Confirming once and for all the eBay slogan, "It's better when you win," Honolulu orthodontist David Dung and attorney Earl Ching gathered nearly 40 of their friends and family members for a Sugar Bowl experience many dream of but few experience.

The fired-up Warrior fans spent New Year's Day watching their team face Georgia from the elegant confines of Luxury Box No. 432, all thanks to a winning online bid by Dung and Ching.

It was Ching who first spotted the eBay auction for use of a luxury box during the game. He told Dung, who was still hunting for tickets, and Dung placed a bid — what the heck, right? Dung and Ching were mildly surprised when they received notice that they'd won, but they charged ahead in planning the party of the year.

The box owner is David John Yeh, a Louisiana neurosurgeon and diehard New Orleans Saints fan.

Owner and guests have been hitting it off famously since Dung and his friends arrived. Yeh invited Dung to his New Year's Eve party and attended last night's soiree in his suite, even loaning his assistant to help with the party.

"He's taken really good care of us," Dung said. "More than hospitable."

And Dung and Ching returned the generosity in kind to their guests, offering gumbo, Angus tenderloins, shrimp and chicken Caesar salad and much more — a fresh offering of choices before the game, at halftime and after the game.

The box was fully equipped for maximum viewing pleasure, with a giant flat-screen television in the main room, a sleek kitchen and bar, sofas, another TV monitor, and four carpeted tiers of stadium seats overlooking the Roman spectacle of the field.

"It's an amazing facility," Dung said. "We came in through the top and I just stood there in the end zone staring for a while. It would be nice if Hawai'i could have a facility like this but I don't know if it would happen."

For guest Carl Haga, 70, of Manoa, attending yesterday's historic game had special meaning. A Na Koa Anuenue member since the 1960s (his seats at home are on the 50-yard line), Haga had never attended a UH road game before.

"It's just unbelievable," Haga said.

Chad Karasaki, 45, of Kailua attended the UH-Reno road game this season and was sold on the excitement.

"It was such an unreal game," he said. "I said, 'That's it, if they win out, we're going wherever they go.' "

No one at the party had a longer route to the luxury box than optometrist Peter Shoji, 50, of University. He's been on the road since Dec. 16, when he accompanied his son to a junior golf tournament in Florida. From there, he and his family visited an old classmate of his in Myrtle Beach, S.C., then flew to Los Angeles for a visit with his sister-in-law.

Shoji, who completed his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois, was tempted to stick around see the Illini play USC in the Rose Bowl. However, his loyalty to UH (where he spent his first two years of college) made a side-trip to New Orleans inevitable.

"It's been a great season, a whole big Cinderella story," Shoji said. "And it'll be great to end it on a big emotional note."

Ian Lloyd — a Korean-American who lives in Athens, Ga., and owns a Japanese steakhouse — is not unaccustomed to feeling unique, but he was as conspicuous as he's ever been as the only Bulldog fan in the room yesterday.

Dung met Lloyd, a Georgia alumnus, at Yeh's New Year's Eve party and invited him to yesterdays fete. Lloyd said he got a warm welcome even though "everybody looked at me funny."

For Dung and Ching, whose love of the Warrior program dates back almost as far as their friendship, watching the game with friends and family in such luxury was the perfect way to put a cap on a historic season. Dung, a season-ticket holder for more than 20 years, just hopes that the good vibes extends into next season and beyond.

"It's exciting to see what (head coach June) Jones has done for this program and I don't think we would be here without him," Dung said. "We need to do whatever we can to keep this coach here because he's turned this program around."

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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