Extra Point
By Mike Fitzgerald
Monday, May 6, 1996
"That volleyball team sure is something. I don't know much about it, but I watch it - and the other sisters really love it."
A few days later I was riding the bus and two elderly Japanese women sitting behind me spent 20 minutes talking about the UH men's volleyball team.
During the victory over Pepperdine, a teen-aged girl snapped pictures from one of the top rows. The players must have looked like little dots when the film was developed, but it didn't matter to that girl. A few minutes later, she compared previous volleyball photos with a friend.
The Rainbows weren't allowed to sign autographs after that match, so the hundreds of admirers instead surrounded a puzzled, but beaming, Mr. and Mrs. Katz, who were just in from Israel.
At a packed Player's sports bar last Thursday, people hooted and hollered at the big-screen TVs over a volleyball game.
THE UH football team had a nice burst of popularity when the Rainbows unexpectedly went 11-2 and won the Holiday Bowl in 1992.
The Hawaii men's basketball team snuck into the NCAA Tournament a few years ago and Riley Wallace's gang was the toast of the town.
The UH women's volleyball team went undefeated in the regular season last fall and played before great crowds.
And the Hawaii baseball team used to fill Rainbow Stadium with fanatical followers.
But no team - at least in recent history - has captured the hearts of an entire state like this men's volleyball team.
After the closest and toughest of defeats was finally over on Saturday, a pall hung over Oahu. You could see it. You could feel it.
A state was in mourning with everything that comes with it except the flags at half-mast.
The national championship was so painfully close, even though the showdown was on the enemy's home floor. Planeloads of Hawaii fans, however, split the crowd.
And it is ironic that several of UCLA's key players hail from Honolulu. They might have stayed home had the incredible party at the Special Events Arena started a few years earlier.
This is little consolation now, but Yuval Katz and his teammates played as hard - and probably as well - as they possibly could.
Some critics are saying that "they let it slip away" or "they let up near the end."
Nonsense.
Even when two great teams play outstanding games, only one can win. The other, as unfairly as it is, takes the loss. Even when the national title is at stake.
Joe Carter's home run wins an entire World Series. Keith Smart's single jump shot gives Indiana a national championship.
One putt. A lone touchdown pass - or a fumble. A skater excels or slips. Sports can bring ecstasy, but also the cruelest of fates.
I hope Mike Wilton and his players realize what an incredible season they had and that it does dull the pain a bit. They united an entire state, something politicians just dream of. And they helped so many people of all backgrounds forget their daily struggle for a few hours so many times.
Amazingly, they grabbed the attention of thousands of teen-agers away from their electronic gadgetry - or the temptations of the street.
Yes, this was an exceptional team all the way around. Nice kids and good players. A fine head coach in every sense of the word. An exceptional top assistant and staff.
They set the standard for every other varsity sport at the university.
UCLA gets the final trophy.
But the Rainbows were also champions.