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Davis is still
fabulously young

I'M not as old," Al Davis is saying, "as I used to be."

And you laugh.

It's true. This is the real March Madness. As a member of Hawaii's Fabulous Five, he'll always be just a little bit young.

And he knows it, that's the best part. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

It doesn't matter how many years have passed, how many basketball seasons have come and gone.

It doesn't matter that the small kids who used to come to the HIC to watch them are long grown now, with growing kids of their own.

How can you age when those former kids tell you, as they tell Davis, "If my parents didn't bring me, I was mad and bad all week."

Take them to see the Fabulous Five, and the kids would be good.

That's how magical it was.

"I can't explain some of the feelings that we had while we were doing it," Davis said.

It's March and he's talking basketball again. You can almost see the passes. Feel the noise.

He's not as old as he used to be.

They still have that kind of power. Davis, Bob Nash, Dwight Holiday, John Penebacker and Jerome Freeman. Those magical moments that ran from 1970 to 1972. UH's wonderful Fabulous Five.

"I can remember games, to the basket, that we played," Davis said.

It was a special time that in some ways has never stopped.

"I love this place," he said.

HE WAS A Chicago kid, and he and Freeman had grown up together.

"We went to grade school, high school," Davis said. "In fact our mothers still go to church together."

So they were looking to play on the same team in college when Hawaii came calling. Assistant coach Bruce O'Neil put on the sales pitch, switching UH's 6-20 won-loss record from the previous season, Davis said.

It sounded good. But you couldn't visit Hawaii until you'd signed a letter of intent. And Davis wasn't that sure about going that far from home.

But then his grandmother told him it might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Go to Hawaii. Get your schooling. They pay for it all.

He started to say you should always listen to your grandmother, but then he realized he was at the Honolulu Quarterback Club. Well, you know what he meant.

"You don't get to be old being no fool," he said.

So, with Freeman's favorable report in his ears, he was the last to show up, about a week before school started. Al Davis was the final piece.

IT WAS A ride the likes of which the state hasn't seen before or since.

"It was kind of like we were rock stars, so to speak. People would follow us around," Davis said.

"It was the most indelibly ensconced team in the hearts of Hawaii sports fans," Les Keiter said yesterday.

A team so good it made rascal kids behave.

They won. They played for each other. They had fun on the court, you could see it. They played to win, and they did.

They did it together.

"I think that's what captured the people here in Hawaii," Davis said. "The camaraderie that we had as a team. I didn't know any other way to play."

"It didn't matter who was the star as long as we won," Davis said.

"Whatever needed to be done to win, then we'd do that," he said.

And in saying it, he sounded as fabulous as it must have been.

"I didn't realize what was going on until it was over," Davis said.

Their name itself tells the story of what happened, what was going on. There was no "man" on this team, but five men. They were five; and they were one. It took five of them together to make something that special.

Davis will always have that. He'll always be a little bit young.

They will always be the Fabulous Five.

"We were blessed," Davis said. "I think it was a blessing. I believe in God. And I think God brought us together for that."