Hawaii
Leahey can’t leave
the Stanley aloneFIRST off, let me say that I feel Jim Leahey is the best play-by-play announcer in about any sport he chooses -- football, basketball or volleyball. It doesn't surprise me -- I knew and liked his dad, the late Chuck Leahey, when he was involved in sports broadcasting and Jim was but a tyke. And now Jim's son, Kanoa, is showing promise as being yet another acorn to fall close to the tree. That being said, I wish Leahey would end his one-man attempt to call the Stan Sheriff Arena "The Stanley." When it was first built, Leahey asked me about it and I told him it might be appropriate except for one thing -- nobody, with the possible exception of his mother, called Stan Sheriff, former UH athletic director, anything but "Stan." They can get away with calling Jack Murphy Stadium "The Murph" in San Diego, because that's what everyone called the sports writer for whom it was named. I've never heard one fan say, "I'm going to the Stanley tonight." So let's give it up ...
Crusaders have stiff task
ONE local sports publication suggested that De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif. had been ducking playing another national power, St. Louis, all these years. Nonsense! In Northern California, everyone knows De La Salle has been trying every which way to play a game with St. Louis, either a single contest or home-and-home, but always met with resistance. My guess was that Crusader coach Cal Lee was merely reluctant to get beat (and lose credence among those ranking high school teams in USA Today) and that's looking more like the case now that he's retired and his replacement has said, "Bring 'em on." A friend of mine since elementary school, Dr. John Copeland, is a doctor in Concord and for many years walked the bench at Pittsburg High, watching his team lose to De La Salle over and over again. In fact, the powerhouse De La Salle team has won 125 games in a row. Don't bet against them again. I walked the sidelines with "Dr. John" during one game, and though the opponents were of normal size and speed, they were so well coached that they won handily. Now Dr. Copeland is flying in this week to watch the De La Salle squad play St. Louis, and I think he'd be shocked if they lost ...IT turns out that Ed Wary knows more about pasta than about sports. Turns out it wasn't the Cal-Poly volleyball team that carbo-loaded at Auntie Pasto's, but the UCLA soccer team. Oh well, at least he got the state right ... Huh? In his Sunday column in Brand X, Lou Boyd tackled the question of how to pronounce the name of Hawaii's state fish, and his reply was "the way it is spelled." Then the paper misspelled it ...
Special Harley
THE featured item at the Special Olympics event, "A Very Special Vegas," Saturday on the lawn of the Royal Hawaiian is a 1979 Harley Davidson, provided by Kona Harley Davidson. Want a preview, close-up look at it? You can view it on display this week at the Kahala Mall as part of its Aloha Week lineup, and if you like what you see, enter a silent bid Saturday at the Royal ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com