Ticket manager Tanida retiring after 28 years

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Of all of the participants involved in their last University of Hawai'i regular-season football game tonight, the most significant departure is Edith Tanida's.

Tanida is retiring this month after 28 years as ticket manager for UH sporting events.

"She's done an unbelievable job for us for a long time," UH football coach June Jones said. "We'll miss her."

UH basketball coach Riley Wallace said: "Everybody wants a seat at midcourt or on the 50-yard line. It's a tough job to be the one to have to tell people 'no.' Underneath that shell she developed for work, she's a very nice person. She's been a good friend to the university and a good friend personally."

Jim Donovan, the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl's executive director who had been affiliated with UH for 22 years, described Tanida as "the matriarch of the athletic department for the last three decades. In a lot of ways, she was a mom to a lot of people. She would give advice, and she treated you like family. She would work hard to make good things happen."

Tanida's career has spanned more than a half century. She was the ticket manager at the old Hono-lulu Stadium for more than two decades before moving to UH in 1975.

Until the 1990s, tickets were sold manually. With the introduction of a central computer system and the completion of the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994, her office is able to coordinate sales at several locations, as well as by telephone and through the Internet.

"She bled green and white for many, many years," Donovan said. "She'll be missed."

Later kickoff: To accommodate ESPN2's telecast, today's game be will kick off at 6:35 p.m., a half-hour later than the usual starting time for a Warrior home game.

Ford Island will not be available as an alternate parking lot, although fans may park at Leeward Community College, Radford High School and Kam Drive-In. The Aloha Stadium parking lot opens at 2:30 p.m.