Long-suffering University of Hawai'i fans who have lived through losing campaigns and empty seats struggled yesterday to find the right words to explain how special this season has been.

"It's just so hard to describe," said Derek Kobayashi, an attorney from Pearl City who has undergraduate and law school degrees from UH.

"It's unbelievable ... just amazing."

Amazing is exactly what a sellout crowd at Aloha Stadium got last night as the Warriors made history. Despite trailing the Washington Huskies for almost the entire game, Colt Brennan and friends snatched a 35-28 victory to cap a perfect regular season at 12-0. It appears that a big bowl game is in the offing.

"What an awesome way to end the season," said stunned fan Tony Goo. "It's just unreal, just unreal, fantastic. This is the best."

Before the pandemonium of the game, hundreds of season ticket holders yesterday continued family tailgating traditions of arriving early, gorging on ribs, Portuguese sausage, poke and nearly anything imaginable — and then staying after for postgame gatherings until Aloha Stadium security guards chased them away.

It's been that way for more than 25 years for Kobayashi's family, and now includes six other families of season ticket holders.

It's a tradition that's already been burned into the soul of Kobayashi's 9-year-old son Kelsen, a fourth-grader at Momilani Elementary School, who has been coming to UH games since before he can remember.

Even when the Warriors lose, Kelsen said, "I still like coming because I like to watch them play."

But even at his young age, Kelsen appreciates what he witnessed this year from his seat in blue section GG. "I've never seen them have a perfect season before," Kelsen said.

Up and down the rows of cars and trucks filling Aloha Stadium parking lots yesterday, among smoking grills and coolers full of beer, UH fans toasted a season unlike any other.

"It's finally nice to see them gain some respect, said Darren Serra of Salt Lake, who is the band director at Wai'anae Intermediate School.

Serra has been sitting in the same seat since 1981, even before he joined the UH marching band in 1983 as a student.

"Finally, people are saying we're good," Serra said. "Being on an island, you forget that people on the Mainland don't respect us. It's just so hard to describe this feeling."

Honolulu police officer Anthony Kalahui, 29, grew up watching the Warriors from his dad's season-tickets seats in the B section of the south end zone.

"I came from small-kid time," Kalahui said. "Believe me, this is a magical season."

With success this year have come crowds and traffic congestion. But for a police officer, Kalahui said, the winning has cut down on problems in the stands.

"Less fights when they win," he said. "With a losing season, way more fights."

Goo's friend Karen Silverstein of Hawai'i Kai has seen long lines in the stadium's bathrooms, crowded concessions and packed crowds in the concourses.

"This stadium doesn't accommodate sellout crowds at all," she said. "They close (the parking lots') gates and you can see there's still hundreds of open spaces."

During the lean years of UH football, sisters Betty Tahata, 78, and Grace Kunimura, 72, and Grace's husband, Lloyd, 77, could get to Aloha Stadium hassle free in 30 minutes from Kaimuki.

Yesterday, it took them nearly three hours to finally park their Toyota Sienna van at the game.

"If next year is going to be like this, maybe we won't come," Tahata said.

But they will. The three have been buying season tickets near the roof of Aloha Stadium in yellow section M since the 1970s.

"We went through (coach Fred) von Appen and everything," Grace Kunimura said.

"We'll still come as long as we are able to walk."

The sisters attend every UH sport but they only buy season tickets for football. They could not explain their loyalty to the Warriors other than "it's the home team," Grace Kunimura said. "You gotta support the home team."

Dayleen Fuller, a 30-year-old student at Chaminade, calls herself a fair-weather football fan.

She attended her first UH football game this year against Charleston Southern, then returned for Fresno State and Washington.

"This is my first year," Fuller said, "I jumped the bandwagon, I guess."

And that's all right to many of the UH faithful.

Success makes it easier for Fuller's friend Sharon Marcos, 30, to bring out a good-sized group. Marcos teaches math at St. Joseph School and has watched UH football fever spread among her students.

"They're all really into UH football and Colt Brennan," Marcos said.

Serra, the Wai'anae band director, like several season ticket holders, hopes that even more fair-weather fans come out next season.

"You can tell who the real fans are," Serra said. "But if you want a big-time football program, you're going to need as many fans as possible."

Loyal fans support Warriors through 'magical' season

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.