Cherished Victory

SEATTLE » If statues could talk, you wonder what Jim Owens’ bronze likeness outside Husky Stadium might say this week as the University of Hawaii football team returns for the first time in 38 years.

What would it say about the stunning events of Sept. 15, 1973, and UH’s improbable 10-7 season-opening victory that helped launch the modern era of Hawaii football even as they began the demise of Owens’ 17-year coaching tenure after three Rose Bowls at the University of Washington?

"A spiritual landmark," Larry Price, then the UH defensive coordinator, would call a victory that came from one of the most stirring defensive efforts in school history. It is a performance from the heart that rivals the 6-0 win at Nebraska in 1955 for the most storied triumph in Hawaii lore.

It "might be the biggest upset ever suffered by Washington," the Seattle Times observed three decades later.

When the wide-eyed Rainbows took the field to the derisive comments of a partisan crowd of 52,500 it was as prohibitive underdogs, an NCAA college division independent warily taking on a venerable major college West Coast power.

The Huskies of the then-Pac-8 were coming off consecutive 8-3 seasons behind quarterback Sonny Sixkiller, while UH was just beginning the paperwork to apply for major college status and nurturing down-the-road dreams of someday joining the Western Athletic Conference.

"People thought we were crazy even playing them," recalls Price. ‘And, you know what, we probably were."

People such as CBS’ Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, for example, whose predictions of a 50-point blowout blistered the ears of the players on their way out of the hotel that day.

"Most of us had never been in a stadium like that," recalls Mike Perkins, then a freshman defensive back. "We played our games in the old Termite Palace (Honolulu Stadium). Then, we come out of the tunnel and the crowd erupted."

In laughter.

It was the Rainbows’ routine in those days to wear aloha shirts for pregame warmups before returning to the locker room to put on their jerseys, the sight of which fired up the sellout crowd.

"That ticked us off, got us more fired up," recalls defensive end Cliff Laboy.

"You don’t just want to beat ’em … you want to take their spirit," players said Price told them before kickoff.

Much of the crowd was there to see a blowout — and history in the form of James Anderson, who was to be the Huskies’ first African-American quarterback and the maestro of a veer option attack installed after Sixkiller’s departure for the pros.

But Anderson wasn’t around long, sent to the bench after UW’s second offensive series by a hard hit, which was to be the story of the day.

For while the UH offense struggled under its new quarterback, Casey Ortez, with four fumbles and two interceptions, a dominating defense picked up the pieces.

Five times the UH defense withstood fourth-down challenges, three of them inside the 10-yard line and once inside the 1, testament to both the Rainbows’ teeth-clenched tenacity and the Huskies’ enduring arrogance.

"They were determined to just keep running at us, to pound us into submission with their huge fullback (Pete Taggares)," recalls Rick Blangiardi, the linebackers coach.

Taggares scored on a 1-yard plunge in the first quarter for a 7-0 UW lead, but that was all the Huskies got.

UH got a 27-yard first-quarter field goal by Reinhold Stuprich and added a third-quarter touchdown pass of 24 yards from Ortez to Allen Brown for its scoring built around the power running of Tui Ala and Albert Holmes.

And the defense vowed to make it stand up.

"They (the Huskies) had the attitude that they were going to run over us," Laboy said. "They tried to run it down our throats up the middle and then run misdirection plays off tackle, but we stuffed ’em."

"They had a Pac-8 arrogance … but we had Levi Stanley and some of his boys," Price said.

Stanley, a defensive tackle who was the heart of a largely local defensive crew, suffered bruised ribs on the game’s first play but finished with 11 tackles and assisted on five others. Ramsey Simmons and Dexter Gomes were each in on 11 more.

"I was the strength coach in those days and our front (seven) was just so physical," Blangiardi. "That was the heart of our team. They were all benching 300 pounds when that was a big deal."

Still, with the game on the line in the final 4 minutes and the ball in UH territory, the Huskies disdained an attempt at a game-tying field goal. Jeris White came up with his third interception and the offense ran out the clock.

"I think we were all embarrassed," Owens told reporters afterward. Years later, quarterback Denny Fitzpatrick told the Seattle Times, the season-opening defeat "felt like the beginning of the end" in what would become a 2-9 season.

UH, meanwhile, gave Washington-born head coach Dave Holmes his most cherished victory. The ‘Bows went 9-2 in the process, reaffirming and adding an eloquent chapter to the legacy of defensive tenacity in Manoa.

"You know what I remember about that game?" Price recalled. "The absolute dead silence in the place when we left the field."

"Payday, brah," Stanley declared in the locker room. "Payday."