Perhaps all you need to know about the University of Hawaii’s sad football history at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas can be summed up in one bizarre episode.

In a 1997 game there the home team, Nevada-Las Vegas, won the coin toss and elected to defer until the second half.

But UH’s captains for that game still chose to kick off, so the Rebels ended up receiving the ball to start both halves of what became a 25-15 Hawaii loss.

“That, right there, let us know what kind of a night it was going to be,” head coach Fred vonAppen mourned later.

In that he was not alone for forgettable moments, as just two of the nine UH head coaches who have taken teams there, only Dick Tomey and Bob Wagner, have winning records to show for their appearances at Boyd Stadium, a place where the house usually wins when UH visits.

So, when UH makes its 14th — and last — appearance Saturday in the penultimate game of the 49-year-old stadium’s history, few tears will be shed by the visitors.

After Saturday, UH can look forward to its next appearance in 2021 being at the Rebels’ new home, the $2 billion, 65,000-seat, domed Allegiant Stadium for the NFL’s Raiders, which is rising near Mandalay Bay and the Strip.

UH’s first visit to Las Vegas came in 1970, when the ’Bows played and won, 28-21, against UNLV at Las Vegas High’s Butcher Memorial Field. But fortunes changed when the series moved to what has variously been known as Las Vegas Stadium, the Silver Bowl, Sam Boyd Silver Bowl and, finally, since 1994, just Sam Boyd Stadium.

At the dusty facility on the desert outskirts 8 miles east of town, UH has lost five games in a row and seven of the past eight and gone 4-9 overall.

Nick Rolovich was inaugurated into the club with a 31-23 loss in 2017.

The last time UH won there was in 2007, when quarterback Colt Brennan, despite being hobbled by a sprained right ankle injured during a practice session at Boyd Stadium the day before, led the ’Bows to a 49-14 triumph.

UNLV hasn’t exactly been a powerhouse over the years, either. In fact, in those last seven UH losses at Boyd Stadium only once have the Rebels fielded a team that finished with a winning record that season.

And, the ’Bows certainly haven’t lacked for fan support. At times UH partisans, transplanted locals and visiting fans, have made up 50% or more of the crowd.

Two of the top seven crowds in Boyd Stadium history and five of the top 25 have come with UH in the house.

The mass exit of their cars and tour buses back to the casinos when the ’Bows have fallen way behind early has been known to kick up big dust storms in the dirt parking lots.

Perhaps none bigger than in 2011, when UH arrived as an 18-point favorite on the betting lines and fell behind 27-7 early in the third quarter.

The eventual 40-20 loss, which played out before a throng of Hawaii fans, including school president MRC Greenwood and several Board of Regents members, was the beginning of the end for head coach Greg McMackin just one year after his Western Athletic Conference title.

Clearly, beating the house in Las Vegas hasn’t easy for the ’Bows when it is Boyd Stadium.

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