Their diverse paths never intersected over some six decades at the University of Hawaii, but later this month the three forever will be intertwined as members of the UH Sports Circle of Honor’s 33rd class.
All-America sailor Molly O’Bryan Vandemoer, broadcaster Don Robbs and the late Wally Nakamoto, Hawaii’s long-time diving coach, are to be inducted on Feb. 27 in a ceremony during halftime of the Rainbow Warriors’ basketball game against CSUN. The trio brings the number of individuals and teams to 119, their plaques hanging on the inner concourse of the Stan Sheriff Center.
Nakamoto, who died in June at age 80, was Hawaii’s first diving coach, officially beginning his 31-year career in 1971, and helped design Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Center. A former all-region UH diver (1954-57) and team captain (1957), Nakamoto coached six conference champions as well as AAU national springboard champion Keala O’Sullivan, who also took diving bronze at the 1968 Olympics under the tutelage of Nakamoto while at Punahou School. The annual Hawaii Diving Invitational has been renamed for him.
“It is so nice for the university to honor him,” Nakamoto’s widow, Lillian, said. “He just loved diving and spending time with young people.
“I know that all the divers who practiced under him are appreciative of what he has done for them and wanted him to be honored. My husband just enjoyed what he did and didn’t expect anything in return. Our family is very honored.”
Nakamoto is the 21st head coach to be inducted in the Sports Circle of Honor, which recognizes individuals and teams that have contributed to the growth, history and tradition of Hawaii athletics. Robbs joins the late Chuck Leahey (1985) and the late Les Keiter (1999) as broadcast inductees, while O’Bryan Vandemoer is the first sailor.
Robbs has long been a part of the Sports Circle of Honor, having emceed the induction ceremonies as well as decades of UH athletic banquets. Recognized as a pioneer in college baseball broadcasting, he begins his 40th and final year as the “Voice of Rainbow Baseball” this month.
“I lost my breath when I found out, I couldn’t believe it,” Robbs said. “I’ve been part of the Circle of Honor for a long time, but I never imagined that one day I’d be part of it (as an inductee). It is a great honor.”
Among his more than 2,000 calls were the 1980 College World Series involving the Rainbows and UH pitcher Paul Brown’s perfect game in 1987.
O’Bryan Vandemoer, the 2002 Jack Bonham Award winner as UH’s top student-athlete, was a three-time Intercollegiate Sailing Association All-America skipper, leading the Rainbow Wahine to the 2001 ICSA Women’s National Championship and a runner-up finish in 2002. A fifth-place finisher in the 2012 Olympics, she is currently the director and head coach for the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation in Woodside, Calif.
“I’m very excited and very honored,” O’Bryan Vandemoer said in a phone call from California. “It is so nice to be recognized by your alma mater. Everything seems to be happening at once.”
She and husband John Vandemoer, the sailing coach at Stanford, are expecting their first child, a son, “any day now,” she said.
O’Bryan Vandemoer has been on the U.S. Sailing national team since 2003, when she skippered the winning ISAF Match World Championship crew in 2012 and the 2011 Snipe Women’s World Championship crew. Sailing for Hawaii is among her favorite memories.
“I will never forget winning that national championship (2001); it was a total team effort,” she said. “I will always have that memory of Andy (coach Johnson) running around the bridges of the Charles River to watch us.
“The next year, we hosted the national championship. We got to show off what we have at Keehi Lagoon. We showed that we have fun but were still serious competitors.”
O’Bryan Vandemoer will be unable to attend the luncheon Feb. 26 or the induction ceremony. However plans are being made to have Johnson present her with her plaque when Hawaii travels to the Stanford-hosted McIntyre Team Race, which coincides with the Feb. 26-27 festivities in Honolulu.
