No one who was at the Punahou School track the first Thursday in May of 1983 — and I was among them — will ever forget it.

Joey Bunch's planned run at the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association state meet 800-meter record, set 16 years earlier by future Olympian and American 5,000-meter record holder-to-be Duncan Macdonald, had been hyped in Honolulu media for days, so there was a bigger crowd than usual for the Thursday afternoon qualifying heats.

There were perhaps a thousand people on the hot concrete bleachers at Alexander Field, but they sounded like 20,000 when Bunch flew around the final turn of the 800.

Bunch never lost an 800-meter race in Hawai'i during his four years at Radford High. He promised he would go for the record and reporters and TV crews were poised.

Joey Bunch's father, Joe Bunch Sr., a long-time track aficionado and former Radford assistant track and field coach, remembers the day vividly.

"It was one of the most memorable and most exciting events in the history of track in Hawai'i," he said. "It was something people were expecting, and the Punahou track was filled up with people the most I've ever seen, either before that or since.

"When the gun went off, after the first lap, everybody was standing and cheering. They sensed something good was going to happen."

That spring, Punahou had connected the big clock on its stadium scoreboard to the track's electronic timing system. It stood near Manoa Road, high above and beyond the 'ewa finish line, and it flashed the time as races progressed.

I was standing across from the straightaway, by the wall of Hemmeter Gym. I will never forget the crowd reaction.

It was as if they were doing The Wave, raising to their feet in unison a section at a time as Bunch flew toward them and past them - his spikes flashing in the sun and his eyes focused on the big clock that was ticking up -- 1/100th of a second at a time -- at the end of the track.

"Coming off the last turn, I saw (the clock) in the 30s, and I said 'Go,' " Bunch told Advertiser reporter (and now sports editor) Curtis Murayama after the race. "I heard the crowd. The crowd helped."

The crowd had to help him, because none of the other runners could. The closest one was nearly seven seconds behind Bunch.

In the final 20 meters, as the clock relentlessly marched toward the record, and he realized he would break it by nearly a second, Bunch says he felt mainly "a lot of relief. I finally got it."

What some people didn't know was that Bunch had hoped to take an even bigger bite off the record.

"He told me earlier in the week that he might take it down to 1:50, because he was running well and feeling strong," Joe Bunch Sr. said. "And he probably would have done it, if he hadn't run the 1,600 earlier in the day."

Despite that, in the 24 state championship meets held since then, no one has come close to getting Joey Bunch's HHSAA meet record time of 1 minute, 51.1 seconds.

Using chiefly decathlon-scoring tables to compare records in diverse events, it is the diamond of the Hawaii high school track record book.

NATIONAL PROMINENCE

The record-setting run helped expand Bunch's track horizons.

"I think it motivated him to reach higher goals," said Joe Bunch Sr. "It also helped him get recognition, and opened the door for him to go to major universities."

In the years that followed, Bunch ran Hawai'i into national track and field consciousness for the first time since Macdonald broke Steve Prefontaine's American 5,000-meter record and competed in the 1976 Olympic Games.

He won the national Junior Olympics championship two months after graduating from Radford, and continued to dominate the 800 — winning the California Community College championship in 1984 and 1985 for Taft College and the Pac-10 Conference championship for University of Southern California in 1986.

Bunch also won the Junior Nationals and Junior Pam American Games in 1985.

His career-best of 1:46.8 on April 19, 1986, is tied for fifth on USC's all-time list, and only one Trojan has run faster in the 21 years since.

But misfortune struck Bunch en route to the 1988 Olympic Games. He pulled his right hamstring badly late in 1986 and needed a year off to rehabilitate his leg.

The Olympic year of 1988 started great for Bunch — he had the nation's fastest time early in the season, and his eyes were on making the U.S. Olympic team that summer — but the hamstring pulled again and did not respond to treatment. His NCAA eligibility ran out and Bunch never ran competitively again.

STILL COMPETITIVE

He returned to Hawai'i after earning his masters in physical education from USC in 1992, and has been teaching physical education at Washington Middle School for 16 years.

While races are far behind him, Bunch continued to compete until 2001 in his other sport — karate — and still teaches at his father's Hawaii-Okinawa Karate Shudokan, which held its 25th anniversary Aloha State Championships last weekend.

"I think I got my competitive nature from my dad (Joe Sr.)," says Joey.

"Fighting in karate tournaments as a kid has a lot to do with my drive."

He won gold and silver medals at the 2000 national karate championships and was invited to represent the U.S. at the Pan American Games in El Salvador, but declined because of his teaching schedule. That was his last competition.

Now, Bunch, 42, goes surfing almost every weekend with his wife, Karyn, a 1984 Punahou graduate, and their two daughters, Jennifer, 11, and Kyara, 8. "The girls tandem surf with me sometimes," he said.

'PRETTY GOOD' AT IT

Bunch's run to the record books began when he would go to Radford High, near his home, after middle school classes and run with the high school boys. "It was a neat thing to hang out with older kids, and I realized that I was pretty good at running," he says.

His sister, Elizabeth, two years older, already was a star hurdler at Radford. Now Elizabeth Patton, she is head boys and girls track and field coach at her alma mater. Her older son, Kenny Patton, played football for University of Hawai'i, and had an NFL tryout. Her daughter, Kaeli, played on the Asics national championship age-group volleyball team this summer. Another son, Kerry, attends Radford.

Joey's two younger brothers, Jerry and Jeff, live on the Mainland.

If some young runner out there has his eyes on Bunch's state record, Bunch says:

"My advice would be the same thing I say to my students. Live your dreams and don't leave any regrets."

The Advertiser continues to look back at some of the more memorable events and teams that hold a place in Hawai'i high school lore. If you have a suggestion, e-mail us at: preps@honoluluadvertiser.com