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Sports Watch
IT wasn't only the last call for Columbia Inn, which closed last night after 37 years in the business at the top of Kapiolani Boulevard. Final toast
to Columbia Inn’s
gathering placeIt was also the last call for alcohol for a lot of the members of the press working next door at the News Building, including yours truly.
So I had to toast the occasion with a vodka martini, dry and not stirred.
There have been so many sports anecdotes tied in with the restaurant, more known to media types as a drinking establishment than for its eats.
"I started at the Star-Bulletin in March 1967, and it took me several weeks before I realized it was that kind of a place," said business writer Russ Lynch, who gathered many a news tip by phone at the Round Table.
I might as well begin with an anecdote of my own. And the farewell martini for old times' sake is significant.
Being a lot younger back then, I got involved in a martini-drinking contest with three-dot columnist Dave Donnelly, who probably outweighs me by 100 pounds.
It started out all friendly like. It was noon and the Star-Bulletin deadlines were over and three-martini lunches were still fashionable.
The late innkeeper Fred "Tosh" Kaneshiro, God bless him, bought the fourth round. Dave and I were going to stop at three. Honest.
There was no stopping then as bystanders continued to buy rounds for us and soon it became a full-blown contest. Aiding and abetting, it's called.
Soon Dave was snoozing. I thought I won, because it's a truism that when you snooze, you lose. Besides, I drank 14 martinis before I lost count and consciousness.
I must have gone into a prevent defense, because the next thing I knew, Donnelly got his second wind and rallied to win.
So he says. But, back in those days, nobody, including me, thought about a recount.
Tosh, like Donnelly, rooted for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I asked No. 3 Son, Norman Kaneshiro, who now lives in Oakland, why.
"It's because Honolulu was a (San Francisco) Giants' town. He always used to complain why only the Giants' games were on the radio. So he rooted for the Dodgers."
"He always went the opposite way. He was always for the underdog," added Kaneshiro's widow, Bea.
Naturally, the Kaneshiros would go to games at Dodger Stadium, always staying at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He was a bosom buddy of then-Dodger owner Walter O'Malley.
And Tosh would be beside himself whenever Dodger players came to town. They made it a point of stopping at Columbia Inn, knowing it was the place in Hawaii for the Dodger blue. The drinks were always on the house.
I still remember when two young Dodger pitchers -- Steve Howe, the 1980 National League Rookie of the Year, and Bob Welch -- were given a royal treatment by Tosh.
Of course, 'til now, I wonder if Howe had one too many that afternoon.
The Round Table was the place for all us news folks. It was the altar at which we partook of our libation. And if Tosh was the high priest, No. 1 Son, Gene Kaneshiro, was the altar boy.
Three of the Round Table's original knights have since left us -- Harry Lyons, Gene Hunter and Scoops Casey, who was a she and a damn good reporter.
Harry and Scoops bankrolled a great Super Bowl tradition at Columbia Inn for many years. All drinks were on them during the game, from kickoff to the final whistle.
Columbia Inn. O.J. Simpson might have once sat there. Now, nobody will. And no more last call for alcohol.
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.