A concert that never was and the one award that proved elusive in a much-honored season made for the two most compelling Hawaii sports stories of a busy 2012.
Between the so-called "Wonder Blunder" and Laie native Manti Te‘o’s rise to become the face of Notre Dame football and a Heisman Trophy runner-up, local sports headlines captured the bitter and the sweet for the year.
They ranked as the top two stories in voting by the Star-Advertiser’s sports staff.
1. SIGNED, SEALED, NOT DELIVERED
A blockbuster fundraising concert that was to have starred Stevie Wonder and aided the University of Hawaii athletic department’s sagging bottom line until the unauthorized venture came unraveled, instead brought sweeping, unforseen change to the school.
The "Wonder Blunder" — as it quickly became known — recast public perceptions about UH amid months of revaluations about the school’s administrative operations and inner politics, and brought about change in the athletic department.
The failed concert, in which UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said the school was the victim of a $200,000 scam, prompted public outrage, state Senate hearings and official apologies.
Athletic director Jim Donovan, who was reassigned in the wake of the incident, left a newly created position in the Manoa Chancellor’s office to become athletic director at Cal State Fullerton.
He will be succeeded by Ben Jay, an associate athletic director at Ohio State, who takes over at UH in mid-January.
2. TE‘O’S HEISMAN BID
When Te‘o first sat down at a pre-Heisman Trophy press conference in New York, he quickly looked behind him as if to refresh his mind on exactly which award he was up for that day.
It was hard to blame him in a dizzying 10-day period in which he won seven major individual postseason awards, the most in college football history, spread across six cities.
Only one award — the biggest one — the iconic bronze Heisman, eluded the Laie native’s grasp in a year in which he propelled the Fighting Irish to a 12-0 regular season and a berth in the Jan. 7 Bowl Championship Series national title game against Alabama in Miami.
Te‘o finished second to Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel for the Heisman, the best finish by a player that was exclusively a defensive performer, and won the Lott Trophy, Nagurski Trophy, Butkus Award, Lombardi Award, Bednarik Award, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year award.
No player had won more than five previously.
In addition, Te‘o was a first-team selection on all five All-America teams the NCAA recognizes in determining unanimous All-America standing and an academic All-America selection.
3. HOW NOW COACH CHOW
There was no such thing as beginner’s luck for native son Norm Chow, who made his much-trumpeted college head football coaching debut with the Warriors after an illustrious three decades as an assistant at Brigham Young, North Carolina State, USC, UCLA, Utah and the NFL.
A retooling of the Warriors’ offense and defense, combined with the step up from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West, resulted in a 3-9 record and last-place finish in the conference.
Only one previous head coach in the all-college schedule era (1966-2012) at UH, Fred vonAppen, had a worse record in his inaugural season. VonAppen went 2-10 in 1996.
UH lost nine of 10 games before closing with victories over Nevada-Las Vegas and South Alabama in the final two games. After 347 days as UH’s head coach, Chow sighed with relief at season’s end, smiled and said, "It feels like a lot longer."
4. BIG WEST WELCOMES BACK WAHINE
The Rainbow Wahine volleyball team changed conferences, but its domination did not miss a beat.
UH celebrated its return to the Big West after a 16-year absence by running the table at 18-0 to win its 18th conference title (six in the Big West, where it last competed in 2002).
UH did it despite a month without all-conference sophomore outside hitter Jane Croson, who was suspended for a violation of team rules that head coach Dave Shoji did not clarify beyond terming it a "serious offense."
Along the way, the Wahine helped Shoji to his latest career milestone, a 1,100th victory that made him the second-winningest in women’s volleyball.
5. BANKING ON KAHUKU
It is, perhaps, appropriate that in the Hawaii High School Athletic Association state football championship, which is sponsored by a financial institution, that Raiders and Red Raiders have become the teams to bank on.
The Kahuku Red Raiders won their second consecutive — and seventh overall — large school title, defeating Punahou, 42-20, to finish 12-0. Kahuku was eliminated from the 2010 tournament due to an ineligible player.
Meanwhile, ‘Iolani’s Raiders won a sixth Division II championship in a row and seventh in the last eight years.
