Hall of Fame inductee Galdeira was a hit as an official

The face on the game program for the 1970 Hula Bowl was Heisman Trophy running back Steve Owens of Oklahoma, but the most memorable run of the all-star game belonged to Earl Galdeira.

Which was remarkable because Galdeira was, by then, a 43-year-old Hawaiian Telephone supervisor working the game as the referee.

When a 20-year-old fan bolted out of the stands at Honolulu Stadium and tried to make off with a football, Galdeira gave determined chase, eventually making a “flying tackle” more than 40 yards later in the Diamond Head end zone to the delight of the crowd and a national TV audience.

The dogged pursuit of the miscreant wasn’t so much about a $30 football as much as it was respect for the game and all that surrounded it. The episode underlined Galdeira’s career-long, no-nonsense approach to officiating and the rules, traits that helped make him one of the eight inaugural inductees to the Hawaii Sports Officials Hall of Fame announced Wednesday.

That dedication spread across decades and various sports is a common thread among the class, which includes Jimmy Aiona (basketball), Roy Chong (football), Leilani Okuda (softball), Patrick Tanibe (basketball), Ray Verdonck (wrestling), Frank White (football) and Hide Yamashita (baseball and softball).

They are scheduled to be inducted in Sept. 9 ceremonies at the Ala Moana Hotel.

The Hawaii Sports Officials Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote and celebrate the work of game officials by honoring some of the fraternity’s most accomplished members.

Theirs is a long overlooked and too often underappreciated contribution to sports in our state. If there is a disappointment it comes in that several of them are no longer alive to see their work saluted.

Among them are trailblazers, organizers, leaders and some just plain colorful characters who worked everything from Bobby Sox and Little League contests to the Olympics, much of it as a labor of love since none of them got rich, monetarily, at least, at it.

Galdeira was the dean of Hawaii football officials in a career that spanned parts of five decades and saw him earn inclusion in the College Football Hall of Fame and recognition from the National High School Officials Association before his death in 2006.

Galdeira, a Kamehameha Schools running back in the 1940s, worked 25 consecutive Hula Bowls, the East-West Shrine Game and Japan Bowl in addition to high school, college and World Football League games.

The University of Nebraska’s regard for his work in a 1972 game here was so high that the Cornhuskers invited him to Lincoln to work their home game among a then-Big Eight Conference crew against UH in 1978.

When first-down yardage was in doubt, Galdeira would lower himself into a push-up position, survey the situation and then spring to his feet to announce the verdict.

“That was classic Earl,” recalled White, a protege who accompanies him into the Hall. “He wanted to make sure he got it right.”

For years afterward Galdeira would bemoan the fact that his 1970 Hula Bowl chase was the event many people most associated with him. But, he would say, “at least they knew I was doing my job.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.