Sports Watch
TO absent friends. This time, let the bells toll for Fred Antone, who died Monday in Lihue, Kauai, at the age of 77. Antone was often
heard, never seenMany sports fans never met Antone. But, believe me, they've heard him. Not heard of him maybe, but heard him.
For 30 years he was the public address system voice at every football game - first at Honolulu Stadium and then, when it was demolished in 1976, at Aloha Stadium.
"His voice became the personality of Honolulu Stadium," said sportscaster Jim Leahey. "If you think back of the football games played there, it was his voice that enhanced the memories."
Antone's was a distinctive voice. Deep but nasally. He had the local way of dropping the "g" of words ending in "ing.'
"Receivin' the kickoff is No. 15," or "Called for clippin' is No. 82," or "Puntin' for Kalani is..."
Whatever. He was simply good at what he did - announcin.'
Antone used to claim he had the "best seat in the house" to watch a football game. At old Honolulu Stadium, it was in a rickety three-seat aerie above the press box on the makai sidelines.
When strong tradewinds swept out of Manoa Valley, the whole place felt like it was going to topple over. And when there were driving rains instead of the usual Manoa mist, everyone huddled to keep their notes and lineups dry. There were no windows to protect you from the elements.
STILL, Antone manned his post like some intrepid lighthouse keeper. With a cigar clenched between his teeth and binoculars in hand.
Conditions were more plush when he moved to the spanking new 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium. But Antone admitted more than once that it didn't quite have the charm of the old Termite Palace in Moiliili.
For one thing, you were closer to the action at Honolulu Stadium.
Still, Antone must have had a great pair of field glasses. How he could always identify the players in mud-splattered uniforms during the second game of a rainy-day doubleheader amazed me.
Antone also had the knack of deciphering the old stadium scoreboard clock, which resembled the side of a rusty freighter.
He had seen more than a thousand football games at the old stadium and countless more at the new one. But he did so because he was more of a fan than a paid P.A. announcer.
Not that his pay amounted to anything. In fact, when he moved to Kauai in 1976, he still commuted to Honolulu at his own expense to announce the games at Aloha Stadium
Antone began his P.A. duties at Honolulu Stadium in 1958, although he was a fixture there years earlier when he helped former stadium manager Theodore "Pump" Searle run the Hawaii Baseball League, which played Sunday tripleheaders.
He never missed a single football game from 1958 until he finally retired - for real in 1989 - to golf and to spend more time with his family.
His wife of 56 years, Naninohea, originally came from the Garden Island and their two sons, Fred Antone Jr. and Michael, and their wives and children, also moved there.
"He was always involved with people people," said Antone's wife. "He started Little League programs in Maunalani, Kaimuki and St. Louis Heights."
Services will be held Saturday , 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Borthwick Mortuary in Koloa. Also on Monday at Borthwick's in Honolulu from 9:30 a.m. with burial to follow at HawaiianMemorial Park.