The light of morning had just begun to peek into Kalama Valley when Jim Donovan yanked open his garage door with a rare 6 a.m. Monday up-and-at-'em spunk and urgency.

Though it would be an 18-minute drive he has come to know well, this time the journey to exit 24B, the University Avenue offramp on H-1, would be unlike any other for Donovan, whose manner suggested he couldn't wait to get started.

He joked with his wife, Tracy, that he had, at least, waited for the alarm clock to go off before bolting up and dashing off. But barely.

It was Donovan's his first day as University of Hawai'i athletic director, the realization of a long-held dream for the former football player, coach and administrator. And that, no doubt, accounted for the heavy touch on the gas pedal and the considerable spring in his step alighting in an otherwise empty parking lot behind the Stan Sheriff Center.

Where, 90 minutes later, there would be a bevy of TV crews waiting to chronicle his first day, now, in the cool stillness, there was only the chirping of birds to greet Donovan, who took it all in and smiled.

This would pass as Donovan's quiet, introspective time in a day when there would be few steps taken on campus in which there was not an out-stretched hand or rousing pat on the back offering congratulations. Beginning with Rainbow Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji and groundskeeper Wesley Uchida, who offered an enthusiastic "welcome back" and an animated thumbs-up, it was like an old friend had returned.

There would be, Donovan acknowledged, memories of the first time he'd set foot on campus as a junior college transfer in 1980, the athletic department then headquartered in ramshackle wooden huts. There would also be less treasured reflections on the time five years ago when he left UH after being passed over without so much as an interview for the athletic director position amid questions of whether he'd return.

To gather his thoughts and prepare for the day ahead, Donovan spent more than an hour circling the rainbow-hued track, each step of which seemed to drive home either memories of his 20 years spent at the school or furnish additional fodder for the ambitious to-do list he was gathering.

Pointing to patches of weeds growing through the center of what he terms "the asphalt football field" on the Cooke Field infield, Donovan shook his head and admitted facilities occupy a place near the top of that rapidly lengthening list. He took note of branches on the roof of the athletic department, a missing sheet on the roof of Les Murakami Stadium. He bemoaned how the facilities had gotten that way and pondered potential solutions.

But there would be no doubting whose job it is to find one. "The buck stops here," Donovan said, double-jabbing an index finger into his desk to make the point.

Truth be told, Donovan could have stepped into his office last week, but instead chose to take home a pile of budget spread sheets and files. The better, he maintained, to get "up to speed" before moving in officially on the day his five-year appointment began.

But part of it, too, you figure, was that he wanted the experience to feel special. After five years of not having set foot in the office and, only then for staff meetings with his predecessor, there was a symbolism to settling in and he wanted to savor it. Even the normally mundane task of opening a pile of mail, the only thing on his desk other than a phone, was savored when he saw the address read "Jim Donovan athletic director University of Hawai'i ..."

Relaxing with reporters, Donovan looked around and declared. "This is a good day — I wish they could all be like this."

So good, in fact, that the package of aspirin, roll of Tums and bottle of vodka — gifts from a friend familiar with the pressures of the job — would wait in his bag for another day before finding a place in his desk.