Services next week for brothers Semeri and Talitiga Ulufale
Advertiser Staff
Services will be held Monday and Tuesday for brothers Semeri and Talitiga Ulufale — one a University of Hawai'i football standout and the other a civic hero — who died within a day of each other.
Talitiga, 44, or "Tali," died Jan. 21, on Maui ; Semeri, 46, died Jan. 22, on O'ahu.
Tali received the Civilian Medal of Valor for his efforts in subduing a knife-wielding man who was attacking a motorist and his family in 1995.
A few days after Tali's heroism, it was revealed that his then 2-year-old son Samson had undergone treatment at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children after lapsing into a diabetic coma. In response, a fund was created to assist the family.
Samson is among Tali's survivors.
Semeri was known more for his on-field efforts. A defensive tackle and kickoff coverage specialist for UH from 1977 to 1981, Semeri never saw a kickoff blocking wedge he didn't like.
"(He's) probably the best wedge-buster I've ever been around," said Bob Wagner, Big Island athletic director for Kamehameha Schools, who was UH's special teams coach at the time.
"I had friends in the community who told me they went to games just to watch him cover kickoffs."
Wagner recalls getting a call in the summer from a Bowling Green coach who was in charge of kickoff returns. The coach was reviewing a tape of his team's kickoff returns against UH in a game played the previous season.
In the middle of the session, the coach — Gary Pinkel, who is now at Missouri — stopped the tape and called Wagner.
"Who is 72 (Semeri's jersey number)?" Pinkel asked Wagner. "Who was that crazy guy covering kickoffs?"
In that game, Semeri had singlehandedly destroyed Bowling Green's blocking wedge.
By the third kickoff, Wagner said: "The whole wedge parted and let him go. They didn't want any part of it."
"He just had a great love for life and great passion for the game," Wagner said. "I'm saddened that he passed on."
Semeri's teammate Blane Gaison, 45, now director of athletics at Kamehameha Schools on O'ahu, said it "was a shock" to hear of Semeri's death.
He described Semeri as a "kamikaze ... one guy who basically gave his all every time he stepped on the field."
"Wherever Semeri was," Gaison said, "there was excitement."
Gaison recalled how much joy Semeri had in playing and practicing and how he conveyed a feeling of 'ohana to everyone. "If you were on the field and played football, you were family to him," he said.
Visitation will be 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at Mililani Memorial Park's Mauka Chapel, wake service 7 p.m. Visitation also 9 a.m. Tuesday at the chapel, funeral 11:30 a.m.; burial at Mililani Memorial Park. Casual attire.
