Sports Watch
LAS Vegas it ain't. But Reno isn't so bad a replacement for all you blackjack-playing sonofaguns. Less glitz, more grits. And it's still Nevada, isn't it? Where gambling is legal? Nevada a
good gamble
for the WACThe University of Nevada Wolf Pack will join the Western Athletic Conference as its ninth member effective July 1, 2000.
Adding Nevada improves the struggling WAC's geographic balance with its fourth school out West. It also makes for better home-and-home scheduling in the big-income sports with eight games in football and 16 in basketball.
For the University of Hawaii, it eases a scheduling problem for the football Rainbows, having eight conference games.
There's also a side benefit for Rainbow fans, already going through withdrawal pains at the thought of no more Las Vegas with UNLV defecting with the other seven schools to form the Mountain West Conference.
I mean, Hawaii residents will still go to Las Vegas. But previously, many had a good excuse. After all, they went only to watch the Rainbows play the Rebels, right?
Yeah, right.
Still, why do I have this feeling that travel agencies will book flights for Rainbow fans from Honolulu to Las Vegas and back ... with a stopover in Reno.
Also, by adding Nevada-Reno on the schedule, it should help thaw icy athletic relations with Nevada-Las Vegas a lot sooner.
WHO knows? One of these years the Rainbows might play at BOTH Reno and Las Vegas in the same football season. And double down in basketball.
If that doesn't make Hawaii residents, who've been known to make a wager or two, look forward to the next millennium, I don't know what will.
Seriously, the University of Nevada brings a lot to the WAC table.
"When it came down to deciding what was in the best interest of the WAC, both immediately and in the future, the University of Nevada was the best fit," said Karl Benson, the league's commissioner.
The Wolf Pack has fielded a better football team over the years than the Rebels, and Nevada's basketball program's no slouch either. Reno's arena seats 12,000, which is larger than UH's Stan Sheriff Center.
"They've got a strong baseball program, too," said Rainbow baseball coach Les Murakami, glad that Nevada, not Boise State, got the invitation to join the WAC. For one simple reason: Boise State doesn't play baseball.
Interestingly, the Rainbows have never played the Wolf Pack in basketball. But they're 4-0 against Nevada in baseball, sweeping a four-game series back in 1981.
It was so long ago - before Rainbow Stadium was built (1984) - that Murakami doesn't remember playing them or even how or why the late-season series was scheduled.
NEVADA, though, has played a significant role in the history of UH football. Historically significant, in fact, as the University of Nevada was Hawaii's first intercollegiate opponent.
The Wolf Pack defeated the "Fighting Deans" - Hawaii's nickname before they became the Rainbows - 14-0 at Punahou's Alexander Field to end the 1920 season.
I was among a dozen Shriners' Hospital patients attending the 1946 Shrine Game at the old Honolulu Stadium when Nevada beat UH, 26-7.
Nevada made it three in a row in 1948 when quarterback Stan Heath, the nation's top passer, led the Wolf Pack to a 73-12 rout of the 'Bows.
The Rainbows won the last time they played, shutting out the Wolf Pack, 21-0, in 1968.
No distinction had to be made between Nevada and Nevada-Las Vegas back then because UNLV just started to play football that year.