It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks for the University of Hawaii football program, hasn’t it?
First the Rainbow Warriors beat Nevada in the conference opener. The other day they knocked off San Jose State on the road.
Then, on Tuesday, a former UH star and the current offensive line coach were both announced as members of the incoming class of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.
You might be tempted to say or think that the enshrinement of Ma’a Tanuvasa and Chris Naeole (who played his college football at Colorado, not UH) is nice — but that it doesn’t really have anything to do with continuing the roll that Team Rolo is on.
But this is more than just a feel-good moment honoring the careers of some former stars from Hawaii careers (aka, celebrating the past).
There’s at least one very tangible, practical benefit for the future from this.
And that would be on the recruiting trail. Who wouldn’t want to be coached by a Hall of Famer?
Naeole didn’t deny it could help. But he believes Hawaii can sell itself.
“What better place than here? You look out the window, and I think, ‘What better place is there to coach at?’”
After an All-America career at Colorado, Naeole was the 10th overall pick of the 1997 draft. He played five full seasons with the Saints and five more with the Jaguars. Only a torn quadriceps tendon in the middle of the 2007 season stopped him, after starting 150 of 154 NFL games he played in and 155 for which he suited up.
He grew up in Kaaawa, idolizing one of his fellow 2017 inductees.
“I’m the same age as his kids, so I know the lore of Junior Ah You. And it holds up to this day,” Naeole said. “You have to go through the chief before you go to the village.”
Ah You, 67, is already a CFL Hall of Famer, following a stellar career as a defensive end for Montreal from 1972 through 1981. In 2006 he was voted onto a list of the 50 greatest players in modern CFL history.
In college at Arizona State, Ah You was at his best in big games; he won awards for outstanding player in the 1970 Peach Bowl win over North Carolina and the inaugural Fiesta Bowl the following year, a victory over Florida State.
Ah You played his professional football a generation earlier and in a different league than Naeole. But early in his NFL career Naeole played against Tanuvasa, who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and led them in sacks twice.
“He was tough,” Naeole said. “Everybody talked about him because of what he did at the combine. Legendary stuff.”
Tanuvasa was one of the key players in UH’s 1992 WAC championship season that culminated in the Holiday Bowl win over Illinois.
The three 2017 enshrinees from Hawaii will be joined by Riki Ellison, the USC and 49ers linebacker of Maori ethnicity, and John Manumaleuna. Manumaleuna was the founder of Samoan Athletes in Action, which was renamed the Big John Foundation when he died in 1980 at age 31.
The group will be inducted Jan. 21 and 22 on Oahu. They will also be honored at the inaugural Polynesian Bowl, Jan. 21 at Aloha Stadium.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
