The University of Hawaii has been fielding competitive football teams for a full century now, but never until now - in the year 2007 - have sports fans seen such controversy about their schedule.
Whether the 2007 schedule remains at 12 games, or increases to 13 in the weeks that lead up to the season, remains to be seen. But whatever the number turns out to be, there is a history of ups and downs in the program.
The University of Hawaii played a mixture of high school teams, club teams, and military teams when it began playing on the gridiron in the first decade of the 20th century. It wasn't uncommon for the college boys to take it on the chin to the likes of McKinley and Punahou. In those days, UH played as few as four games in a season.
The numbers jumped in the 1920's when Otto "Proc" Klum came to the school. Many of his teams during the twenties played nine and ten-game schedules and often went undefeated.
But the Hawaii program really didn't get noticed nationally until 1935. That's when Hawaii boated to the Mainland and took on UCLA in the fabled L.A. Coliseum. In that Rainbows-Bruins contest, little Tommy Kaulukukui jetted 103 yards for a touchdown on the kickoff return and was dubbed "Grass Shack" by none other than famed sportswriter Grantland Rice. Kaulukukui went on to receive all-America honors that year, the first Hawaii player ever so honored.
Ironically, during the period between 1930 and 1941, the number of games on the UH schedule bounced all the way from a low of just four games in 1932 to a high of nine games in 1939 and 1941.
The war years - from 1942-1945 - saw Hawaii cancel its football seasons, as you might expect. But the boys from Manoa played 10 games in '46 and a whopping 13 games, including the first-ever Pineapple Bowl, in '47. By this time, Kaulukukui was the Rainbows' head coach.
Throughout the fifties, still playing a schedule that varied from small college to big college to military teams (but no longer high school teams), the schedule bounced anywhere from eight games to 12. During that decade, the 'Bows also shocked the nation by whipping powerful Nebraska, 6-0, in Lincoln! That victory remains as perhaps the most stunning victory in the history of the program.
By 1960, the football program was in crisis and the university took the drastic step to cancel the season in 1961. That year, along with the war years, are the only zero marks on the century-old results page in the school's football media guide.
In 1962, the team was up and running again, and started playing an all-university schedule for most of the sixties. During the '70's, there was still a Linfield and a Humboldt State on the schedule, but the Rainbows eventually went big time Division I and joined the WAC in 1979. The schedule went from just eight games in '63 to a consistent 11-game schedule in the late '70's.
By this time, the university had what the NCAA called the "Hawaii exemption", a rule that allowed Mainland teams to add one extra game to their schedule to play here in the islands. The Rainbow Warriors took advantage of the rule to schedule such notable programs as Oklahoma, USC, and other big name schools.
By 1985, the schedule expanded to 12 games and the 'Bows began to emerge as a conference powerhouse. The decade saw the school earn its first national rankings, several NFL players, including all-American Al Noga and others, and another milestone victory, a 56-14 thrashing of arch-rival BYU in 1989.
Throughout the '90's and into the early part of the 21st century - with coaching greats Bob Wagner and June Jones at the helm - the schedule stayed at 12 games, with the 'Bows winning titles in the Holiday, Oahu, and Hawaii Bowls. With quarterbacks Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan eclipsing national passing records, the Warriors were truly on the national stage, whipping the likes of Arizona State, Oregon State, Alabama, Purdue, Michigan State, and other teams from so-called powerhouse conferences.
This year, with the ever-expanding college football schedule ballooning to a possible 13-game schedule (14 if you count a bowl game), Hawaii's athletic director Herman Frazier found the going tough. He can find solace in the fact that history proves that Hawaii has been up-and-down the scheduling trail for decades.
