By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Trailing grimly 19-0 at halftime to Wyoming in 1978 and going nowhere in a hurry, the University of Hawai'i football team rallied for a stirring 27-22 victory.

"I've never seen anything like it," head coach Dick Tomey marveled at the time. "In the third quarter it was like the field tilted."

And, for 26 years, that game, like the legendary "sideline chat" of 1986, served as popular yardsticks for Rainbow and, now, Warrior comebacks.

Until now, that is.

Saturday night gave the Warriors a new standard and a renewed perspective. With a 41-38 victory over Michigan State built on the disappointment of a 21-0 second-quarter deficit, the ceiling has been raised.

Not only in depth of comeback but in terms of significance for it having propelled the Warriors into the postseason with a berth in the Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

Curiously, there has been no section entitled "comebacks" in the UH team records, though, in the so-called "modern day" there have been some memorable contenders.

In 1975, Larry Price's team rallied from a 20-6 deficit in the second quarter to smack 15th-ranked San Jose State, 30-20, supplying UH's first upset of a Top 20 team.

When Tomey's 1986 team was down 13-0 to Wyoming in the first quarter and showing no signs of life, it seemed a candidate for a blowout, not legend. But Tomey called an abrupt timeout, gathered the players on the sideline and, in front of a stunned-to-silence Aloha Stadium crowd, proceeded, in colorful terms, to light a fire under UH. It worked and UH eventually won, 35-19.

In the Holiday Bowl season of 1992 under Bob Wagner, UH took one of its biggest steps toward the school's only Top 20 finish when it rallied from a 23-8 first-quarter deficit against Fresno State to pull out a wild 47-45 victory.

Part of the reason there haven't been more has been that, in the past, if UH dug itself a considerable hole, it rarely possessed the kind of quick-strike offense to get back into the game again. But the firepower of the run-and-shoot offense has been such that while it can make a defense vulnerable when it sputters, on the flip side, the run-and-shoot can also leap considerable deficits when it finds its rhythm.

Witness, for example how quarterback Tim Chang's place in comeback lore was assured well before Saturday night's four touchdown passes.

In 2002, Chang rallied UH from a 21-9 fourth-quarter deficit at Fresno State for a 31-21 triumph. Then, five games later, he directed the Warriors from a 40-29 fourth-quarter deficit to a 41-40 victory over San Diego State.

But as big moments as they were, the one people will be talking about — for more than just the controversy over officiating — will be Saturday night's comeback win over Michigan State.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.