The athletic offices balanced on creaking wooden planks and the dreams of a major college University of Hawaii athletic program initially weren’t on much more solid ground.

From “temporary” raised huts in a corner of the Manoa quarry a half-century ago, UH began the considerable leap of faith toward the mandate of achieving an NCAA Division I program.

The recent death of Lawrence Richard “Dick” Fishback, the school’s first sports information director and, later, a UH assistant athletic director and Aloha Bowl executive director, recalls the early stages of addressing then-Gov. John A. Burns’ charge to achieve Western Athletic Conference membership and build an athletic program to make the state proud.

Fishback, who died at age 82 in Henderson, Nev., after a prolonged illness, according to family, came to UH from Portland, Ore., where he had been a sportswriter for the Oregonian, and was among the early recruits to Burns’ ambitious plans in 1968.

Just three years earlier, UH football was still playing a mixed schedule of opponents that included local military and club teams as well as colleges.

Fishback was hired by Paul Durham, who left NAIA powerhouse Linfield (Ore.) College to become UH’s athletic director. Along with football coach Dave Holmes from Eastern Washington, another 1968 addition, they became part of what was known as the “Northwest Hui.”

On the opening page of the school’s first football media guide, Fishback displayed Burns’ vision “… for an effective athletic program essential to the fullest development of any true university. Excellence in sports and athletic activities is as noble a pursuit as is excellence in scholastic achievement.”

It was Fishback’s task to spread the word that UH not only had an athletic program but one that aspired to go beyond its small-college status of the time, secure a conference affiliation and reach the Division I level.

Retired sportscaster Don Robbs said, “Fishback was at UH for what was, really, the renaissance of UH athletics in my recollection. He was one of those right in the middle of all of that.”

Dave Senko, a student assistant in the athletic department who went on to a career with the PGA Tour, recalls, “things were pretty bare bones in those days and Dick, who was a one-man staff, was perfect for the job. He was a very personable guy with a wonderful sense of humor.”

Quick with one-liners, “people enjoyed being around him,” Senko said. “He was one of those guys you always remembered after meeting them.”

Fishback left UH after five years to start a business in Oregon but came back to run the Aloha Classic all-star basketball game with Red Rocha before resurfacing as a sportswriter at the Honolulu Advertiser. He covered UH’s acceptance into the WAC, chronicled the ascent of a football program that filled Aloha Stadium on Saturday nights and laid out the phenomenon that was Rainbow baseball in the Derek Tatsuno (1977-79) era.

Football coach Dick Tomey said, “Dick covered us in the early days of our tenure and I thought he was a real good man and appreciated the work he did. He will be missed.”

In 1979, Fishback was hired back to UH by athletic director Ray Nagel to oversee promotions until the mid-1980s when he left to become executive director of the Aloha Bowl before working at Nevada-Las Vegas and in the airline industry.

Services are scheduled for June 16 at Murray Hills Christian Church in Beaverton, Ore. His wife, Rosalee, said his ashes will be scattered in Hawaii at a later date. “That was always Dick’s wish since Hawaii was ‘home’ in his heart. Beside, Dick used to say, ‘that way the family gets one more trip back to Hawaii.’ ”

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