UH once had a 'Crazy' notion
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Long before there was June Jones and his $800,016-a-year contract at the University of Hawai'i, there was Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch and a controversial $60,000-plus "deal."
Nearly 30 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars apart in their associations with UH, the two figures nevertheless share some similarities despite their disparate eras.
Hirsch, an NFL Hall of Famer with extensive Hawai'i ties, died at age 80 yesterday. His passing recalls a time when UH first dared to ante up then-unheard of, for here, sums for somebody to anchor its athletic future.
Once upon a time, Hirsch, like the role now ascribed to Jones, was seen as someone UH could build its dreams around. Hirsch was looked to as someone who could take the Rainbows to the new levels, including Division I and major conference membership, that then-Gov. John Burns envisioned.
As a statement of purpose, the 50,000-seat stadium that Jones is now asked to fill, attract pay-per-view customers to and win championships in, was under construction in Halawa in 1974 when Hirsch, who had developed a number of friendships here from five Hula Bowl appearances, was tapped to lead a blue-ribbon panel evaluating the UH athletic program.
Hirsch, who began his college career at Wisconsin and had been general manager of the Los Angeles Rams, was the Badgers' athletic director in 1975 when the panel's report was delivered. It declared UH a long way from where it wanted to be, noting, for example, that existing campus facilities were, "one on a scale of 10."
Six months later, after UH athletic director Paul Durham had resigned citing health reasons, the so-called "Downtown Hui" of powerbrokers sought to assemble a package that would entice Hirsch to take the position.
Reports of an offer of upwards of $60,000, nearly tripling what UH had been paying for the job, immediately ignited criticism, on and off campus. Then-state representative Neil Abercrombie called the deal "unseemly" at a time of campus cutbacks.
The package was said to include a $35,000 salary, matching what Hirsch was receiving at Wisconsin, plus $5,000 from Koa Anuenue, the official booster organization, a Waialae Country Club membership said to be worth $10,000, and a down payment on a condo. That at a time when a penthouse condo could be bought for $130,000 in some places.
But after interviewing for the job and getting caught in a tug-o-war, Hirsch chose to remain at Wisconsin. It would be another year and at least one more rejection before UH, by then launched into the middle of one of its most tumultuous periods, was able to attract Ray Nagel.
Judge Jim Burns, the late governor's son who headed Koa Anuenue at the time, says he still wonders what might have happened had Hirsch taken the UH job. He wonders where the school might be today.
"There's no doubt that he was somebody that would have opened a lot of eyes nationally," Burns said.
Sort of like Jones, the man UH is now investing in.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
