Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Thursday, December 30, 1999

Rainbows’ miracle
was year’s best

THE No. 1 sports story of the year in Hawaii? Surely, you jest by even thinking that there could be anything other than the 1999 football Rainbows under first-year coach June Jones.

Nothing comes close to matching the storyline of the amazing turnaround of the University of Hawaii football team, which went from 0-12 to a 9-4 season to remember.

It culminated with a 23-17 victory over Oregon State in the Oahu Bowl. Jones also was named coach of the year by CNN-SI and Sporting News.

The victory over Texas-El Paso was UH's best game of the season in terms of collective team effort.

The victory over Oregon State was the most redemptive, ending any doubts about the Rainbows' ability to beat a Pac-10 opponent after losses to USC and Washington State. And it validated the entire season.

The victory over Navy was huge, and beating Fresno State enabled the Rainbows to gain a share of the WAC crown.

Important, too, was the three-game sweep at SMU, Tulsa and San Jose State, which finally put at end to years of frustration on the road.

For me, though, the most significant victory was the 31-27 squeaker over Eastern Illinois, a Division I-AA opponent.

That ended the Rainbows' ignominious 19-game losing streak and taught them how to win, for a change.

To my way of thinking, if they don't beat Eastern Illinois, the 'Bows wouldn't have beaten Boise State the following week after trailing, 19-7, at halftime.

The Rainbows had faced a similar situation in 1998, losing to Arkansas State, and they never recovered. Eastern Illinois was this year's litmus test.

The rest, as they say, is history.

THE rest of 1999's Top 10 stories:

2. Molokai High baseball team wins the state championship - the school's first-ever state title in any sport.

3. The Western Athletic Conference undergoes another shakeup as Texas Christian leaves to join Conference USA in 2001. WAC adds Boise State and Louisiana Tech for 2001, while Nevada awaits its first year in the league next fall.

4. St. Louis captures its 14th Hawaii football championship after the first statewide playoffs in that sport despite off-the-field distractions, including the ouster of its school president.

5. Musashimaru, or Fiamalu Penitani, attains yokozuna ranking in the Japan Sumo Association, joining Akebono (Chad Rowan), also of Hawaii.

6. Tiger Woods, the Associated Press' male athlete of the year and the world's most visible sports figure with the retirement of Michael Jordan, wins the PGA Grand Slam of Golf on Kauai, climaxing a record year in golf with more than $7.6 million in earnings.

7. AFC beats NFC, 23-10, in the Pro Bowl as fans at Aloha Stadium see Denver's John Elway and Reggie White of Green Bay -- two future Pro Football Hall of Famers -- play their final games before retiring.

8. The PGA Tour opens its season in Hawaii for the first time with the Mercedes Championships, followed by the Sony Open in Hawaii, which replaced the Hawaiian Open at Waialae Country Club.

9. BYU-Hawaii wins the NCAA Division II women's volleyball championship in Battle Creek, Mich.

10. Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams of Texas is named MVP as he leads the South to a 34-14 victory in the Hooters Hula Bowl on Maui.

Of course, should the Hawaii men's basketball team win the 36th Rainbow Classic tonight, it would crack the year's top stories -- displacing Ricky, who will lose that No. 10 spot.