Ferd Lewis: UH fans left to wonder what Dick Tomey would have been able to accomplish

With Dick Tomey’s death Friday we’ve been reminded of all that he accomplished for the football program at the University of Hawaii and the legacy that he left among his players.

But, from one of the more peculiar chapters in the UH book of athletic history, we’re also left to wonder once again what he might have been capable of accomplishing for the entire 21-team athletic program had he not been passed over for athletic director in a curious turn of events.

Might some of the challenges UH faces been less steep today had Tomey been giving the job that he — and many others — had been led to believe was his in 2002?

Tomey’s passing has rekindled many old stories about his days at UH, among them the time he rousted then-UH President Evan Dobelle out of his College Hill bed with an irate early June morning phone call.

Accounts differ about whether Tomey made the call at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., but not about the thunder of his voice in demanding, in several well-chosen words, what in Halawa was going on.

Dobelle relished the high profile role in the search for a successor to Hugh Yoshida as athletic director. He met with Tomey on a couple of occasions, said he liked many of the former coach’s ideas as well as his standing in the local and national collegiate communities. He said it like he was Tomey’s campaign manager.

So much so that he left the coach and many others with the distinct impression the job would be Tomey’s once the much ballyhooed national search was allowed to play out.

But when a list of so-called finalists leaked out and Tomey’s name wasn’t even among them and no formal interview was forthcoming, Tomey picked up the phone to ask, in no uncertain terms, “what the …?”

The job, of course, quickly went to Herman Frazier who, at the time, was tenuously hanging onto the AD position at Alabama-Birmingham amid a $7.5 million deficit.

But Frazier had two Olympic medals, a gold from the 4×400-meter relay and a bronze in the 4×100 relay from the 1976 Games. We’re told that when the search firm passed around Frazier’s resume the president excitedly envisioned a splashy hire.

“I felt, in the end, Dick was not treated properly in the process,” Paul Costello, Dobelle’s hire as a UH vice president and a member of the search committee, confided later. Others on the committee agreed with the assessment.

Dobelle denied he had promised Tomey the job and years later said of their early morning phone call, “I listened to him and told him I cared about him but that this was a process that had gone through scrutiny by 17 citizens in Hawaii and I had not been involved in it.”

Dobelle in 2005 also said, “I think Dick Tomey is a great coach and Herman Frazier is a great AD and there is a difference.”

Subsequent events would render a different verdict on Frazier, who was summoned to the state capitol for a hearing on his stewardship of the athletic department in 2007, booed at some athletic events and fired in 2008.

Under Yoshida the athletic department had run at a surplus for two of his final three years. After Frazier was shown the door the accounting showed UH had a $5.4 million accumulated net deficit despite the Sugar Bowl run.

Frazier was unable to generate significant fundraising, didn’t click with key stakeholders or the community, areas where you figure Tomey would have excelled.

Years later, in typical positive Tomey fashion, he said things worked out well for him as he was able to go on to a final head coaching stint at San Jose State (2005-09).

As for UH, not so much.

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