The University of Hawaii’s new chancellor is leaving the job of top administrator at another state’s flagship public university to come here.

That school’s football team has won six national titles in its 117 years of competition. The most recent came in 2003, with other championship-game appearances in 2007 and 2010.

His school has produced 10 current NFL players, including one of pro football’s best quarterbacks. Home games are often close to sold out, and the program has an all-time winning percentage of .607, including .638 the past 10 years under its current coach.

If you’re a UH sports fan you might find that exciting news.

Does it dampen your enthusiasm at all that Tom Apple comes to us not from Alabama or Michigan, but rather Delaware … a perennial power in little brother FCS, or what used to be know as Division I-AA?

Well, Delaware has a $30 million annual athletic department budget and 22 teams. That’s very close to UH’s numbers.

People here who met him during his two-day interview last month say Apple is low-key and doesn’t exhibit any kind of super-fan persona — both traits in contrast to his predecessor, Virginia Hinshaw.

"He’s a listener with a wonderful demeanor," said one. "He has the best personality for Hawaii, genuine. And you get the feeling he won’t micromanage, that he’s not going to be here to run a department, but to help you. It’s refreshing."

Logic would dictate that Apple will have at least some input on the question of athletic director Jim Donovan’s contract extension. Donovan received a five-year contract when hired in March, 2008. UH president M.R.C. Greenwood has been noncommittal when asked about Donovan’s future on lower campus, and a person close to the situation recently said an extension is "50-50."

Especially since the AD reports to the chancellor, the new chancellor might expect to have some say in who is AD.

UH has taken a team approach recently in major athletic department actions and decisions, such as gaining entry to the Mountain West and Big West conferences, and the hiring of new football coach Norm Chow. Greenwood and vice president Rockne Freitas were instrumental in finding new conferences for Manoa’s athletic teams.

And upper campus was more involved than usual in the coaching change on both ends — the releasing of Greg McMackin a year before the end of his contract, as well as the securing of Chow’s services.

This was at least partly due to McMackin — who had never been a major college head coach before — being hired in early 2008 (during Hinshaw’s watch but prior to the hiring of Donovan) at $1.1 million per year for five years with no buyout provision. Greenwood did not want to see something of this nature repeated, and Chow came on board for $550,000 per year.

The UH president has said she would prefer Manoa hiring issues to be handled by Manoa. Reports say Apple is coming in at nearly $100,000 more per year than Hinshaw’s $344,880 annual salary; it’s more than reasonable to expect that even high-profile coaching changes and other decisions involving athletics should rarely, if ever, be elevated above the athletic director and chancellor.

Apple was hired from a group of finalists that also included candidates from Michigan State and Cincinnati — two schools with much higher athletic profiles than Delaware, the Fightin’ Blue Hens’ success in FCS football notwithstanding.

Of course, athletics is just one sliver of his job. But it’s the most high-profile aspect and it will be interesting to see if Tom Apple, an academic administrator with a background in chemistry, is expected to be a role player or game-changer for UH sports.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.