Work at Honolulu Stadium was youngster’s ‘salvation’

Raymond (“Sus”) Sakamoto wrote to me recently. In the 1940s he worked at the old Honolulu Stadium, which was located at King and Isenberg streets from 1926 to 1976.

Before Aloha Stadium replaced it, Honolulu Stadium was where many college and high school football games were held. The Hawaii Islanders AAA baseball team played there. NASCAR races, rodeos, boxing, concerts and many other activities were held there, too.

“Honolulu Stadium, or ‘Termite Palace,’ as we called it, was my salvation,” Sakamoto said, “because of the money I earned parking cars, selling Cokes, picking the empty bottles, looking for coins after each game and doing odds and ends around the stadium grounds.

“Back in the 1930s I lived at the bottom of Coolidge Street a block away, and in those days the high school football games used to pack it in at the stadium.

“Coolidge was a dead-end street and we lived at the bottom.

“Some of us boys got together and came up with the idea that we could make some money parking cars during a football game at the stadium.”

The stadium had no parking. “We had about 12 parking spaces on the shoulder and bottom of Coolidge Street.

“We rented the stalls for 10 cents a car.” Sakamoto’s family didn’t have a car, so he rented their garage for a premium: 35 cents.

Back then cars had a step that protruded several inches from under the doors, called running boards. Passengers used them to enter the vehicle.

“I would jump on the running board of the car,” Sakamoto recalled, “and direct the driver to my house and get paid 35 cents, which I gave to my mom.

“When I was 13 some of us got jobs selling Coke at the stadium. We got hired by Mr. Jay Rawlins, who had the concession. This was around 1943-45.

“We called ourselves the stadium gang, which included Harold and George Sonoda, Willy Nishimura, Jimmy Miyazaki, Walter Eto, George and Francis Oda, Herbert Ogasawara, Fred Abe, Harry Fujita and Richard Tanaka.

“We sold Cokes at the games for 10 cents a bottle, and our commission was 1 cent each.

“High school football games in the 1930s and ’40s often had about 25,000 spectators. We, the Coke sellers, made money at those games.

“Then the Coca-Cola company hired some of us to pick up the empty bottles after each game, and we got paid 10 cents a case — twenty-four bottles in a case.

“Before picking up the empty bottles, we climbed onto the concession roofs and went looking for coins dropped by the crowds. Occasionally we would find 25- and 50-cent pieces besides the usual nickels and dimes.

“One day the manager of the stadium, Mr. Theodore ‘Pump’ Searle, hired some of us to do odd jobs around the stadium, such as helping the janitors clean the stadium after each game, or helping the electricians and carpenters.”

“Pump” Searle had been one of the famous “Four Horsemen of Manoa” on the University of Hawaii football team. He scored 110 points in six games while playing on the famed “Wonder Teams” of 1924 and ’25. During those two seasons UH football was 18-0.

“We helped ‘Red’ Knott make sandwiches for the stadium concession stand at his home in Kaimuki,” Sakamoto recalled. “Our pay was to eat all the sandwiches we wanted. We didn’t mind it at all.

“After making sandwiches we played poker to the wee hours of the morning, and the next day, we delivered the sandwiches to the stadium.

“Mr. Searle told us to use one of the abandoned concessions below the big makai bleachers as our clubhouse. So on weekends we slept over.

“For our meals, besides the usual sandwiches and Cokes, we went to a Chinese restaurant right next to the stadium on the Ewa side and ordered fried rice, or directly across from the stadium’s entrance, there was a hamburger stand that was run by the Kane family. Both places made the best food ever.

“In 1944 the service baseball league was the highlight of all sports. There were a whole bunch of major leaguers playing on the military teams, names like Joe and Dominic DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Joe Gordon, Hugh Casey, Charles ‘Red’ Ruffing, Bill Dickey and many, many more.

“Some of the ‘Coke boys’ took a picture with Joe DiMaggio outside the locker room, and it was in the local newspaper. I wish I had a copy of that photo,” Sakamoto said.

“Boxing matches were also held at the stadium. I remember Dado Marino beating Rinty Monahan of England, Carl ‘Bobo’ Olson, Frankie Fernandez, David Young, Yasu Yasutake, Stan Harrington and many more.

“I saw heavyweight champion Joe Louis in an exhibition fight with two locals. After the match the media wanted to take Joe’s picture with Dado Marino.

“Dado ‘threw’ a right into Joe’s breadbasket, and he ‘reeled’ backward into the ropes. It was all in fun and had the crowd in an uproar.”

Sakamoto went on to work at the City and County Building Department as an architectural draftsman. He retired in 1993 after working there for 38 years.

For more about the stadium, see Arthur Suehiro’s book, “Honolulu Stadium: Where Hawaii Played.”

If my readers have any good stories about the stadium, please get in touch with me.

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.