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Friday, February 16, 2001

Three to join UH
Circle of Honor

Botelho, Sapolu, Kaapuni to
be inducted tomorrow night

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Star-Bulletin staff

The circle has opened to embrace three more.

Two former University of Hawaii football players and a member of the 1982-83 Wahine volleyball teams that won consecutive NCAA championships today were named as the 2000 UH Sports Circle of Honor inductees.

Introduced at a luncheon were:

Don "Spud'' Botelho, the current athletic director at Mid-Pacific Institute who played football for the Rainbows from 1954-57.

Jesse Sapolu, an offensive lineman for the Rainbows from 1979-82 who went on to a 15-year career with the San Francisco 49ers.

Joyce Kapuaala Kaapuni, an All-American setter at both the AIAW and NCAA levels.

The trio will be inducted at halftime of the Hawaii-Rice men's basketball game tomorrow night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Since its inception in 1982, 54 individuals and five teams have been inducted into the Circle of Honor. The plaques hang on the inner concourse of the Sheriff Center.

Botelho was a quarterback, running back, punter and place-kicker for the Rainbows. He was a member of the UH team that upset host Nebraska, 6-0, in 1955.

Sapolu, an all-WAC selection, was on four Super Bowl championship teams with the 49ers and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.

Kaapuni's setting career with the Wahine began on the AIAW teams that finished second in 1974 and third in 1976. She was inducted in 1997 into the Circle as a member of the 1982-83 teams that went a combined 67-3 and became the first to win back-to-back NCAA volleyball titles.