COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. >> You can count on two fingers the number of rivalry trophies the University of Hawaii competes for in football in the modern era.

Well, you might be able to — if you knew what they were.

“I mean, I know we have one with Wyoming,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said Thursday night, referring to the Paniolo Trophy.

And, then, there is the Lt. Gen. Laurence S. Kuter Trophy, symbolic of the Rainbow Warriors’ series with Saturday’s opponent, the Air Force Academy.

“I didn’t know we had it,” Rolovich said.

Rolovich’s ignorance on the subject is understandable. The general’s namesake has largely been missing in action for most of its 34-year existence.

Too bad, too, because the 2-foot-high, 12-pound bronze cup mounted on a wooden stand is fairly impressive and comes with its own history.

It was conceived in 1980, when the Air Force Academy joined the Western Athletic Conference a year after UH. The schools decided it would be appropriate if they had a rivalry item to represent the Air Force’s ties to the state of Hawaii. So, the Pacific Air Command (now Pacific Air Forces) agreed to sponsor it in the name of Kuter, who fought for the formation of the Pacific command and was its first commander in 1957. Students at the academy were charged with coming up with the design.

The trophy, first awarded in 1982, went back and forth between the winners until 1997. But when Air Force bolted the WAC following the 1998 season to join the Mountain West, the trophy, much like the series, was forgotten.

So much so that while UH won the next meeting between the two, a 2001 nonconference game at Aloha Stadium during which a quarterback named Rolovich passed for five touchdowns and 505 yards in a 52-30 victory, the trophy remained in an Academy trophy case. And thereafter gathered dust.

Its whereabouts were largely forgotten until UH joined the MWC to be reunited with the academy in 2012. UH athletic director Jim Donovan sought to add to the rivalry renewal by bringing back the Kuter Trophy and the Air Force AD wholeheartedly agreed.

Problem was nobody at the Academy was sure where the trophy was — or if it was even still on the premises.

UH sports information director Derek Inouchi sent a photo of the trophy to his counterpart at the academy and a search and recovery effort proved successful.

The subsequent meetings, including last year’s 58-7 thumping, were both Air Force victories, meaning the trophy remained in residence at the academy.

“This time we know right where it is, in a case by the football office,” Falcons spokesman Troy Garnhart said Thursday. It will be on display Saturday.

Rolovich said, “I feel bad not knowing more about the history of the trophy. I think these kind of trophies can be one of the great things about college football and our (UH) history. So I’m gonna do some research and plan to speak to the kids. I want them to know what they are playing for Saturday.”

You imagine Kuter, who is buried in the cemetery on the academy campus, would approve.

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