I went to see the University of Hawaii basketball Rainbows last night at the Stan Sheriff Center. To see if they could end their 0-for-December streak. Weather-vane school
strikes UH againThey didn't. They'd better get better in a hurry. The Rainbow Classic's coming up the following Sunday.
Mostly, though, it was to watch Hawaii's opponent. I wanted to see for myself what Eastern Illinois is like in real life.
After all, the football Rainbows will be playing Eastern Illinois next fall in a game that could mark the end of Hawaii's losing streak at 19 games. You heard it here first.
I know, it's 18 -- currently the longest in NCAA Division I football -- but even new coach June Jones can't work miracles that quickly. So don't count on the 'Bows ending "Da Streak" in their 1999 season opener against Southern California.
But they have a great shot to end it on Sept. 11 against Eastern Illinois, which isn't exactly a football power, even among Division I-AA teams.
Georgia Southern it's not. It's not even as good as Western Illinois, another of those weather-vane schools in the Land of Lincoln. Hawaii scheduled Western Illinois once and got its butt kicked. Couldn't even score a touchdown.
I sure hope UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida stops going in all directions and doesn't schedule Northern Illinois or Southern Illinois in the future. Talk about four-corners football.
GETTING back to basketball, and Eastern Illinois.
"They're a good, quick team," said UH coach Riley Wallace, who I remember saying the same thing about Arkansas State last year.
Which worries me, because Hawaii scheduled the Arkansas State Indians for the first-time ever in basketball before playing them in football this season, also for the first time. You know what happened. The 'Bows lost both games.
So now we have a basketball-football double-dip against Eastern Illinois, although the schools met once before in basketball 15 years ago. The 'Bows won, 68-65. Somehow I must have missed it.
Anyway, I got to see Eastern Illinois in real life and close-up last night. Like the 'Bows, I didn't enjoy what I saw. Hawaii blew an 18-point lead in losing, 73-72.
The only comforting news Wallace could pass on is that Eastern Illinois, which plays on the Division I level, is a lot better in basketball than it is in football.
I sure hope so.
The school colors are blue and gray, probably because those in Charleston, Ill., where the university is located, couldn't make up their mind which side to choose during the Civil War.
The school's nickname?
The Panthers. The school newspaper held a contest in 1930 and that nickname was the clear-cut winner.
MAYBE a panther is an endangered species today. But back in the days when Illinois was still the western frontier -- why do you think Northwestern's called Northwestern? -- the sleek cat undoubtedly was a prevalent predator.
"Must have been a lot of panthers around back then," said Wallace, an Illinois native. No, he wasn't speaking from experience. But he knows the area well.
Wallace played at Jerseyville High School and his team's nickname was . . . the Panthers.
Wallace's first coaching job was up the road along Route 16 at Litchfield High School, home of the Purple Panthers. If you continue east on Route 16 you get to Charleston, home of the Eastern Illinois Panthers.
Wallace's mom, Barbara Riley Wallace, who died last year, attended Eastern Illinois where she once went on a double-date with probably the school's most famous alumnus, singer Burl Ives.
Small school?
No, small world.