-cut victory."

UH coach Vasconcellos said at the time that his players "were boys turning into men. There is no question that Nebraska is superior. We won through courage and sheer guts."

Kawawaki explained it simply, "We were local people. Only two of our players were from the Mainland. We represented Hawai'i."

Alas, the magic was not to last. In those days, Hawai'i made road trips of as long as 20 days, playing two or three games, because hotels and meals were cheaper than plane tickets.

The Rainbows returned to the West Coast and were whipped, 34-0, by San Jose State the next week. "We were just too tired," Freitas said.

Though they defeated the Hawai'i Navy and Marines and the Hawai'i Rams to win the University-Armed Forces Conference championship, Hawai'i went 1-3 against intercollegiate competition.

Freitas, a retired Army major who lives in Las Cruces, N.M., follows the current Warriors closely. He'll be driving 40 miles to El Paso Saturday to see the UH-UTEP game.

How would the 1955 Rainbows do against the 2002 Warriors?

"I think we'd beat 'em," Freitas said.