Honolulu Stadium still lives in vivid memories of fans

It was built to last 15 years when it opened in 1926, but we played ball there for half a century. Honolulu Stadium at King and Isenberg streets opened on Nov. 11, 1926, 85 years ago next week. A newer stadium was planned at the time for the UH quarry but never built.

Before Honolulu Stadium there were two fields of choice, the old Athletic Park near downtown and Moiliili Field, mauka across King Street, which was an embarrassment.

"How could Honolulu hold up its head," Honolulu Advertiser reporter Bob Krauss asked, "if the University of Hawaii still had to play Nebraska at Moiliili Field, the public softball diamond that seats about 250?"

For 50 years the stadium was the heart of Honolulu. Capital Investment President Stuart Ho says the stadium was central to the life of the community.

"It was the only time the whole community really got together," he said.

It was built for baseball and football, but it hosted carnivals, boxing, polo, rodeos, stock car racing, track and field and concerts. Elvis performed two shows there in 1957, and the most expensive ticket was $3.50.

Sports promoter John Ashman Beaven founded the stadium. "Bev," as his friends called him, was a visionary, says Arthur Suehiro in "Honolulu Stadium: Where We Played."

"His dream: to build a real stadium, a big-time facility that would give Oahu athletes the showplace they deserved," Suehiro said.

On opening day in 1926, 10,000 people jammed the stadium to see the Town Team beat Otto "Proc" Klum’s University of Hawaii team 14-7.

The stadium was made of wood, and it moved with the crowd. In its later years it was called "Termite Palace," and folks said the termites holding hands kept it together.

"It actually creaked like it was alive. It was kinda spooky," says Larry Price, who played there for Roosevelt and later coached there.

"It was comfortable and cozy. The new stadium doesn’t have this personal touch.

"Hell, here, when you made a touchdown and were tackled in the end zone, you could look up and see your whole family and all your friends rooting for you."

Baseball greats Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Lou Gehrig and Pee Wee Reese played at the stadium, as did the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

Tradewinds made left field home runs difficult but not impossible. "Yankee Clipper" Joe DiMaggio thrilled 26,000 fans in 1944 with a 435-foot homer over the Isenberg wall.

KHON2 News anchor Joe Moore recalls that Chuck Leahey, Jim’s father, was an announcer at the stadium. He was famous for saying, as referees prepared to measure for a first down, "it’s third down and a manapua to go."

Sports announcer Al Michaels got his start at the stadium in 1968 announcing baseball, basketball and football. "Chuck Leahey was hugely instrumental in my career because he taught me to have fun. Today I believe I’m having as much fun as anyone on network television, and I attribute a lot of that to working with Chuck."

Les Keiter left announcing for the New York Giants to return to Honolulu in 1971 when Al Michaels took a job with the Cincinnati Reds.

"Our football booth would rock and roll with the wind," Keiter recalled. "It was sort of a shack attached to the back of the makai stands. Felt like the wind would take it down any minute.

"Here I’d come from being the voice of the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium, and at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and I go to this ramshackle little booth that might detach from its base at the Termite Palace. Boy, what a difference!

"But I loved it. I sincerely did."

In 1975 Aloha Stadium opened, and a year later Honolulu Stadium was turned into a public park.

Still, many sports fans will never forget the games they attended or the boiled peanuts and saimin they ate at the old stadium.

Bob Sigall, author of "The Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.