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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, August 24, 2003

Stage set for Warriors to follow famous footsteps

• UH's biggest victories

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

Tommy Kaulukukui's 103-yard kickoff return in 1935 came on a perfect stage — the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Advertiser library photo

Longest kickoff returns

103—Tommy Kaulukukui, vs. UCLA, 1935

100—Chad Owens, vs. BYU, 2001

100—Chad Owens, vs. Air Force, 2001

98—Darrick Branch, vs. New Mex., 1991

Late in the 1935 football season a 5-foot-4, 145-pound halfback named Tommy Kaulukukui gathered in a kickoff three yards deep in the Los Angeles Coliseum end zone and ran untouched into a place in University of Hawai'i football history and national celebrity.

The 103-yard return for a touchdown — which remains the longest by a Warrior — and what would have been a 20-yard TD run that was called back, weren't enough to propel UH past a UCLA team that won 19-6 and shared the Pacific Coast Conference championship.

But they so opened the eyes of Los Angeles and national media that mid-November day that Kaulukukui earned rave reviews and a place on the All-American Board of Football team that season as a sophomore.

Grantland Rice, one of the most famous sportswriters of the day, nicknamed Kaulukukui "Grass Shack" and championed his selection as UH's first All-American.

Now, 68 years later as the Warriors prepare to play in the Coliseum again, this time in a Sept. 13 game against nationally ranked Southern California on Fox Sports Net, there is again a stage and an opportunity rarely available to UH.

Kaulukukui's feat — all the more remarkable in the pre-television days and overshadowing the Bruins' own All-Coast running back, Chuck Cheshire — should serve as inspiration for the modern-day Warriors to make their marks, if they can.

Generations after Kaulukukui's day in the sun and a run that some consider still the biggest single athletic moment in UH history, you wonder who might have an opportunity to follow in his footsteps.

What, for example, might the elusive Chad Owens, he of the two touchdown returns against Brigham Young in 2001, be capable of with a little daylight on the Coliseum grass.

How about crowd-pleasing slotback Nate Ilaoa? Big-play safety Hyrum Peters?

And, what of quarterback Tim Chang? There can be few better ways to launch a Heisman Trophy campaign than to put up yards and points against a Trojan defense projected to again be one of the nation's best.

Or, is there a new star to emerge for the Warriors?

In that, conditions couldn't be better. The time of the kickoff — 1 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time — assures that any highlights not only make the same-day game shows but the nation's Sunday papers as well. And USC's stature coming off an 11-2 Orange Bowl season gives added validity to whatever the Warriors might accomplish.

For the Warriors, a win could vault them into the Top 25 polls at their earliest point ever in a season and, with some winnable games thereafter, actually allow them to do some climbing. In the rare times UH has made it into the polls, it has only been well into the schedule.

If UH has hopes of landing a more prominent bowl position in the postseason or more national TV time, a win at USC is the way to get that ball rolling.

There is, of course, a Nov. 29th date with tradition-proud Alabama at Aloha Stadium also looming on the Warriors' schedule as a reputation-maker of an opportunity.

But as Kaulukukui demonstrated, if you want to write a Hollywood-like story, there are few better places to do it than from the Coliseum, where the "Hollywood" sign on the hills is visible.

• • •

UH's biggest victories

1. Hawai'i 27, Illinois 17. Dec. 30, 1992. San Diego. This Holiday Bowl triumph was the final touch on an 11-2 season that gave UH its only Top 20 finish.

2. Hawai'i 31, Fresno St. 24. Nov. 13, 1999. Aloha Stadium. The double-overtime thriller earned the Warriors a share of the WAC title and a bowl berth.

3. Hawai'i 56, Brigham Young 14. Oct. 28, 1989. Aloha Stadium. A decade of futility against the Cougars disappeared in one big blowout, opening the way for the school's first NCAA bowl appearance.

4. Hawai'i 6, Nebraska 0. Sept. 17, 1955. Lincoln, Neb. Ten months after closing the season with a 50-0 loss to the Cornhuskers at Honolulu Stadium, UH went on the road as a 40-point underdog and won.

5. Hawai'i 59, BYU 28. Dec. 1, 1990. Aloha Stadium. In the afternoon Ty Detmer got the Heisman, but when the lights went on the show belonged to quarterback Garrett Gabriel and UH.

6. Hawai'i 27, Iowa 24. Sept. 3, 1988. Aloha Stadium. In his debut, freshman Jason Elam kicked the deciding field goal in a victory over the ninth-ranked Hawkeyes.

7. Hawai'i 10, Washington 7. Sept. 15, 1973. Seattle. Classified as a small college team at the time, UH stunned the Huskies before 52,500.