IF you are from a football-driven part of the country, University of Hawaii fans seem a little placid about their Rainbows these days. Get up, get out!
Get into something goodMany communities live vicariously through their high school heroes where the starting quarterback is more popular than a Sunday social. In college towns throughout the South and the Midwest, they gather around the water cooler to discuss the latest bone-rattling hit some wet-behind-the-ears linebacker made with 12 seconds left in the game.
To put it in their vernacular, "He keeps coming up with shots like that, it won't be too long before that old boy is playing every down."
These same guys go home to their garages to listen to the defensive coordinators' call-in radio show that often sounds like an Elks Lodge meeting in the twilight of its evening.
The best calls are like the ones from Auburn fans telling the Alabama defensive coordinator that they are going to kick his boys' butts up and down the boardwalk, and make them like it. It's a good thing the radio engineer has that seven-second delay.
"You have no idea how fans can be in places like Auburn and Alabama the week of their game," UH defensive coordinator Don Lindsey said. "They are fanatical about their football. If you love the game, that kind of college atmosphere, it's a great place to be."
NOT so long ago, Aloha Stadium was the place to be in the island chain. Attendance records were set in the 1980s that the Rainbows rarely reached this decade.
Nearly everyone in town has given a reason for the dip in attendance. Only the John F. Kennedy assassination has seen more theories. But the reason is simple. Poor football team. Higher prices. It's a bad blend that brings to mind the old Groucho Marx joke, "The food is terrible here. And they serve such small portions."
Local television broadcaster Jim Leahey has his own unique theory that goes straight to the soul of the Hawaiian people. He believes Hawaii fans are as devoted as any. In fact, they take the losses so personally, it's often too painful for them to watch the Rainbows lose repeatedly.
Well, there has been a whole lot of losing going on around here for several seasons. Hawaii is a woeful 3-21 in the Western Athletic Conference since 1994. And no team better epitomizes Hawaii's fall from grace in that period than the University of Wyoming.
The Cowboys have won the last three games by a combined score of 131-16. It's enough to make you wonder why the Rainbows even bother showing up for tomorrow night's WAC opener with these rowdy Cowboys.
BUT they will. And so should the Hawaii football fans. Not just because Hawaii has a chance to win, but because the team has worked so hard to create that chance. Remember, the Rainbows were 2-10 last year. The ill effects of that season still linger.
"These players deserve the support of their community," UH head coach Fred vonAppen said. "They have spent a year trying to put last season in the past.
"But it doesn't have to be just that. People can come out and enjoy the experience of a college football game. To me, there's nothing like it."
Football fans across America would agree with the second-year head coach. It's easy to remember the first time you walked into a collegiate stadium with your jumbo hot dog in one hand and a big orange drink in the other.
More than likely, tomorrow's game at Aloha Stadium will be some young person's first encounter with college football. Better it be with a wild crowd of rabble-rousing fans than those almost apologizing for being there. There has been too much of that lately. It's time to turn that corner and leave those unpleasant days behind.
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.
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