The 2008 Ete Bowl was held in 2009. Other than that small snag, it was the same fierce, raw and glorious wahine football game it has been for 30 years.

The game was founded in 1978 by then-law students Diane Ho, now a well-known Maui attorney, and Riki Mae Amano, now a retired Big Island judge. It began as a flag football game between the female third-year law students at University of Hawai'i Richardson School of Law and the second-year students. It quickly evolved into a game of Richardson alumnae, called the Bruzers, vs. the current women students, known as the Etes.

The term "flag football" doesn't quite capture the tenor of the game. This is no tea party. There have been busted knees, ripped quadriceps and arthroscopic surgery after the game. Those injuries are recalled with pride.

The roster of players over the years is a who's-who of Hawai'i's attorneys: Della Bellati, Lea Hong, Eden Hifo, Sabrina McKenna, Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano. This year's Bruzer quarterback, civil rights attorney Jill Nunokawa, has a killer arm.

The Etes, saddled with a team name that is old-school pidgin for "dorky, uncoordinated, silly, lame" and so on, embrace their ete-ness with pride.

The Bruzers have 21 wins, eight losses and one tie. The Etes won last year. This year, the pressure was on. In the end, the game played at the UH-Manoa football practice field ended in a tie — what they called 4-4, or four touchdowns apiece.

Players thought the tie was a good thing, because the game was getting pretty heated.

The list of rules is pages and pages long (lawyers!) and they're still arguing the finer points on the field (lawyers!).

Ete captain Jamila Jarmon was injured on the first play of the game yesterday. Fingernails across her face drew blood. "And the rules say we have to cut nails," she said.

Since it is a bowl game, there is a queen. First-year law students — all male — compete for the honor. Max Kopper won the crown, and he and first princess Chad Kumagai went shopping for evening gowns at Jeans Warehouse. They stood with the Etes, their dresses billowing in the breeze, holding the down markers in one hand and a beer in the other.

The rivalry is keen, yet when an Ete player — former UH soccer player Jessica Domingo — goes down with an injury, the Bruzers dive into their coolers and pull together an ice pack for her. That's the heart of the game.

"Being a woman in the legal profession was at one time impossible, and then in the latter part of the 20th century it became just difficult," Ete coach Donna Davis said. "Now women make up more than 50 percent of the students in law schools across the country, but it is still a hard career path to travel. This game is a physical manifestation of the power, determination and competitiveness of women in our field."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.