When the University of Hawaii football team played at Michigan State in 2005, there was the eye-opening "Spartan Walk," in which several thousand chanting, green-and-white-clad fans lined the path of the home team’s 10-minute walk to Spartan Stadium.
In 2006, when the Warriors played at Alabama, there was the "Walk of Champions" past the statues and rousing crowds and into Bryant-Denny Stadium for the Crimson Tide.
In 2008 at Florida there was the "Gator Walk," where throngs of fans lined up hours before kickoff to form a walkway for the players into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
And, in 2012, there will be the …
Well, be assured debuting UH head coach Norm Chow is working on a Warriors version.
Perhaps reasoning that if it was okay for Urban Meyer to start an instant "tradition" his first season at Florida, then why not a "Warrior Walk" or some such in Chow’s inaugural campaign at Aloha Stadium?
Why not, indeed?
For something that has been around since 1909, UH football is noticeably short on traditions. There are, for example, the season-ending postgame Senior Walk and the waving of the ti leaves, but few other institutions of note that have endured uninterrupted for 30 years or more.
Chow, not content merely to draw X’s and O’s in his inaugural season, is aiming for a wholesale revitalization of the program on a number of levels. The more fan interaction the better.
He is, after all, somebody who remembers what it was like when fans packed Aloha Stadium and raised one Halawa din in the 1970s and ’80s. He has first-hand knowledge from the opposing sideline of what it can be like when the place shakes, the better part of 40,000-plus get to roaring in unison and visiting teams like Brigham Young get to wondering about the structural integrity of the place.
And he knows what it can mean to a home team, especially this year, that will have to play with a lot of emotion and rally around its fans to overcome other deficiencies.
What Chow said he envisions and has already talked to UH and stadium officials about is the Warriors striding through an enthusiastic pathway of students, faculty and fans on their way into the stadium on game day. "They would form a corridor that the team walks through from the bus to the stadium," said Rockne Freitas, acting athletic director, who has given the idea his blessing.
It is not a new concept in the quick-to-copy world of college football, of course. Dozens of teams, from coast to coast, have their versions and variations.
But it is largely new here and would seem to hold considerable promise — if UH can get enough students and fans to buy in, that is.
Especially the former. Some of last season’s student turnouts — three games had totals of fewer than 500 each — would not have made for much of a corridor. Which is part of why Chow and UH officials have met with students and sought their feedback.
Who knows, maybe come this season, some visitor will leave Aloha Stadium inspired to create something like a "Warrior Walk."
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
