Dick Tomey's excitement at being offered the University of Hawai'i head football coaching job in 1977 was tempered by the cold reality of the situation.

"I just knew that everybody (UH had talked to) turned down the job," Tomey recalls. "Jim Mora, Dick Coury, Rudy Hubbard ..."

"Maybe," Tomey says, "that was why they offered it to me."

But if Tomey wasn't UH's first — or even second or third — choice then, 32 years later he has come to be seen as not only the right choice but a key figure in Hawai'i sports.

Tomey left UH in 1987 with the most wins in UH history, later to be overtaken by one of his former assistants, June Jones. But the measure of Tomey's tenure is deeper than the 63-46-3 record.

The 39-year-old Tomey was about hope and stability at a juncture when UH football had reached its lowest ebb. In some ways the situation then was more dire than even the 0-12 season of 1998.

Flash back to the spring and early summer of 1977 when, in the wake of a 3-8 season in which UH had been outscored 127-3 in its final two games, three assistant coaches departed, a recruit drowned off Waikiki, the varsity lost its spring game to the Alumni 33-26, the legislature spiked an overdue campus facilities upgrade and head coach Larry Price threw up his hands in frustration and resigned May 12.

Oh, and two days later 33 UH football players threatened to leave if their concerns weren't addressed by the school administration.

Soon after, Tomey agreed to leave UCLA, where he had been an assistant coach, for a $33,500 annual contract and a season three months hence that included games with South Carolina and Arizona.

In short order, Tomey had to "re-recruit" most of the UH players to stay, hire three assistant coaches and convince a skeptical public that the school could field a competitive football team.

What Tomey did with the football program would be key for UH's hopes of receiving an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference and maintaining Division I membership. Twice previously UH's candidacy had been rebuffed and a school that had stepped up from the NCAA "small college" designation just three years earlier had found it tough going as an independent.

But Tomey not only professed optimism; he demanded it. At the time Tomey told anybody that would listen, "when I hit a ball into the trees I still believe I can make par."

Said Tomey recently, "I was anxious to believe, just like I am now."

The fact that Ray Nagel, whom Tomey knew through his UCLA ties, had assumed the athletic director job at UH less than a year before helped. "Ray gave me somebody to believe in," Tomey said.

Plus, Tomey said, "I felt Hawai'i would be a good place for my family."

Somehow, he engineered a 5-6 finish in his inaugural year, including a 24-7 victory over South Carolina, and then managed winning campaigns in seven of the next nine years. In the process, UH football became an event and attendance rose from an average of 20,236 to 44,651 at one point.

"Dick came in and raised the expectations, raised the standard," said Jesse Sapolu, who would become a Pro Bowl player for the San Francisco 49ers. "By the time he left ... we broke through a lot of barriers ... joined the WAC, played in the championship game against BYU and Jim McMahon and he filled up the stadium."

Tomey was not able to beat arch rival Brigham Young in eight meetings but his teams knocked off Arizona State, South Carolina (twice), Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The biggest reward? "The job offered me — and my family — the chance to be part of the culture, the community," Tomey said.

Sapolu said, "I think the people of Hawai'i should be thankful for the time and effort he's given to the state. He did a lot of good for UH football."