By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

It was not Stan Sheriff's nature to tap his finger in the chest of politicians or lecture editorial writers, even when the last laugh was clearly his to enjoy.

Were the late University of Hawai'i athletic director with us tonight to mark the 10th anniversary of the arena that bears his name and consumed so much of his energy, he might even have resisted the temptation to tell a lot of critics of the facility, "see, what did I tell you?"

More than likely, however, there would have been a discernable twinkle in his eyes, a little extra bounce in his step and a lot of spine-rattling back slaps meted out as he watched the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team play Rice in a showdown of Western Athletic Conference unbeatens.

For it was big volleyball matches, sold-out basketball games, graduation ceremonies, concerts and convocations that he envisioned a UH arena hosting. Events like this were why he, then-Gov. John Waihee and an army of supporters persisted in seeing to fruition the quarter-century quest for a real on-campus arena.

From shortly after he first took over the athletic program in 1983 until his death from a heart attack in 1993, getting an arena off the drawing board, through the halls of power and into the Manoa quarry headed Sheriff's ample to-do list.

"I think it (the need for a new arena) was on Stan's mind from the first time he attended a volleyball match at Klum Gym," recalled his wife, Jane. The same could be said for anyone who slogged through mud to get to leaky, creaky Klum Gym and then swatted termites and wiped away sweat.

To that end Sheriff made sure the first thing visitors to his office saw was the framed picture of the 16,400-seat UNI-Dome at the University of Northern Iowa, where he had been AD and football coach before coming to UH.

It was on his wall not as a grand "see-what-I've-done" exercise in self-congratulation, but as a persistent reminder of what could be done at UH. Indeed, what needed to be done at a school whose facilities had once been rated, "one on a scale of 10" by a regents-commissioned panel of outside experts.

But while Sheriff dreamed 16,000 seats and reluctantly campaigned for 12,000, the thinking in many places was that 4,000 would suffice. "UH doesn't need mammoth arena" an editorial said. "A 4,000-seat facility may be enough," said another. A ranking legislator counseled: "4,000 (seats) in hand is better than 8,000-seater in the bush."

Sheriff decried such thinking as "narrow-minded" and "short-sighted." "A glorified high school gym," basketball coach Riley Wallace called the 4,000-seat concept.

Grudgingly, the powers that be came around to 8,000, only to be infuriated by Sheriff's adamance on something bigger and more suitable.

He got taken to task but, finally, got the go-ahead for 10,000 seats — and a blueprint for future expansion.

Unfortunately, he never got to see the dream poured into concrete. Five months after Sheriff died at age 60, the school finally had a ceremonial ground-breaking on what was initially known as the Special Events Arena.

Now, a decade after its opening, the wonder is how UH ever lived without the arena. Or, could have considered anything less.

Had her husband lived to see tonight's anniversary of the facility's opening, Jane Sheriff said, "he would have been very happy, very proud. He would have said, 'it is working.'

"That would have been enough for him."

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