Thirty years ago Tom Apple saw red.

Waves upon waves of red-clad fans on Saturdays during football season at the University of Nebraska, where he was an assistant and, later, associate chemistry professor.

"I started my professorship at Nebraska in the Tom Osborne era, and this is a state that has (not that many more) people than Hawaii, but they all rallied around Nebraska football And it was something that brought the entire state together," Apple said. "It made everyone part of, if you will, the ohana."

If a few responses at a first video conference can be an indication, the UH Manoa chancellor designate seems to grasp what a successful athletic program can mean to a state devoid of major league sports. He understands that their importance can extend well beyond the playing field and be, as he put it, "a rallying point for the alumni, the whole state."

Some of his predecessors in both Bachman and Hawaii halls took years to come to terms with that. And it showed.

That is a learning curve Apple and UH don’t have the luxury of right now. Not in the current, fast-paced universe of major college athletics, where conference alignments change like the price of gas and the mistake you make today can doom your program for decades.

"I’ll come up to speed very rapidly," Apple has pledged.

"He’ll learn fast, I’m sure of that," UH President M.R.C. Greenwood assured.

Apple has plenty of homework to do on an array of UH issues, and sports is just one of them. Not the most compelling one at the state’s leading institution of higher learning, either.

But athletics does have its role and importance in the community, and a working recognition of that is something for the new guy to have when he walks through the door.

People who have worked with Apple say he also brings a down-to-earth perspective. "He is responsive, caring and a man of principle and action," wrote Lynn Snyder-Mackler, the faculty athletic representative at Delaware, in an email. "UH-Manoa’s gain is certainly Delaware’s loss."

Already Apple has an idea of where he’d like to point UH. "I really believe, in many ways, you are judged somewhat by the company you keep and, so, I think it is important to have your athletic programs in the best company of universities," Apple said. "I won’t go dreaming about where we might be, but there is a really good conference out on the West Coast that it would be wonderful to be part of, eventually," Apple said, alluding to the Pac-12.

"And, there are schools that I’d certainly like to be mentioned with in the same breath. So, I think the idea that we try to aspire to be a great university that is thought of in the company of the other great universities is something that we should think about for athletics."

For somebody whose background in college sports primarily consists of being the faculty athletic representative at Division III Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a member of the faculty board on athletics at Delaware, that is ambitious.

But after seeing red at Nebraska, Apple says he has a vision for the green. "I’m very excited about having the opportunity to have a strong athletic program, one that builds student skills, one that is ethical and above board and open that we can all rally around and be proud of."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.