It was two years ago this month when Tom Apple — during his first week on the job as University of Hawaii Manoa chancellor — was trotted out in front of reporters to talk about something that had gone terribly awry. The school had fallen victim to scammers claiming to be representatives of a pop music icon, $200,000 of UH money gone missing in the process.

But instead of directly addressing the failed benefit concert for the athletic department that day, Apple spoke about his vision for the university.

It was actually a pretty decent speech, but it was like playing a Beethoven piece for an audience expecting … well, expecting Stevie Wonder.

When the meter finally stopped (actually, has it yet?) — after all the legal fees, wasted hours, days and weeks in attempted damage control and investigations — it’s pretty incredible that Apple and anyone else attached to the Wonder Blunder fiasco had any political power left to try to accomplish anything.

It is all the more surprising that Apple and the Board of Regents had the juice to forgive the athletic department’s accumulated debt of $13 million in the spring of 2013.

THOSE WHO would rather rip Apple for not trying to force a buyout of football coach Norm Chow, or for talking to the student newspaper about how UH sports could end up in Division II if things don’t change, should remember the absolving of the debt. Because if Apple is indeed on his way out — and a very well-placed source said Sunday the reports indicating Apple is done at Manoa are accurate — that $13 million accounting shift will be his biggest legacy concerning UH sports.

Maybe it won’t matter in the long run if athletics continues on its path as a money pit with no foreseeable fiscal turning point. But Apple tried, and he should be remembered for that.

That move, although clearly not orchestrated in a vacuum, had Apple’s signature on it, and don’t think he didn’t pay a price for it.

UPPER CAMPUS sources tell us Apple’s credibility with some of the honchos on the academic side took a major hit with the move. And the president who brought him in, MRC Greenwood, is gone. (Along those lines, barring some successful Hail Mary play, athletic director Ben Jay’s supportive boss is gone, too, and speculation on how long Jay remains without Apple has already begun.)

Of course, this all goes well beyond our toy department of fun and games. Apple’s actions and inactions in the political war zone otherwise known as the University of Hawaii Cancer Center factor in heavily, too.

Those more interested in finding a cure for UH’s athletic woes may be glad Apple is on his way out because, from their perspective, he did little or nothing to help the lower campus financial problems.

If so, they fail to remember he breathed $13 million of life, albeit into what many believe is a terminal patient.

The upper campus powers did not forget and did not necessarily like it.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.