ALOHA, y'all. Aloha means goodbye—
at least for nowThe next time we get together, I'll be writing from Gator country, where I'll be working for the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun.
With great sadness, coupled with nearly equal excitement and anticipation, I'm leaving my home for economic and career considerations. It's a familiar refrain these days when times are hard here but pretty good on the mainland. Just ask my good buddy Nicky Clark, a former University of Hawaii running back with a master's degree from UH who relocated for the same reasons. We'll be meeting in L.A. during my layover.
Hawaii is simply the greatest place on Earth -- and not just because it's where I was born and some of my ancestors had the guts to paddle over here without a map. As the day draws nearer and the farewells hit harder and harder, I wonder if I've made the right decision.
Then, I remember what's in front of me. Gainesville is the Mecca of college sports. And there's a whole new world to explore, with Atlanta to the north, Jacksonville to the east, Orlando to the south and New Orleans to the west, for starters. The best part is that if I don't like grits as much as I think I will, home will always be here, ready to take me back.
According to the Sporting News, I'm moving from the 89th best sports city in America to No. 66.
What do they know?
THE old cliche says it's impossible to measure a ballplayer's heart. I think it's the same with cities and the spirit they emanate in the form of their cultures -- of which athletics is a huge part.
Whoever did that survey didn't see Wendell Cullen star in football, baseball and basketball at Nanakuli High. With one hand.
Whoever did that survey didn't see Adrian Murrell develop from a talented but soft underachiever at Leilehua into an NFL star.
Whoever did that survey didn't see Hawaii walk-on Eddie Klaneski literally will himself into becoming an all-conference college football player.
I know Hawaii doesn't have a monopoly on heart. But it seems to be ingrained in our culture. And not just in sports. Sometimes it's in little everyday things, like letting the mother with three little kids in the car take the parking space you both see at the time. Or in more worldly matters of larger consequence, like the 100th Battalion pulling another unit's butt out of a sling in the bloody mountains of Italy during World War II.
I'll miss that combination of humanity and pride that seems to be a given here, but I'll try to celebrate it where I find it away from home, too.
There are too many people to thank, but I must try. Since the names of my colleagues in sports reporting here over the past 21 years won't fit this space, here are those of the editors: Bill Kwon, Clyde Mizumoto, Stan Pusieski, Mike Fitzgerald, Paul Carvalho and Joe Edwards all gave me great opportunities to learn the trade. By the way, I'll be working with Fitz again in Gainesville.
AND speaking of heart, just because you're big doesn't mean you don't have one. That's what I learned working at HMSA for 51/2 great years (where I thought I'd last a week). It's simply the best provider of health care insurance in the state, if not the nation -- seriously. My last day there was today -- I have no ulterior motive to hype an insurance company that I used to work for, except that it would be a wonderful place to return to someday.
Thanks to all the friends, family, athletes, coaches, officials and, of course, readers, for your aloha, and also your criticism, constructive and otherwise. You kept me going and you kept me on my toes.
I'll miss you all, and you'd better look me up when you get to Disney World.
But most of all, thanks to my parents, Elva Ann Keanoaloha Ho Reardon and the late Anthony Ross Reardon.
Dad taught the five of us kids to love sports and Mom continues to teach us to love, period.
Dave Reardon is a magazine editor and freelance
writer who has covered Hawaii sports since 1977.
He can be reached via the Star-Bulletin or
by email at dreardon@hmsa.com.
