VonAppen said yesterday he was happy to receive the partial payment. He is still owed about $28,000, but should have the balance by season's end.

"My wife was pretty happy," vonAppen said, then smiled yesterday afternoon. "She's been wanting to know where that $4,000 has been every month. I'm glad we're making some progress on it."

Problems arose last spring after KFVE-TV won the television broadcast rights for UH sports, paying roughly $6 million over the next five years.

In the contract, the coaches' shows were eliminated. Instead, a weekly half-hour program dedicated to all UH sports debuted last night. Despite the mix-up, the athletic department promised to make good on vonAppen's deal.

"It put a little strain on our budget," vonAppen said. "But we're heading in the right direction."

INJURY REPORT: Hawaii came out of Saturday's game with Minnesota in good shape.

UH trainers said Saturday night that there were no major injuries in the game. Cornerbacks Al Hunter and Donnell Williams, and linebacker Stephen Gonzales suffered serious leg cramps, but should be fine for this week's game with Cal State Northridge.

Cornerback Robbie Robinson also is expected back. His ankle remained stiff, forcing him to miss the season opener. Rufus Ayeni remains questionable with a sprained knee. Receiver Jason Mane could also return. He sprained a ligament in his knee the first week of fall camp.

Tight end Armando Morlos will have surgery this week to repair a hernia. He said Saturday night he hopes to be back in three weeks.

OFF THE EDGE: UH linebacker Rinda Brooks came from Norway to break up the handoff between Minnesota quarterback Cory Sauter and running back Thomas Hamner in making arguably the biggest play of the game.

The fumbled exchange eventually wound up in the hands of safety Chris Shinnick, who recovered it for the touchdown to secure Hawaii's

17-3 victory over the Gophers.

"It was either Norway or Roy," Shinnick said of the called play that has Brooks coming hard off the edge. "He's the mad man; one of the best athletes on the field.

"The ball is there. You pick it up and score. That's not that hard. I like to call it the Shannon Smith bounce. It was right there, boom. I was trying to kick it a little bit. There it is, touchdown.

"Nothing you couldn't have done."

Perhaps, but a lot of the credit still goes to Brooks. Shinnick was right. The call was Norway.

"We were in Norway," Brooks said. "I just did my responsibilities, nothing special. I saw the ball come loose. That's all I can remember. Then I saw Chris trying to pick it up and then he scored. It was a big play."

WASTED BLOCK: Hunter's extra effort cost fellow fifth-year senior Eddie Klaneski a 96-yard touchdown return. But there were no hard feelings because it was Hunter who blocked the field-goal attempt in the first place.

"I'm guilty of doing too much extra effort," Hunter said, who conceded he blocked a Minnesota player in hot pursuit of Klaneski. "The thing is, I didn't need to make it. Eddie would have scored. I feel bad about it."

Part of Klaneski did too, but he was still happy because of the season-opening win.

"I was lucky to be at the right place, at the right time," Klaneski said. "I was disappointed, but we took the three points away from them. They would have had three if Al hadn't blocked it, so I'm not too upset because of that."