Chaminade team worthy of Hall of Fame inclusion

Maybe upsets just don’t mean as much anymore.

Maybe the relevance of this one has faded over the decades.

Maybe the window has closed, and Chaminade’s knocking off of No. 1 Virginia and Ralph Sampson 30 years ago just doesn’t mean as much as we thought it would in the long term of basketball history.

Or maybe some folks are plain old ignorant and need to get educated.

I keep trying to think of good reasons why that Silverswords team, the winner in one of the greatest David vs. Goliath sports stories ever, is not in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. And I keep coming up empty, like the Cavaliers did from the floor during that night at the Blaisdell Arena.

Mark Rodrigues — who now looks almost the same as he did when he started for Chaminade two days before Christmas in 1982 — can’t figure it out either. For now, he and his teammates will settle for the Silversword Hall of Fame, into which they were installed over the weekend.

"If people weren’t there, they want to minimize it as luck," said Rodrigues, of the Virginia upset.

But it wasn’t.

Consider there was no 3-point line yet.

Also remember that the Silverswords then became serial giant killers. By 1985, they’d added three more takedowns of ranked Division I teams.

But the Virginia win is the one that makes Chaminade worthy of a hall pass.

Is there a problem because we’re talking about still-tiny Chaminade, still out here in the middle of the ocean, still insignificant in the sport’s power structure (despite a win over Texas this season)?

"Come on, everything is political," said Merv Lopes, who was the ‘Swords coach. "It’s who you know. The wires have to be connected."

So far, Chaminade has been deemed unworthy of joining the other nine teams in the Naismith Hall despite letters of endorsement from legendary (and now deceased) coach Pete Newell, as well as Terry Holland — who was coach of the vanquished Virginia team.

Rodrigues, spearheading the effort, even enlisted Jay Bilas. The ESPN analyst is one of the college game’s most credible and high-profile observers.

"With that game against Ralph Sampson and the No. 1 ranked Cavaliers, Chaminade went (from) a tiny, virtually unknown NAIA school in Honolulu to a name synonymous with the term ‘upset.’ From that day forward, anything was considered possible in the college game, and every college basketball fan is familiar with that monumental upset win by the Silverswords," Bilas wrote in a letter to the Hall of Fame committee.

"More than 25 years have passed … yet it still resonates with players, coaches and fans as the biggest upset in basketball history."

Sometimes these things are about timing. Last year Sampson was inducted. Chaminade in the same year too awkward? I think it would’ve been fitting.

The Silverswords are still fighting an uphill battle.

Even though there’s a new Cinderella story seemingly every week, people remember Chaminade.

Just not the right people. Hopefully they come around soon.

"It’s been 30 years and people still talk about it," said Lopes, who is now 80. "That’s amazing."

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon