Chow is aware he has THE ticket
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
When Norm Chow's daughter, Maile, was married on the North Shore earlier this month, the University of Southern California offensive coordinator received more than congratulatory expressions from friends and relatives.
There was also an impromptu line for ticket requests. "Everybody was asking me for tickets (to the Sept. 13 game with Hawai'i)," Chow said. "Cousins I haven't seen for a long time; relatives I've never seen before were asking me for them. And not just for one or two tickets, either. But six, eight ..."
Chow's response: "I told them, 'I'm not gonna give out tickets just so you can come to the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum and root for Hawai'i.'"
Even in his 27 record-breaking years at Brigham Young University, Chow, a Punahou School graduate and former Waialua High coach, says he doesn't remember being hit up for tickets at home like this.
If there is a game shaping up as the one to point to on the Warriors' 2003 schedule, this is it. And, judging by the response, even July isn't too early to start.
While coaches can talk all they want about playing them one-at-a-time and the necessity of not looking past Appalachian State on Aug. 30, fans are different. They can — and are —already circling the Sept. 13 date on the calendar.
Indeed, if there is a game that will be an early yardstick of head coach June Jones' tenure at UH, this one, against what is bound to be a top 20 USC team, is it.
Four years ago, Jones' UH head coaching debut came against the Trojans and, for what remains the only time in his UH reign, the Warriors were held without an offensive touchdown in a 62-7 loss.
Now, against a USC team coming off a No. 4 finish in the polls, the Warriors will be five years into Jones' system with an opportunity to see how far they have come against the Trojans.
For the 57-year-old Chow, September will be an old home month of sorts. The week before UH comes to the Coliseum, BYU will provide the competition, with all the hoopla sure to come with it. Then, it is UH, where Chow was a finalist for the head coaching job that eventually went to Fred vonAppen in 1995.
"First — and this is the only game we're talking about right now — is Auburn," Chow said. "After last year (a 24-17 USC win), they're waiting for us down there. But I've been watching film on Hawai'i and we know we're going to have our hands full, too."
On the field — and when it comes to tickets.
